Chapter 4 - The Woman Nobody Would Believe
I spent four hours in an interview room.
Not under arrest.
The detectives made that clear.
Again and again.
I was free to leave.
But every question sounded like they had already decided what kind of woman I was.
Why was I on the executive floor?
Had I ever met Lucas before?
Did I have debt?
Had I searched his name online?
Did I know anything about his finances?
Did I understand medications?
Was I angry at Meridian?
Had I recently asked anyone for money?
The question about money hurt more than it should have.
“Yes,” I said.
Detective Elena Ruiz looked up from her notes.
“How much debt?”
“About nineteen thousand.”
Her partner, Detective Harris, leaned forward.
“Credit cards?”
“Some.”
“Student loans?”
“Yes.”
“Medical?”
I swallowed.
“My mother’s.”
They exchanged a look.
Not cruel.
But professional.
Every weakness in my life had become evidence.
“Anyone offer to help with those debts recently?” Ruiz asked.
“No.”
“Mr. Bennett?”
“He offered to help me go back to nursing school.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“And you refused?”
“Yes.”
Harris almost smiled.
“You refused a billionaire offering to pay for school?”
“I didn’t want charity.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
My anger finally surfaced.
“You can believe whatever you want.”
Ruiz glanced at him.
Then back at me.
“Bailey, your badge was found in Bennett’s office.”
“My supervisor took it.”
“Darlene Cross says she placed it in her desk drawer.”
“Then someone took it.”
“The drawer wasn’t forced.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
Ruiz slid a photograph across the table.
A small plastic vial.
“We found this in the bottom of your locker.”
I stared at it.
“What is that?”
“You tell us.”
“I have no idea.”
Harris leaned back.
“You studied nursing.”
“Three years ago.”
“Long enough to recognize medication containers.”
“I recognize a container. I don’t know what was inside.”
Ruiz watched me carefully.
“Lab is testing it.”
I felt physically sick.
Someone had gone into my locker.
Someone had planted evidence.
And because I cleaned floors for a living, who would believe me over the executives upstairs?
I suddenly understood what Lucas meant.
They were building a story.
A desperate former nursing student.
Massive debt.
Access to the executive floor.
Medical knowledge.
A billionaire found dying.
The heroic rescue could even become part of the plan.
Maybe I poisoned him and panicked.
Maybe I wanted attention.
Maybe I wanted a reward.
You could make anything believable if the person you were accusing had no one powerful enough to contradict you.
Except I did.
At 4:19 that afternoon, the door opened.
Lucas Bennett walked in.
Hospital bracelet still around his wrist.
Suit jacket hanging awkwardly over his shoulders.
Rebecca behind him looking furious.
I shot to my feet.
“What are you doing here?”
Ruiz stood too.
“Mr. Bennett, you were advised—”
“I discharged myself.”
Rebecca muttered, “Against medical advice.”
Lucas ignored her.
“I need five minutes with Detective Ruiz.”
Harris frowned.
“This is an interview.”
“Then interview me.”
“We already took your statement.”
“Take another.”
His voice wasn’t loud.
It didn’t need to be.
He sat down across from me.
Then winced.
“You’re insane,” I whispered.
“So I’ve been told.”
“You could collapse again.”
“I’m currently highly motivated not to.”
Ruiz crossed her arms.
“What information do you have?”
Lucas looked at her.
“Bailey Carter did not poison me.”
“That’s a conclusion.”
“It’s also common sense.”
“We don’t investigate based on common sense.”
“Then investigate the security access system.”
“We are.”
“Specifically Darlene Cross.”
My head turned.
“What?”
Lucas continued.
“My team discovered Ms. Cross’s administrative login was used at 2:52 a.m. to alter historical cleaning assignments.”
Ruiz’s expression changed.
“Historical?”
“Someone edited the record to show Bailey was never supposed to be on forty-five.”
My stomach dropped.
Lucas looked at me.
“You were right.”
“What?”
“Your schedule originally included the executive floor.”
Relief almost made me dizzy.
“Can you prove it?”
“We found an offline backup.”
Harris reached for a pen.
“Who accessed the account?”
“Unknown.”
Lucas looked toward Rebecca.
“Darlene says she was in the break room at the time.”
Ruiz frowned.
“Convenient.”
“There’s more.”
Lucas pulled a photograph from his jacket.
It showed a hallway.
A man in a baseball cap pushing a gray cleaning cart.
My cleaning cart.
“What is this?” Ruiz asked.
“Traffic camera three blocks from Meridian.”
