Chapter 10 - BELL HOUSE
Bell had once operated a private recovery home for medically fragile foster children.
He often ignored rules when he believed those rules would send a child somewhere unsafe.
Sometimes he helped.
Sometimes he was wrong.
A retired nurse named Diane Mercer told me Bell had falsified discharge dates and privately relocated children without proper approval.
Peter had worked for him after Jamie died.
“Doing what?”
“Finding children Bell thought needed help.”
Before Diane could explain further, a man slid into the diner booth behind her and pressed an injector against her back.
“We’re leaving,” he said.
I stood as if I would obey.
Then I pulled the fire alarm.
Diane stabbed him with a fork.
Two construction workers tackled him.
The injector contained saline.
He had been bluffing.
His ID said Curtis Vale.
Diane stared at the photograph.
“That isn’t Curtis.”
“What?”
May you like
“Curtis died six years ago.”
