#CHAPTER 7 THE NURSE WHO KNEW EVERY SECRET
Thomas lay helpless on the rolling hospital bed.
Rain collected on the clear plastic cover protecting his body.
The portable monitor beside him displayed a weak but steady heartbeat.
Nurse Collins stood behind the bed with one hand on the rail.
The other held the gun against Thomas’s chest.
Federal agents raised their weapons.
Daniel Cross lifted one hand.
“Everyone hold.”
Collins smiled.
“You still think you are controlling the scene.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Move the weapon away from him.”
“No.”
“He needs medical care.”
“He has received more care than anyone in this family deserved.”
Clara looked at Thomas.
His eyes were open.
He saw her.
His lips moved beneath the oxygen mask.
She could not hear the words.
Collins leaned down.
“He is trying to apologize again.”
She removed the mask from his face.
Thomas struggled for breath.
“Clara…”
“I’m here,” Clara called.
Collins placed the mask back.
“That is all he ever needed to say to make you obey.”
Rose stood beside Clara.
Her clothes were wet and stained with mud.
“Who are you?” Rose asked.
Collins looked toward her.
“You know who I am.”
“I have never seen you before.”
“But you knew my mother.”
Rose’s face tightened.
“Elaine had no daughter.”
Margaret remained on her knees.
“Yes, she did.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Margaret looked at Collins with horror.
“Elaine was pregnant when she came to help us.”
Clara stared at her.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
Margaret struggled to stand.
“She told me the father had left her.”
“She said the baby died.”
Collins laughed softly.
“No.”
“She abandoned me at St. Catherine’s.”
Margaret shook her head.
“That cannot be true.”
“My birth record was signed by Malcolm Vane.”
Collins looked toward Julian.
“His father arranged everything.”
Julian stood handcuffed beside an agent.
His face showed no surprise.
Clara noticed.
“You knew about her.”
Julian said nothing.
Collins answered for him.
“He knew before I did.”
“How?”
“He found my records after Malcolm died.”
Rose looked at Margaret.
“Who was Hope’s father?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with shame.
“I do not know.”
Collins smiled again.
“Another family lie.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Elaine told me it was a married man.”
“Say his name.”
“I cannot.”
“You will.”
“Hope—”
“Do not call me that as though you loved me.”
Margaret flinched.
Collins pressed the gun more firmly against Thomas.
Clara took a step forward.
“Leave him out of this.”
Collins looked at her.
“He is the center of it.”
“He did not abandon you.”
“He allowed Elaine to become Margaret.”
“That happened after you were born.”
“He knew she had given birth.”
Thomas tried to lift his hand.
Collins removed his oxygen mask again.
“Tell her.”
Thomas coughed.
His chest struggled beneath the blanket.
“Elaine told me…”
Clara moved closer despite the agents’ warning.
“Told you what?”
“That she had lost a child.”
Collins’s expression sharpened.
“And you believed her?”
“Yes.”
“She lied.”
“So did everyone,” Thomas whispered.
Collins placed the mask back.
Clara looked at her.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“You kidnapped Thomas.”
“I removed him before David could.”
“David says he was following instructions.”
“He was.”
“Yours?”
Collins’s smile disappeared.
“Margaret’s.”
Margaret stepped forward.
“That is not true.”
“You ordered David to frighten Clara into opening the grave.”
“I ordered him to bring everyone here.”
“You told him Evelyn was expendable.”
Margaret’s face changed.
Clara looked at her.
“Did you?”
“No.”
David laughed from beside the federal vehicle.
“Careful, Margaret.”
“She is recording everything.”
Margaret stared at Collins.
“You worked with David.”
“I used David.”
“You used all of us,” Clara said.
Collins turned toward her.
“Now you understand how it feels.”
Clara forced herself not to react.
“Where is Evelyn?”
“Inside the van.”
“Alive?”
“For now.”
Daniel Cross spoke.
“Release both hostages.”
Collins looked at him.
“You have wanted Arthur Bennett’s ledger for twelve years.”
“Yes.”
Rose held up the waterproof packet.
“We have it.”
Collins smiled.
“You have the public ledger.”
Daniel’s expression shifted.
“What does that mean?”
“There were two.”
David stopped smiling.
Margaret looked shocked.
Julian lowered his head.
Clara noticed all three reactions.
“Who has the second ledger?”
Collins looked at Thomas.
“He does.”
Clara stared at her father.
Thomas closed his eyes.
