Chapter 14 - The Notary's Last Envelope
I hadn't told Ethan which hospital I planned to use for delivery. Tessa hadn't told anyone. Yet someone had obtained a copy of my prenatal appointment schedule, and Margaret knew it.
Dana contacted the clinic's privacy officer. Shah requested the access logs. While they investigated, my care team restricted disclosures and arranged a new check-in procedure.
I was tired of changing locks, passwords, routes, and plans. I told Tessa that one night while rain hammered the apartment windows.
"I thought leaving would make everything calm," I said.
"Leaving made the danger visible," she answered. "That's different."
A knock came after dark. Tessa checked the peephole. Two uniformed officers stood in the hallway with their badges visible. They had come about the paper left under our door.
The building footage showed a delivery worker placing the note there. He said a woman had paid him cash at a gas station. The description was incomplete, and he hadn't kept a number. Nobody was charged based on a guess.
After the officers left, Shah called again. "Donna Bell has asked for an interview."
"The notary?"
"Yes. She's afraid. She says Margaret brought documents to her office before the stamp disappeared."
The next morning, Donna arrived at the federal building with a plain brown envelope. She had worked as a notary for twenty years and looked as if the past year had taken every one of them back.
"I didn't witness Claire sign anything," she told Shah. "Margaret wanted me to stamp blank papers. I refused. A week later my seal was missing. I reported it."
"Why didn't you come forward sooner?" I asked.
"Because she told me her son knew people who could ruin my life. And because I was ashamed I'd been scared."
Donna opened the envelope. Inside were old appointment records, security stills, and a copy of an email Margaret had mistakenly sent to Donna instead of Ethan.
May you like
Shah read the subject line aloud.
"If the accident happens before the baby comes."
