Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Wouldn't Die.
The first paramedic reached Claire while Adrian was still walking down the grand staircase.
His name was Daniel Ruiz, and he immediately ordered everyone back from her.
Claire tried to tell him about the memory card.
Only a rasp came out.
Her ribs felt like broken glass whenever she inhaled.
Daniel stabilized her neck and asked whether she could feel her legs.
Claire moved both feet.
Relief almost made her cry.
Then Adrian appeared beside the fountain wearing the face he used at funerals and fundraisers.
"My wife fell," he said.
Daniel did not look up.
"Were you here when it happened?"
Adrian hesitated.
"I came outside after I heard her scream."
Claire turned her eyes toward him.
He had already begun rewriting the story.
Evelyn arrived a few seconds later and pressed a hand to her pearl necklace.
"She has been unstable for weeks," she said softly.
Claire tried to lift her right hand.
The memory card was still between her fingers.
Daniel noticed it.
So did Adrian.
Adrian stepped closer.
"That's mine."
Claire closed her fist.
Pain shot through her shoulder, but she refused to open it.
Daniel finally looked at Adrian.
"Sir, step back."
"You don't understand. That's company property."
"Right now she is my patient."
A police cruiser entered the courtyard.
Detective Lena Ortiz climbed out before the car had fully stopped.
She was not in uniform, and the speed of her arrival made Adrian's face change again.
Claire recognized her name.
She had left Ortiz a voicemail that morning from a borrowed phone.
She had not known whether the detective would believe her.
Apparently, the detective had believed enough to come.
Ortiz crouched beside Claire.
"Mrs. Vale, can you hear me?"
Claire blinked once.
"Did you fall accidentally?"
Claire blinked twice.
Ortiz's eyes sharpened.
"Did someone push you?"
Claire blinked once.
Adrian stepped forward.
"This is absurd. She hit her head."
Ortiz stood.
"Then you will have no problem giving me a statement."
Evelyn's voice turned brittle.
"Detective, do you have any idea whose home this is?"
Ortiz looked at the mansion.
"A crime scene, if Mrs. Vale says it is."
The words changed the air.
Claire was lifted onto a stretcher.
As Daniel secured her, she felt a shadow move near her right hand.
Adrian had come close again.
His fingers brushed the blanket.
Claire clenched her fist harder.
Daniel slapped Adrian's hand away.
"Do not touch the patient."
For the first time, Adrian's grief mask vanished completely.
His eyes were flat and furious.
At the hospital, doctors found three fractured ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a concussion, and deep bruising along Claire's hip.
They told her she had been lucky.
Claire did not feel lucky.
An hour later, she woke in a private room and found Evelyn sitting beside her bed.
No nurse was present.
No detective was present.
The older woman smiled gently.
"You survived something you should not have survived."
Claire's heart monitor quickened.
Evelyn leaned closer.
"That makes this inconvenient."
Claire looked toward the door.
Evelyn followed her eyes.
"Adrian is downstairs convincing everyone you tried to kill yourself."
Claire slowly opened her right hand beneath the blanket.
May you like
It was empty.
The memory card was gone.