“The black trunk,” Clara said.
“The recording opened the latch.”
“The documents inside were copies.”
“Because the second ledger was not inside the trunk.”
Collins nodded.
“Thomas hid it somewhere only one person could reach.”
“Who?”
“You.”
Clara’s pulse quickened.
“I searched the hidden room.”
“You searched what Thomas wanted you to find.”
“Where is it?”
Collins tilted her head.
“Behind the photograph.”
Clara remembered Thomas’s final broken words.
The photograph.
Behind.
She had assumed he meant the metal door hidden behind the basement shelf.
“What photograph?”
“The family portrait in Thomas’s hospital room.”
Clara looked toward him.
“There was no family portrait.”
“Yes, there was.”
Collins’s expression became colder.
“It hung behind the visitor’s chair when he was admitted.”
Clara remembered the wall.
Bare paint.
A television.
A whiteboard.
No portrait.
“Someone removed it.”
Collins looked toward David.
He did not answer.
Clara understood.
“You took it from the hospital.”
David remained silent.
“What was behind it?”
Collins answered.
“A safe-deposit key.”
“To which bank?”
“Bennett Community Trust.”
Rose looked at Thomas.
“Arthur’s bank.”
Thomas nodded weakly.
Clara stared at David.
“You searched the house because you did not find the key inside the portrait.”
David’s calm finally broke.
“The frame was empty.”
“Who took the key?”
Collins looked at Clara.
“You did.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
“You carried it out of the hospital on your first night.”
“I did not.”
“It was attached to something you took home.”
Clara searched her memory.
Her purse.
Thomas’s silver house key.
His leather tag.
The photographs.
Then she remembered the hospital financial counselor handing her Thomas’s personal belongings after his condition deteriorated.
Wallet.
Watch.
Wedding ring.
A folded handkerchief.
A small wooden cross Thomas had carried for years.
Clara’s hand moved toward her purse.
The cross was still inside.
She removed it.
It looked ordinary.
Dark wood.
Worn edges.
A tiny metal plate covered the bottom.
Clara pulled at it.
The plate opened.
A flat silver key slid into her palm.
Everyone stared.
Collins’s eyes brightened.
“There it is.”
Daniel stepped toward Clara.
“Give it to me.”
Collins pushed the gun against Thomas.
“No.”
Daniel stopped.
Clara closed her hand around the key.
“What is in the second ledger?”
Collins looked at Margaret.
“The names Arthur protected because they were more important than the families in the first book.”
“Politicians?” Clara asked.
“Judges.”
“Hospital executives.”
“Police commissioners.”
“A United States senator.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Which senator?”
Collins smiled.
“You already know.”
Daniel said nothing.
Clara looked between them.
“You are connected to the ledger.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“My adoptive father was Senator William Cross.”
Rose stared at him.
“The woman who lost a baby in 1987…”
“My biological mother.”
Daniel’s voice remained controlled.
“She believed her son had died.”
“Arthur sold you to a senator,” Clara said.
“Yes.”
“Did Senator Cross know?”
“I do not know.”
Collins laughed.
“Of course he knew.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You have proof?”
“The second ledger does.”
Clara understood why federal investigators had spent years pursuing the case.
Daniel was not only investigating a crime.
He was investigating his own identity.
Collins moved the hospital bed closer to the van.
“Clara will come with me.”
“No,” Rose said.
Collins looked at her.
“She carries the key.”
“I will carry it.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
Rose turned.
“You are not going into that van.”
“Evelyn is inside.”
“That is what she says.”
A weak pounding came from the van.
Three slow strikes.
Then two.
Clara recognized the pattern.
Evelyn had used it while caring for Elaine.
Three knocks meant yes.
Two meant no.
Clara had watched them communicate when Elaine was too weak to speak.
“Evelyn is alive,” Clara said.
Collins opened the rear door wider.
Inside, Evelyn sat on the floor with her wrists secured in front of her.
Tape covered her mouth.
A bruise darkened one side of her face.
When she saw Clara, she shook her head violently.
Do not come closer.
Collins aimed the gun toward her.
“Get in.”
Clara looked at Daniel.
He gave the smallest shake of his head.
Do not obey.
Clara looked at Thomas.
He struggled to lift his hand.
His fingers formed a weak fist.
Then opened.
A signal from childhood.
Wait.
Clara used to make that gesture when asking Thomas to catch her after jumping from the porch steps.
He would always open his hands before she jumped.
