Chapter 3 - The Doctor’s Bag
“Put the bag down.”
Dr. Mercer stopped in the foyer.
“Sebastian?”
“The medical case.”
Mercer looked toward Gabriel.
It lasted barely a second.
Sebastian saw it.
“Put it down.”
Mercer obeyed.
Martin took the case and opened it on the hall table.
Inside were medical supplies.
Two sealed syringes.
Several small bottles.
One contained a prescription sedative.
Maya looked at Eli.
The boy’s fingers had begun digging into the sides of his sweater.
“Get those away from him,” she said.
Mercer frowned.
“Young woman, I appreciate your concern, but you are not qualified to—”
Sebastian interrupted.
“She is the only person in this room my son has voluntarily touched in nearly two years.”
Mercer stared.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“That could be displacement attachment behavior.”
“For once,” Sebastian said, “stop diagnosing him.”
Mercer’s mouth closed.
Sebastian walked closer.
“Did you use sedatives on my son?”
“Only when clinically necessary.”
“Without telling me?”
“Never.”
Martin spoke from beside the case.
“Sir.”
He held up one bottle.
The prescription label carried Eli Blackwood’s name.
The date was six weeks earlier.
Sebastian remembered that week.
Eli had been unusually quiet.
He had slept through two entire afternoons.
Mrs. Caldwell said the child was exhausted after nightmares.
“Who authorized this?”
Mercer straightened.
“You did.”
“No.”
Mercer opened his tablet.
“I have documentation.”
He displayed a digital form.
Sebastian’s signature appeared at the bottom.
It looked perfect.
Except Sebastian knew exactly where he had been on the listed date.
Tokyo.
At a conference.
He had never seen the form.
“Martin, photograph that.”
Mercer pulled the tablet back.
“That contains confidential medical material.”
“So does the room upstairs.”
Mercer’s face changed.
There it was.
Recognition.
Sebastian felt sick.
“You know about the room.”
Mercer said nothing.
Gabriel stepped in.
“Sebastian, before this turns into something irreversible—”
“It already has.”
Sebastian turned toward him.
“You should leave.”
Gabriel stared.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“You think that is wise?”
“No. I think it is necessary.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“For twenty-six years, I have cleaned up messes beside you.”
Sebastian moved close enough that their voices no longer needed volume.
“My son is not a mess.”
Gabriel’s jaw shifted.
Then he picked up his gloves.
“You are making decisions while emotional.”
Sebastian almost laughed.
“Go.”
Gabriel walked toward the doors.
Eli watched from beside Maya.
Just before Gabriel reached the exit, the boy whispered:
“Red light.”
Gabriel stopped.
Sebastian turned.
“What red light?”
Eli pointed toward Gabriel.
“Red light car.”
Gabriel opened the door.
“You are encouraging false memories,” he said without looking back.
Then he left.
Sebastian watched the Bentley disappear.
Martin approached.
“Sir, I want his vehicle history.”
“Get it.”
“And Mercer?”
“Keep him here.”
Mercer bristled.
“You cannot detain me.”
“I can prevent you from wandering around my property while we wait for police.”
“Police?”
“For forged medical authorizations involving a minor? Yes.”
Mercer’s confidence finally weakened.
“This is absurd.”
Maya glanced toward the hall.
Mrs. Caldwell was being led from the sitting room.
The moment Mercer saw her, something passed between them.
Mrs. Caldwell stopped.
Mercer looked away.
Sebastian noticed.
“Separate them.”
Mrs. Caldwell’s eyes filled with fury.
“This is becoming a circus.”
“No,” Sebastian said. “It has been a circus for three years. I’m finally looking behind the curtain.”
He ordered Martin to contact Detective Elena Ruiz.
The name came from Madeline’s photograph.
Within forty minutes, the veteran Highland Park detective was on her way.
While security prepared the evidence, Maya stayed in the library with Eli.
Sebastian entered quietly.
The child sat on the carpet with wooden blocks.
Maya had arranged them by color.
Eli was moving them into groups.
Three blue blocks.
One white.
One black.
Maya looked up.
“He’s telling me something.”
Sebastian crouched.
“How?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
She pointed.
“He uses the white block for his mother.”
Sebastian’s throat tightened.
Eli touched it gently.
“Mommy.”
Then he touched the smallest blue block.
“Eli.”
Another blue block.
“Daddy.”
Then he picked up the black block.
His hand shook.
“Gabe.”
Sebastian leaned closer.
Eli placed the black block beside the white one.
Then knocked the white block over.
Maya closed her eyes briefly.
Sebastian felt the room tilt.
“What happened to Mommy?” he asked.
Maya immediately looked at him.
“Maybe not too much at once.”
Sebastian stopped.
She was right.
And for the first time in years, he realized how often everyone around Eli had asked questions for their own need to know rather than the child’s need to feel safe.
“I’m sorry,” Sebastian whispered.
Eli looked at him.
Sebastian did not ask again.
Instead, he sat on the carpet.
A billionaire in an Italian suit surrounded by wooden blocks.
He waited.
After nearly a minute, Eli picked up another black block.
He placed it behind the white block.
“Car.”
Then a red block beside it.
“Light.”
He pushed the white block forward.
Then the black one.
They moved together.
Sebastian’s pulse hammered.
A black vehicle had followed Madeline that night.
Detective Ruiz arrived at 9:17.
She was fifty, with tired eyes and a wool coat wet from the rain.
Sebastian met her privately.
He handed her Madeline’s photograph.
Ruiz stared.
“I wondered where this went.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“You’ve seen it?”
“Not this photograph.”
She tapped the writing.
“But your wife called me three days before the crash.”
Sebastian felt all sound disappear.
“What?”
“She said she believed someone inside Blackwood Holdings was moving money illegally. She wanted to meet.”
“Why was I never told?”
“She asked me not to contact you until she had evidence.”
Ruiz hesitated.
“The meeting never happened.”
Sebastian sat down.
Ruiz continued.
“There’s something else.”
He looked up.
“A witness reported seeing a dark SUV behind your wife’s vehicle shortly before it left the road.”
Sebastian’s face went cold.
“That was never in the final report.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“The witness changed his statement the next morning.”
“Who spoke to him?”
Ruiz stared at him.
“That information was removed from the case file.”
Sebastian leaned back.
“Removed by whom?”
“I never proved it.”
Martin entered carrying a laptop.
“Sir. Vehicle logs.”
Sebastian turned.
Martin placed the screen on the desk.
“The Blackwood corporate fleet included six black Range Rovers that year.”
He selected one record.
“One was checked out the night Mrs. Blackwood died.”
Sebastian read the name.
Gabriel Sloane.
Return time:
2:41 a.m.
Madeline’s crash had occurred at 11:52 p.m.
Detective Ruiz whispered, “That’s enough for me to reopen the case.”
Then an alarm sounded.
Martin looked toward his radio.
“Fire detection. Service wing.”
Sebastian stood.
A guard’s voice crackled through the speaker.
“Mr. Blackwood, Mrs. Caldwell got out of the sitting room.”
“Where is she?”
Static.
Then:
“Records office.”
Sebastian ran.
When he reached the service corridor, smoke was already curling beneath the door.
Mrs. Caldwell stood beside a metal wastebasket filled with burning papers.
And in her hand was a small silver USB drive.
The moment she saw Sebastian, she closed her fist around it.
“These secrets,” she whispered, “will destroy your family.”
Sebastian stepped through the smoke.
“They already did.”
May you like
Then he looked at the USB.
“Now give me the reason why.”
