Chapter 8: The Man in the Bloodstained Car
By noon, the hospital corridor outside Arthur's room was filled with police officers.
Two stood near the elevator. Another guarded the stairwell. A detective in a charcoal suit waited outside the door, refusing to leave until Arthur agreed to speak with her.
Her name was Detective Lena Brooks.
She was in her early forties, with short black hair, a tired face, and the unmistakable patience of someone accustomed to questioning wealthy men who believed they could buy their way out of trouble.
When Arthur finally allowed her inside, she placed a recorder on the table.
“Mr. Hayes, I need you to understand that this conversation is being recorded.””
“Understood.””
“You were shot at St. Agnes Chapel last night.””
“Yes.””
“Your sister was present.””
“Yes.””
“And you believe she arranged an attempt on your life.””
“I heard her admit to participating in a plan to drug our mother fifteen years ago. I also witnessed her fire a weapon inside the chapel.””
Detective Brooks studied him.
“Did she shoot you intentionally?””
Arthur remembered Evelyn's expression when the gun went off.
The horror.
The sudden retreat.
The way she had looked at him as though the blood on his shirt were something she had never imagined seeing.
“I believe she intended to threaten me,” he said.
“Whether she intended to kill me is a different question.””
“You're being remarkably generous toward a woman who may have tried to murder you.””
“She's my sister.””
“That doesn't answer the question.””
“No,” Arthur admitted.
“It doesn't.””
The detective opened her notebook.
“Let's discuss Richard Cole.””
Arthur's expression hardened.
“What about him?””
“We found his vehicle near the river. There was a significant amount of blood inside, but no body. His phone was missing, and the car's navigation system had been manually disabled.””
“Do you think he's alive?””
“We don't know.””
“Then find him.””
Detective Brooks leaned back.
“Mr. Hayes, your company has paid millions of dollars over the years to private intelligence firms. I suspect you understand how difficult it is to locate a man who doesn't want to be found.””
“I understand how difficult it is to locate a man when people are helping him disappear.””
“Are you suggesting someone inside your company is involved?””
“I'm suggesting Richard has been hiding financial crimes for at least fifteen years. If someone else knows what he did, they may have reasons to keep him alive.””
The detective made a note.
“Or reasons to kill him.””
Arthur said nothing.
After a moment, she closed her notebook.
“One more thing. Our forensic team recovered a fragment of a second mobile phone from the vehicle. It was damaged, but a technician managed to extract part of a message.””
She placed a printed screenshot on the table.
The message was addressed to Richard.
The original agreement remains in effect. If Arthur discovers the truth, eliminate the witness and destroy the remaining records.
The sender's identity had been erased.
Arthur stared at the words.
“Which witness?””
“We don't know.””
“Victoria?””
“Possibly.””
Arthur looked toward the door.
Victoria and Noah were sitting in the waiting area, where a social worker was helping them arrange temporary accommodation.
“Neither of them is leaving my protection,” he said.
Detective Brooks raised an eyebrow.
“You don't get to decide that unilaterally.””
“No. But I can pay for a secure location, provide independent security, and make sure they have legal representation.””
“Provided they agree.””
“They will.””
“That's not your decision either, Mr. Hayes.””
Arthur met her gaze.
For a moment, the detective looked as though she might smile.
Then she gathered her papers.
“We'll be in touch.””
She stopped at the door.
“One last piece of advice. If you discover that your family has been involved in crimes more serious than financial fraud, don't try to investigate them yourself.””
Arthur looked at the bandage beneath his shirt.
“I think that advice came fifteen years too late.””
After she left, Arthur asked Daniel to bring Victoria and Noah into the room.
Noah entered first.
He looked at Arthur with a mixture of uncertainty and resentment.
“Are they going to put Evelyn in prison?””
“If the evidence supports it.””
“And Richard?””
“We don't know where he is.””
Noah's jaw tightened.
“Maybe someone finally got tired of him.””
Victoria touched his shoulder.
“Noah.””
“What? He helped hide me. He didn't care whether I lived or died.””
Arthur couldn't disagree.
Instead, he turned toward Daniel.
“Show us the financial records.””
Daniel opened the folder and spread several pages across the table.
“Over the past fifteen years, funds have moved through six shell companies connected to the Hayes Meridian Group. The transfers began three weeks before Margaret's death and continued until last month.””
Arthur studied the figures.
“How much?””
“Approximately forty-three million dollars.””
Victoria stared at the page.
“Forty-three million?””
