Chapter 15 - The Decoy at the Hospital
"How the hell did a magistrate grant bail on a child endangerment and poisoning charge at four in the morning?!" Mara demanded as Detective Miller drove us back toward Swedish Hospital with the siren screaming and the speedometer pushing ninety.
"Because the toxicology lab hasn't returned results on the broken glass from the study—remember, Adrian's guy cleaned it up!" Miller barked, weaving through an intersection on a red light. "Until the judge sees the authenticated video evidence at arraignment at nine o'clock, the only charge booked into the computer by the patrol sergeant was fourth-degree custodial dispute and filing a false police report!"
"Where would she go?" Ricardo asked from the back seat, his voice cold and lethal as steel. "She knows the video destroys her. She's running."
"Not without money," I said, my mind racing like a calculator. "All of Celeste's personal credit cards are tied to Adrian's corporate account, which the bank froze twenty minutes ago when we flagged the arson. Where is there liquid cash or high-value assets she can grab in the next thirty minutes?"
"The house is surrounded by cops," Miller said.
"Wait," I breathed, looking at Ricardo. "The hospital."
"Why would she go back to the hospital?" Miller asked. "I have two uniformed officers sitting right outside Room 412 with your daughter and the housekeeper!"
"Not for Vianey," I said, grabbing the front headrest. "When they booked Celeste at the precinct, what happened to the forty-thousand-dollar sapphire necklace she was wearing?"
"The arresting officer logged it into the precinct property room as disputed evidence," Miller said.
"Then she isn't going for the necklace," I said, looking down at the July trust packet in my lap—and stopping dead on page fourteen. "Oh, my God. Look at the asset schedule attached to the Swiss boarding school contract."
Ricardo leaned over my shoulder.
"There is a two-million-dollar bearer bond and Clara's diamond engagement ring held in a dual-key safe deposit box at Union Banque Privée's Seattle private wealth vault," I read aloud. "And the secondary biometric release requires a live retinal or thumbprint scan from the named beneficiary—Vianey Vance—or a blood sample matching her DNA profile on file with the bank's medical trustee!"
"She doesn't need to kidnap Vianey from the hospital room," Ricardo realized in horror. "If she has a contact on the hospital administrative board—the same one Adrian bragged about on the nanny-cam tape—all they need is a nurse to walk into Room 412 with a fingerprint pad for 'discharge paperwork' before Celeste catches a floatplane to Victoria at dawn!"
Miller slammed his palm against the steering wheel and grabbed his radio mic. "Dispatch, patch me through to the two units on the fourth floor of Swedish Medical Center immediately! Code Three!"
Static hissed through the dashboard speaker.
"Unit 4-Adam, come in," the dispatcher called.
Nothing.
"Unit 4-Adam, status check on Pediatric Ward 4B!"
Suddenly, my cell phone rang. It was Martha’s number.
May you like
I snatched it up. "Martha?!"
"Elena!" Martha’s voice was muffled, coming from behind a locked door while heavy banging echoed in the background. "A man in a hospital doctor's coat sprayed something in the faces of the two policemen in the hallway! I pulled Vianey into the bathroom and locked the deadbolt, but Celeste is in the room and they are breaking the hinges!"
