Chapter 9 - The Doctor
Dr. Adrian Feldman arrived at the Valenti estate at noon as though nothing had happened.
He carried a medical bag and the calm expression of a man accustomed to trust.
Vincent met him at the door.
"Mr. Valenti requested an examination," Feldman said.
"He requested a conversation."
Feldman was escorted into the library.
Nicholas waited in his wheelchair beside the windows. Hannah stood behind him. Walter sat near the fireplace.
Feldman smiled at Hannah.
"Still here?"
"Disappointed?"
His smile thinned.
Nicholas placed the toxicology report on the table.
"Explain it."
Feldman read two lines.
"Contamination."
"Convenient."
"You employ many people. Medications are mishandled."
"My sister is alive."
Feldman's face changed for half a second. Nicholas leaned forward. "There you are."
Feldman stood.
"I think this conversation is over."
Vincent blocked the door.
Hannah asked, "Did you treat Rebecca at Lake Briar?"
"I don't know what that is."
"My father delivered supplies there. He named you before he died."
Feldman's eyes moved to her.
Recognition.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
Hannah's hands curled into fists.
"You knew who I was when I started working here."
Feldman said nothing.
Nicholas's voice dropped.
"Who hired her?"
"The nursing agency."
"Who told the agency to call her?"
Silence.
Walter suddenly stood.
"Adrian."
Feldman looked at him.
"Do not protect dead men anymore."
Something inside Feldman broke.
He sat back down.
"Your father ordered Rebecca held, not killed," he told Nicholas. "She knew too much, and he believed time would make her unreliable."
Nicholas's face went blank.
"And after my father died?"
Feldman looked toward the hallway.
"Someone else kept paying."
"Claire?"
"Claire is not the one you should be afraid of."
A gunshot cracked outside the library.
Vincent shoved Nicholas behind the stone wall as glass exploded inward.
Feldman dropped to the floor.
May you like
Hannah heard him whisper one name.
"Walter.