Daniel nodded.
“The money was routed through consulting contracts, property purchases, and several charitable foundations.””
Arthur recognized two of the foundations.
One had been established in his mother's name.
The other supported children's hospitals.
He felt sick.
“Who authorized the transfers?””
“Richard approved most of them. Evelyn signed off on several property transactions. But the accounts were ultimately controlled by a third party.””
“Who?””
Daniel placed a document in front of him.
At the bottom was the signature of a trustee.
*Helen Ward.*
Victoria stood so abruptly that the chair scraped against the floor.
“No.””
Daniel looked at her.
“I understand this is difficult, but the records show that your mother controlled one of the accounts.””
“My mother never had forty million dollars!””
“We don't know whether she personally benefited from the money.””
“She didn't!””
Victoria's voice shook with anger.
“My mother worked two jobs after she left your family. She cleaned offices at night and repaired clothes during the day. She raised us in a two-bedroom apartment with a leaking roof. If she had that kind of money, why would she let us live like that?””
Arthur studied the paperwork.
It was a fair question.
Then he noticed something.
The dates beside Helen's signature were all identical.
Each signature had been entered digitally, not written by hand.
“Daniel, these aren't original documents.””
“No, sir. They're exported records.””
“Then why are they being presented as proof that Helen controlled the accounts?””
Daniel examined the pages again.
His expression changed.
“Someone could have inserted her name into the database.””
“Exactly.””
Arthur pointed to the account number.
“Trace the original transfers. Not the names attached to them. Follow the money.””
Daniel nodded.
“I'll have the forensic accountants begin immediately.””
Victoria slowly sat down.
“My mother spent fifteen years being called a thief,” she whispered.
“And now someone is doing it again.””
Arthur looked at her.
“I won't allow that.””
She gave him a bitter smile.
“You said that before?””
“No.””
“Then don't promise what you can't control.””
Arthur accepted the rebuke.
“I'll prove what happened.””
It was a smaller promise.
A more honest one.
Daniel's phone rang.
He listened for several seconds, then turned toward Arthur.
“Sir, we've found Richard.””
Arthur sat straighter.
“Where?””
“An abandoned warehouse near the river. A security patrol found him inside.””
“Is he alive?””
“Yes. Barely conscious. He has a head injury and several broken ribs.””
“Who attacked him?””
“We don't know yet.””
Daniel hesitated.
“There's another detail. Richard was carrying a small envelope inside his jacket. The police recovered it.””
Arthur extended his hand.
“What's inside?””
Daniel opened the envelope and removed a single photograph.
It showed Richard standing outside St. Catherine's Hospital on the night Noah was born.
Beside him stood a woman holding a newborn wrapped in a blue blanket.
The woman's face was partly obscured.
But the baby had a distinctive mark on his left wrist.
A small, crescent-shaped birthmark.
Noah slowly rolled up his sleeve.
Arthur looked at his wrist.
The same crescent-shaped mark sat just below the boy's palm.
Victoria covered her mouth.
Arthur turned the photograph over.
On the back, Richard had written a message.
The child Evelyn took was not the child Helen saved.
Arthur read it again.
Then again.
“What does this mean?”” Victoria whispered.
Arthur looked at Noah.
The boy's face had gone pale.
“Am I not the baby in the hospital records?””
Arthur couldn't answer.
Daniel pulled another document from the envelope.
It was a second birth certificate, this one issued three months after Noah's recorded birth.
The father's name had been left blank.
The mother's name was Margaret Hayes.
Arthur felt the room go silent around him.
His mother had given birth to a child at the age of forty-nine?
That was medically possible, though extraordinarily unusual.
But the record suggested something even stranger.
If Margaret had given birth to Noah, then why had Evelyn claimed him as her own?
And if Helen had rescued a different baby, who had that child become?
Arthur looked at Victoria.
“Did your mother ever tell you she had cared for another child?””
Victoria shook her head, trembling.
“No. Never.””
Arthur turned back to the photograph.
Someone had written a final line beneath Richard's message.
*Ask Margaret's doctor what happened in Room 314.*
Arthur reached for his phone.
“Daniel, find the doctor who treated my mother.””
Daniel nodded.
“What was his name?””
Arthur looked at the photograph one more time.
Then he read the name printed on the hospital record.
Dr. Samuel Whitmore.
May you like
The same physician who had signed Margaret's death certificate.
And according to the note in Richard's envelope, he was the only person still alive who knew which baby had actually left the hospital that night.
