Chapter 5 - The Key
Victor Dane smiled like we were meeting at a charity lunch instead of outside a maternity ward.
"Noah. Difficult evening."
I stared at the brass key between his fingers.
"Where did you get that?"
His hand closed around it.
"Family property."
Ortiz stepped into the elevator with us. "Detective Lena Ortiz. I'd like you to come answer a few questions."
Victor's smile faded by half an inch.
"I represent Mrs. Sterling."
"Wonderful. Then you know not to destroy evidence."
He pressed the lobby button.
I blocked the panel.
"Did you move my father?"
"Your father is dead."
"Then why did my mother pay a private facility to keep a man with his name and birth date sedated for eleven years?"
Victor looked past me.
"Grief can make people vulnerable to ugly fantasies."
I grabbed his wrist.
Ortiz pulled me back immediately.
"Don't help him, Mr. Sterling."
Victor straightened his cuff.
"Your wife has always been ambitious. I warned Maris that Briar would eventually use your family name against you."
That was when my phone rang.
Colleen.
I answered.
"Noah, come back now."
My heart stopped.
"Briar?"
"She's stable. But someone tried to enter her room using a physician badge that doesn't belong to them. Security caught him at the medication station."
Ortiz heard enough to turn toward the stairs.
"Description?"
Colleen lowered her voice.
"Male, forties, gray suit. He ran."
Victor's face remained calm.
Too calm.
Ortiz noticed it too.
"Mr. Dane, don't leave the hospital."
He gave her a thin smile. "Am I detained?"
"Not yet."
Back upstairs, Briar was sitting upright, furious rather than frightened.
"He wasn't after me," she said.
"How do you know?"
She pointed at the evidence table.
The suitcase was still there.
May you like
But one item was missing.
The black flash drive.
