Chapter 6 - ISABELLA'S FILE
Isabella had hired a private investigator three months before she died.
His name was Aaron Pike.
Daniel had found the invoice buried in an old legal archive.
The subject line read:
VALE FAMILY - MEDICAL FOUNDATION / BELLANDI CONTRACTS.
Lucinda's father, Raymond Vale, ran a rehabilitation foundation that had received millions in Bellandi charitable funds.
I had approved those donations.
Isabella had questioned them.
"Why?"
Daniel opened a scanned memo.
Because the foundation had billed for patients who did not exist.
Ghost therapy sessions.
Fake mobility equipment.
Fictitious pediatric cases.
My stomach turned.
"Children?"
"Yes."
One fake patient profile used a diagnosis nearly identical to Ruby's current injury.
Marco leaned forward.
"That can't be coincidence."
It wasn't.
Elaine compared the forms.
Same wording.
Same coding errors.
Same phrase: behavioral reinforcement of pain response.
The language from Lucinda's draft affidavit had come from old fraud templates.
I called Aaron Pike.
He answered on the fourth ring.
"I've been waiting eight years for this call."
We met at a diner outside Evanston.
Aaron slid a photograph across the table.
Isabella stood beside Raymond Vale in a hospital parking lot.
She looked furious.
"Your wife discovered Raymond was laundering money through medical nonprofits," Aaron said.
"Did Lucinda know?"
"She was handling donor records."
I looked at him.
"Why didn't Isabella tell me?"
"She planned to."
My throat tightened.
"Then she died."
Isabella's death had been ruled an aneurysm.
Sudden.
Natural.
Aaron's next words changed the room.
"She called me the night before. Said someone had altered Ruby's newborn medical file."
I stared.
"Ruby wasn't injured then."
"No."
"So why touch her file?"
Aaron slid over a second page.
It listed Ruby as having a hereditary neurological condition.
She did not.
May you like
At the bottom was a physician's signature.
Dr. Raymond Vale.
