Chapter 9 - The Leak
Internal Affairs locked Naomi out of her own case.
Officially, it was temporary.
Unofficially, everyone understood why.
Evidence had disappeared from a secured room and somehow reappeared beside a location connected to the kidnapping.
Someone with police access was compromised.
Nora did not trust anyone.
Not Daniel.
Not the hospital.
Not the court.
Now not even the police.
Naomi met her privately at a twenty-four-hour diner.
“My captain knew about the lighthouse operation before we moved.”
“You think he leaked it?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t comforting.”
“It isn’t supposed to be.”
Naomi slid a photograph across the table.
It showed Captain Wallace Greene attending a hospital charity gala.
Standing beside him was Elias Mercer.
And Margaret Bennett.
Nora stared.
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Friends?”
“At minimum, donors.”
Nora leaned back.
“So what now?”
“We work carefully.”
“You’ve been suspended.”
“Administrative leave.”
“You say that like it’s different.”
Naomi almost smiled.
“Technically.”
Nora did not.
“Lily doesn’t have time for technically.”
Naomi nodded.
Then she pushed another file toward Nora.
“The DNA report.”
Nora opened it.
Probability of maternity: 99.9998%.
She touched the page.
Her daughter.
Finally written in something no one could erase with a lie.
“And Daniel?”
“Confirmed biological father.”
Nora closed the file.
“So Margaret can’t claim Lily isn’t ours.”
“She can claim you surrendered custody.”
“Which I didn’t.”
“That’s the battle.”
Nora stared out the diner window.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Naomi hesitated.
“The blood on the rabbit.”
Nora turned.
“It wasn’t Lily’s.”
“Margaret’s?”
“No.”
“Whose?”
“Evelyn Shaw.”
Nora went cold.
The nurse.
“Where is she?”
“Missing.”
Nora pushed back from the table.
“You said she was in protective housing.”
“She was.”
“How does someone vanish from protective housing?”
Naomi looked furious.
“Someone signed her out using police credentials.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
Nora stared.
Naomi slid her phone across the table.
Security footage showed a woman leaving the motel with Evelyn.
The woman wore a baseball cap.
Her face was partially hidden.
But Nora recognized the walk.
She had watched it countless times at family dinners.
“Margaret.”
Naomi nodded.
Nora looked at the time stamp.
Three hours after the warehouse.
“Why take Evelyn?”
“Because Evelyn can prove the transfer.”
“Then she’s a witness.”
“And a liability.”
Nora’s stomach tightened.
“We need Daniel.”
Naomi frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Margaret trusts that he is still weak.”
When Nora called, Daniel answered immediately.
“I know where my mother keeps things she doesn’t want found.”
They met at the old Bennett estate.
The mansion had been empty since Daniel’s father died.
Daniel led them through the library.
Behind a portrait, he pressed a concealed switch.
A panel opened.
Nora stared.
“You knew this existed?”
“Since I was twelve.”
Inside was a narrow office.
File cabinets.
Boxes.
Old trust documents.
Naomi searched one cabinet.
Nora another.
Daniel opened a locked drawer with a key from his pocket.
Then he stopped.
“What?”
Nora approached.
Inside were twelve hospital bracelets.
Tiny.
Plastic.
Each bearing a different infant’s name.
Nora’s hands began to shake.
One read:
BABY GIRL BENNETT.
Another:
LILLIAN ROSE BENNETT.
Two bracelets for the same child.
Naomi whispered:
“My God.”
Daniel reached deeper into the drawer.
He removed a flash drive.
Written across it:
ROSEWOOD – PLACEMENTS.
Naomi inserted it into a laptop.
Folders appeared.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Photographs.
At least eighteen children.
Nora stared in horror.
Then Daniel opened Lily’s folder.
There were dozens of photographs.
Birth.
Age one.
Age two.
Age three.
Every year Nora had missed.
The final file was a video recorded the previous night.
Margaret appeared on screen.
She looked directly into the camera.
“If you are watching this, Daniel betrayed me again.”
Nora felt cold.
Margaret continued.
“So now he gets to learn what betrayal costs.”
The camera shifted.
May you like
Evelyn sat tied to a chair.
And standing beside her was Lily.
