Chapter 8 - THE STAIRWELL
I reached Lily's floor before Collins.
Stupid, yes.
But fathers are rarely logical when their children are threatened.
Lily's room was empty. A nurse had taken her for a breathing test.
Then I heard the stairwell door close.
I ran.
Michael was halfway down the first flight.
"Mike!"
He froze, then ran.
I caught his jacket on the next landing.
He spun and hit me.
My shoulder slammed into the concrete wall.
For a second we just stared at each other.
This was the brother who taught me to throw a curveball.
The boy who slept on my bedroom floor during thunderstorms.
The man who held Lily in the hospital the night Anna died because I physically could not.
Then he swung again.
I blocked it and grabbed his wrist.
"Stop!"
"Let go of me!"
"Why are you here?"
He twisted free and backed down two steps.
"To talk to Lily."
"You broke into a hospital to talk to an eight-year-old?"
"She saw me at the luncheon."
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
My stomach dropped.
"So you came to change what she remembers?"
"No."
"Then why the stolen badge?"
He looked toward the floor.
That was answer enough.
Hard enough to erase the last illusion that we were still brothers.
"You don't understand!" he shouted.
"Then explain why you helped poison my daughter!"
"I didn't poison her!"
"You took my medicine."
"I switched one injector."
My blood went cold.
"With the trainer?"
He looked away.
"Evelyn said she'd return the real pen before dessert. She said Lily would have a mild reaction, nothing more."
"Where is the trainer now?"
"I don't know."
"You searched my house for it."
"Because my prints are inside the cap."
There it was.
The reason for his phone call.
Footsteps thundered above us.
Collins appeared.
"Hands where I can see them."
Michael backed toward the railing.
"You think this is just about custody?" he said.
"What else?"
He laughed, scared and bitter.
"You still don't know what Anna found."
Collins said, "Evelyn is in custody."
Michael's face changed.
"Then Ross is going to run."
"Ross Keene?"
Michael nodded.
"He has the blue box."
By the time police reached Keene's office, the lawyer was gone.
May you like
So was his laptop.
And so was every original trust file.