Now he was telling her to wait.
Clara looked at the silver key in her palm.
Then at the burning documents near the grave.
She made a decision.
She threw the key into the flames.
Collins screamed.
“No!”
Her gun moved away from Thomas.
Daniel fired.
The bullet struck Collins’s shoulder.
She spun backward.
Clara rushed toward Thomas.
Rose ran to Evelyn.
Agents surrounded the van.
Julian dropped to the ground.
David tried to escape toward the trees.
Margaret stepped into his path.
He shoved her aside.
She grabbed his coat.
Both fell into the mud.
Daniel’s agents seized him.
Clara reached Thomas.
Blood did not appear anywhere on his body.
Daniel’s shot had missed him.
Clara replaced the oxygen mask.
“Dad.”
Thomas opened his eyes.
“The key…”
“I destroyed it.”
He shook his head weakly.
“No.”
Clara stared.
Thomas touched the wooden cross in her other hand.
She looked down.
The silver key had not come from the cross.
She still held the real object.
Thomas’s wedding ring was looped onto the cross by a thin cord.
Clara had removed it from the hospital belongings without noticing.
The inside of the ring carried a series of tiny engraved numbers.
A bank box number.
The key she had thrown into the fire had been a decoy.
Thomas had planted both.
Clara looked toward Collins.
She sat against the van beneath the guard of two agents.
Blood darkened her shoulder.
Her face twisted with fury.
“You tricked me.”
Clara held up the ring.
“My father did.”
Thomas closed his eyes again.
Paramedics rushed forward.
Dr. Morgan was not among them.
Clara looked at Nurse Collins.
“Where is Dr. Morgan?”
Collins’s smile returned.
“You should ask Evelyn.”
Rose removed the tape from Evelyn’s mouth.
Evelyn gasped for air.
“Dr. Morgan helped her.”
Everyone turned.
Clara felt another betrayal open beneath her.
“What?”
Evelyn looked toward the medical team.
“He helped Collins take Thomas.”
Daniel motioned for agents to search the area.
Clara stared at Evelyn.
“Why?”
“Because Dr. Morgan is Malcolm Vane’s youngest son.”
Julian raised his head.
Clara looked at him.
“You have a brother.”
Julian laughed once.
“Half-brother.”
Thomas’s monitor alarmed.
A paramedic checked the leads.
“His blood pressure is dropping.”
They began moving him toward an ambulance.
Clara followed.
Daniel blocked her gently.
“We need to secure the scene.”
“That is my father.”
“He needs emergency treatment.”
“I am going with him.”
Daniel looked toward the ambulance.
Then toward Nurse Collins.
“Which hospital?”
“Not Saint Catherine’s,” Clara said.
“Mercy General,” Daniel ordered.
Rose joined Clara.
Evelyn tried to stand.
Her legs failed.
Clara caught her.
For the first time, the two daughters of Thomas Bennett stood face-to-face knowing who they were.
Evelyn looked older than Clara remembered.
Exhausted.
Afraid.
But alive.
Clara touched her arm.
“My sister.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“Not yet.”
The answer hurt.
But Clara nodded.
“Fair.”
Evelyn looked toward Thomas.
“He knew who I was for years.”
“I know.”
“He let me care for Elaine without telling me.”
“I know.”
“He used me to watch Margaret.”
Clara frowned.
“What?”
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“Thomas did not invite me into Elaine’s hospice care by accident.”
“He hired me because he knew Margaret was following me.”
Clara looked toward the ambulance.
Her father had revealed one truth.
Then buried another behind it.
“Did Margaret contact you?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“During Elaine’s final week.”
“What did she say?”
Evelyn looked toward Margaret.
Agents were placing handcuffs around her wrists.
“She told me Elaine was not dying from cancer.”
Clara’s breath caught.
“That is impossible.”
“I saw the medical records.”
“So did I.”
“They were altered.”
Clara stared at her.
“How did Elaine die?”
Evelyn’s eyes moved toward the ambulance where Thomas was being loaded.
“She was poisoned.”
Rose covered her mouth.
Clara felt the cemetery disappear around her.
“By whom?”
Evelyn looked directly at Thomas.
“Your father confessed to me.”
The ambulance doors closed.
The siren began to wail.
Clara stood frozen in the rain as the vehicle carried Thomas away.
The father she had nearly lost.
The man who had raised her.
May you like
The man who had stolen her.
The man who might also have murdered the only mother she had ever known.