I stared.
“How did you get that?”
“I own the parking structure whose camera recorded it.”
Of course he did.
“The cart was abandoned in an alley,” Lucas said. “Coffee cup gone.”
Ruiz’s eyes narrowed.
“Who’s the man?”
“We’re trying to identify him.”
Harris studied the image.
“Mr. Bennett, you understand that private security interfering with—”
“My security team is preserving evidence and forwarding everything to you.”
Ruiz interrupted.
“Do you have the original footage?”
“Yes.”
“Send it.”
Rebecca nodded.
Ruiz looked at me.
“This helps you.”
“Can I go?”
“For now.”
Two words had never sounded better.
I stood.
My knees almost buckled.
Lucas noticed and reached for my arm.
I pulled back.
Not because I didn’t want help.
Because twenty-four hours earlier, I had been invisible.
Now detectives were analyzing my entire life.
I didn’t want anyone touching me.
Lucas understood.
His hand dropped.
Outside the station, reporters were waiting.
Dozens of them.
The moment the doors opened, cameras flashed.
“There she is!”
“Bailey!”
“Ms. Carter, did you poison Lucas Bennett?”
My whole body stopped.
“How do they know my name?”
Rebecca swore.
Lucas stepped in front of me.
“Get her back inside.”
Too late.
“Bailey, were you having a relationship with Mr. Bennett?”
“Did you deliberately cause his cardiac arrest?”
“Were you trying to get money?”
A woman shouted the cruelest question.
“Did you fake the rescue?”
I couldn’t breathe.
Lucas turned toward the cameras.
“That’s enough.”
The shouting intensified.
He stood between them and me despite his broken ribs.
“She saved my life.”
“Mr. Bennett, police found evidence in her locker!”
“Who told you that?”
“Is Bailey Carter a suspect?”
Lucas’s face hardened.
“She is the reason I am standing here.”
He turned toward one camera.
“Print that.”
Rebecca and security pushed us toward a waiting SUV.
Inside, I stared at my hands.
My phone was exploding with notifications.
Unknown calls.
Messages.
Social media.
My landlord.
Three old classmates.
A former nursing instructor.
I shut it off.
Lucas sat opposite me.
“I’m sorry.”
I laughed bitterly.
“For what?”
“My life crashing into yours.”
“You didn’t invite yourself to have a heart attack in my elevator.”
“My elevator?”
I gave him a look.
He almost smiled.
Then his expression softened.
“You can’t go home.”
“What?”
“The press knows your address.”
“How?”
“Someone leaked your employee file.”
I stared at him.
“My address is in that file.”
“Yes.”
“My emergency contact?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t have one anymore.”
Lucas looked away.
He knew why.
My mother.
“Who leaked it?”
“We’re tracing access.”
“Malcolm?”
“Maybe.”
I leaned back.
My entire world had become maybe.
Maybe someone poisoned him.
Maybe someone framed me.
Maybe Malcolm stole millions.
Maybe I was going to lose everything because I happened to step into the wrong elevator at the right moment.
Lucas spoke gently.
“You can stay somewhere secure tonight.”
“No.”
“Bailey.”
“I’m not going to your house.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I was going to say a hotel.”
“Oh.”
“For the record, my house is also very secure.”
I stared out the window.
“I can’t afford a hotel.”
“I can.”
“No.”
He sighed carefully.
“There’s that word again.”
“I don’t want to owe you.”
“You don’t.”
“I owe everybody.”
“My mother’s hospital. My school loans. My landlord. My credit card.”
My voice cracked.
“I am tired of owing people.”
Lucas became very quiet.
Then he said, “Fine.”
I looked at him.
“You won’t owe me.”
“How does that work?”
“You’re a material witness in an attempted murder involving Meridian. The company will provide security and lodging.”
“That sounds suspiciously like you paying.”
“It’s accounting.”
Despite myself, I laughed.
He smiled.
Then Rebecca’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her smile disappeared immediately.
“What?”
Lucas looked at her.
She turned the phone slightly away.
“When?”
A long pause.
“Is he alive?”
My stomach tightened.
Rebecca ended the call.
“Howard.”
I sat forward.
“What happened to Howard?”
“He didn’t show up for work.”
“That isn’t like him.”
“Security went to his apartment.”
Lucas went pale.
“What did they find?”
Rebecca looked directly at me.
“His door was open.”
My heart stopped.
“And Howard?”
“Gone.”
I grabbed the seat.
May you like
Rebecca swallowed.
“There was blood on the kitchen floor.”
