Chapter 4 - Caroline Was Still Alive at the Bottom of the StairsAndrew stared at Lucinda.
“What did you do?”
She looked down the staircase.
“Andrew…”
“What did you do?”
Her shoulders shook.
“I panicked.”
“Answer me.”
Lucinda closed her eyes.
“When Caroline fell, I thought she was dead.”
Andrew’s fists clenched.
“But she wasn’t.”
“No.”
“Did she speak?”
Lucinda hesitated.
That hesitation told him everything.
“What did she say?”
Lucinda whispered, “Alex’s name.”
Andrew nearly collapsed.
Caroline had been lying injured at the bottom of the staircase.
And her first thought had been their son.
“She asked me to get help.”
Andrew’s voice was barely audible.
Lucinda nodded.
“And?”
“I reached for my phone.”
“And?”
“Marcus stopped me.”
Andrew turned toward the library where officers were restraining Marcus.
“He told you not to call?”
Lucinda nodded again.
“He said if Caroline survived, we would both go to prison.”
Andrew felt sick.
“So you left her there.”
“It was only a few minutes.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“HOW MANY?”
“Maybe twelve.”
Andrew stared.
Twelve minutes.
An ambulance station was less than five minutes from the house.
Caroline might have lived.
Lucinda continued desperately.
“I kept telling Marcus we had to call. He said we needed to clean the room first.”
“You cleaned evidence while my wife was dying?”
Lucinda sobbed.
“I was afraid.”
Andrew’s face hardened.
“Stop saying that.”
Police officers appeared behind him.
Lucinda didn’t resist when they approached.
But before they took her away, she whispered something else.
“There’s more.”
Andrew looked at her.
“What?”
“Marcus went downstairs before we called emergency services.”
“Why?”
Lucinda stared at him.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus shouted from the library.
“She’s lying!”
Lucinda turned toward him.
For the first time, she looked genuinely terrified.
“Check Caroline’s toxicology report.”
Andrew frowned.
“The report was clean.”
“The report you saw was clean.”
Marcus began struggling against the officers.
“Shut her up!”
Andrew’s eyes narrowed.
Lucinda whispered, “Ask who ordered the second test canceled.”
Marcus shouted again.
“LUCI!”
The officers dragged him away.
Andrew stood motionless.
Detective Hannah Reed arrived twenty minutes later.
She had handled Caroline’s original case.
Her expression was grim when Andrew showed her the hidden office.
“I should have found this.”
“You didn’t know it existed.”
“I should have known something was wrong.”
Andrew handed her Caroline’s letter.
Reed read it twice.
Then she looked at Alex.
The boy sat with Elizabeth, clutching the now-torn rabbit.
“We’ll need to interview him.”
Andrew immediately tensed.
“Not tonight.”
“Agreed.”
Reed surprised him.
“He’s been through enough.”
She turned to Elizabeth.
“Can you stay with him?”
Elizabeth nodded.
Andrew looked at her.
“Please.”
She squeezed his arm once.
“Go.”
Andrew followed Reed downstairs.
Officers photographed the staircase.
The marble floor.
The railing.
The place where Caroline’s body had been found.
Reed opened the archived case file on her tablet.
“Your wife suffered severe trauma from the fall.”
“I know.”
“The medical examiner concluded the injuries were fatal.”
“Eventually.”
Reed looked at him.
Andrew’s voice shook.
“But Lucinda says Caroline was alive.”
“We need to determine how long.”
“And the toxicology test?”
Reed frowned.
“There was one.”
“She said there were two.”
Reed searched the file.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
“There’s a lab authorization number that doesn’t match the final report.”
Andrew’s heart started pounding.
“What does that mean?”
“It may mean an additional sample was ordered.”
“By who?”
Reed scrolled.
Then froze.
“The request came from Dr. Peter Lang.”
Andrew recognized the name.
Caroline’s private physician.
“But the cancellation was entered by someone else.”
“Who?”
Reed turned the screen.
Marcus Vale.
Andrew stared.
“How could Marcus cancel a medical test?”
“He couldn’t.”
“Then how?”
“Unless he had help.”
A new suspect.
Someone with hospital access.
Someone Andrew had trusted.
Dr. Lang had attended Caroline’s funeral.
He had hugged Andrew.
He had told him Caroline never suffered.
Andrew suddenly remembered another detail.
Lang had also signed Alex’s first referral after the boy stopped speaking.
Reed called one of her officers.
“Find Dr. Peter Lang.”
The officer returned five minutes later.
“He left the country yesterday.”
Andrew’s stomach dropped.
“Where?”
“According to flight records, Switzerland.”
Reed looked toward him.
“That isn’t coincidence.”
Upstairs, Elizabeth was helping Alex into bed.
He refused to let go of the rabbit.
She repaired the seam as best she could.
When she stood to leave, Alex whispered, “Don’t go.”
Elizabeth stopped.
“I’m right here.”
“Lucinda come back?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise the police won’t let her come back.”
Alex stared at the doorway.
Then he said something Elizabeth did not expect.
“Doctor bad too.”
She froze.
“What doctor?”
Alex’s eyes filled with fear.
“Mom’s doctor.”
Elizabeth sat beside him.
“What did you see?”
Alex shook his head.
“I don’t want.”
“You don’t have to tell me now.”
He looked down at his rabbit.
Then whispered, “He gave Daddy sleeping medicine.”
Elizabeth’s blood went cold.
Andrew had told everyone he slept through part of the night Caroline died because he had taken medication for a severe migraine.
Medication prescribed by Dr. Lang.
Elizabeth stood immediately.
“Stay here.”
She opened the bedroom door.
Andrew was already approaching.
“What happened?”
Elizabeth pulled him aside.
“Alex just told me Dr. Lang gave you sleeping medicine.”
Andrew stared at her.
“Yes.”
“The night Caroline died?”
He nodded slowly.
“He came for dinner. I had a migraine. He gave me something.”
Elizabeth’s face went pale.
“Andrew…”
“What?”
“If you hadn’t been asleep that night…”
Andrew understood.
Someone had made sure he would not hear Caroline arguing with Lucinda and Marcus.
Someone had made sure he would not come upstairs.
And that meant Caroline’s death had not begun with a fight at the staircase.
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It had begun much earlier.
It had been planned.
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