Chapter 7 - THE LETTERDetective Hayes read Anna’s letter aloud only after Lily was asleep and Rachel gave permission.
I will not disappear willingly, Anna had written. I am making copies of everything because Greg has friends who owe him favors. If Lily is hurt, please believe her. He will say she is confused. She is not confused. She is six. She sees more than he thinks.
Rachel pressed both hands to her face.
Anna described bank accounts Greg had hidden, forged signatures, and insurance policies she had never agreed to. She described threats made behind closed doors, apologies made in public, and the slow way a charming man could turn a home into a locked room.
But the worst part came near the end.
Greg has been using Lily to move things because nobody suspects a child.
Sarah, standing near the wall, whispered a curse under her breath.
Anna wrote that she had found evidence Greg was connected to a private adoption broker under investigation in another state. Babies, records, payments, missing mothers, sealed documents. She did not know everything, but she knew enough to be afraid.
I have put the strongest proof where he will never look because he does not believe children matter unless they are useful.
Hayes stopped reading.
Rachel looked up. “The bunny.”
Hayes nodded. “And possibly the storage unit.”
“What did they find inside the bunny?” Chloe asked.
Hayes’s expression was grim. “A second memory card. Protected casing. Better condition than the flash drive.”
Rachel inhaled sharply. “Can you open it?”
“The digital crimes unit is working on it.”
“And Greg?” I asked.
“Still detained. His lawyer is screaming.”
“Let him scream,” Sarah muttered.
Hayes folded the letter carefully. “There’s more. Anna named someone at this hospital.”
My stomach dropped.
“What do you mean?”
Hayes looked at Chloe, then at me.
“She believed someone here had helped Greg access Lily’s medical files.”
Chloe’s face went slack. “Who?”
Hayes read the final paragraph silently again, as if hoping the name had changed.
Then she said, “Dr. Nathaniel Pierce.”
For a second, I heard nothing.
Nathaniel Pierce was not just a doctor.
He was chief of pediatrics.
May you like
He was my mentor.
And he was supposed to be on call upstairs that very night.
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