Chapter 4 - The Names on the Wall
The next twenty minutes moved like a drill with no safe ending. Paramedics carried out Walter Ames, a retired mechanic who hadn't received his heart medication. Iris Fletcher's blood sugar was dangerously low. Lydia refused to let the ambulance crew touch her until I promised someone would call her daughter.
"Samantha," she said. "She thinks I'm in a nice place with a garden."
"I'll make sure she's told," I said.
Detective Ortiz separated Evan and Vivian for questioning. Vivian kept demanding to know why a "simple misunderstanding" required three ambulances.
Mom watched from the kitchen doorway, Lucy asleep against her shoulder. Ben had curled under the table with his stuffed fox.
"You're safe," I told him.
He shook his head. "Daddy said police take mommies away."
I swallowed the answer I wanted to give Evan.
An officer emerged from the basement carrying a clipboard in an evidence sleeve.
"Major Morgan? We found intake paperwork."
My name sat at the top of a form for Rosebridge Respite Services. Beneath it was a signature nearly identical to mine. The business listed our home address and described me as its managing member.
"I've never heard of Rosebridge," I said.
Evan approached with his lawyer's number already dialed. "Claire handles the paperwork. I just help my mother."
"I've been in Washington for eleven days."
"The company started before that," he said.
Ortiz raised a hand. "Nobody needs to explain this in the hallway."
A paramedic hurried toward us. "The woman named Lydia wants to speak to the homeowner before she goes."
I followed him to the ambulance. Lydia caught my sleeve with surprising force.
"Your husband isn't the worst one," she whispered. "There's a fourth name. We never saw that woman leave."
May you like
She pressed a folded scrap of paper into my palm.
Written on it were two words: HELEN PIKE.
