Chapter 5 - THE WINDOW
The window was a trick.
It opened onto a stone terrace twenty feet above the garden.
No child had climbed through it.
Someone wanted me looking outside.
Marco checked the hallway camera.
At 11:07 p.m., a nurse in dark scrubs entered the east wing.
No nurse had been scheduled.
The woman pushed a laundry cart.
Three minutes later, she left.
The cart was heavier.
My vision narrowed.
"Plate."
Marco zoomed in on the service elevator camera.
The woman's badge said Roslyn Care Group.
I knew that company.
Lucinda's cousin Rachel owned it.
Police stopped the van twelve minutes from the estate.
Ruby was inside, wrapped in a blanket, awake and terrified.
The woman driving claimed she had been told Ruby needed emergency transport for "psychiatric observation."
She had paperwork.
My name.
My forged signature.
A fake doctor's recommendation.
Elaine read it and went pale.
"This says Ruby is a danger to herself."
Ruby grabbed my coat.
"I'm not."
"I know."
The driver gave police her instructions.
Take Ruby to a private clinic in Wisconsin.
No phones.
No visitors for seventy-two hours.
I looked at Daniel.
"What happens legally if she's admitted?"
He understood immediately.
"The guardianship petition gets stronger."
Lucinda was arrested for questioning but released before dawn pending investigation.
She stood outside the station with cameras around her and said she had only tried to protect a traumatized child from an unstable father.
Then one reporter shouted, "Ms. Vale, did you know Mr. Bellandi's late wife had questioned your family before her death?"
Lucinda froze.
So did I.
I turned to Daniel.
"What did he just say?"
May you like
Daniel's face changed.
"Salvatore... there's something about Isabella you were never told."
