Chapter 5 - The Medicine Cabinet
The Moretti estate stood behind iron gates on twelve wooded acres north of the city.
Emily had seen photographs of it.
The photographs had not captured the silence.
There were no cars near the entrance.
No staff waiting on the steps.
No movement behind the tall windows.
The mansion looked less like a home than a building holding its breath.
Luca led Noah to a guest room.
Emily stayed beside Eleanor.
Alexander took them into a private sitting room overlooking the lake.
Renato was waiting inside.
A glass of whiskey rested in his hand.
“You went to the Carter apartment without me.”
Alexander removed his jacket.
“You were not invited.”
Renato’s smile remained.
“I am part of this family.”
“So was the person who gave the Harrington Foundation access to my mother’s travel schedule.”
Renato set down his glass.
“You are angry.”
“I am interested.”
“In what?”
“The building on Ashland Avenue.”
Renato’s eyes moved briefly toward Emily.
“It is an investment property.”
“It belonged to Victoria four years ago.”
“Many buildings did.”
“Why did she sell it to you?”
“She needed cash.”
Emily placed her mother’s letter on the table.
“Why did my mother tell me to search it?”
Renato read the message.
His face revealed nothing.
“I do not know your mother.”
“Her name was Nora Carter.”
“I still do not know her.”
Eleanor spoke from her wheelchair.
“She was my night nurse.”
Alexander turned toward his mother.
“You never mentioned her.”
“I did not remember her name.”
Renato picked up his whiskey again.
“This is becoming exhausting.”
Emily looked at him.
“My family’s destruction must be very tiring for you.”
Renato smiled without warmth.
“Alexander, control your guest.”
Alexander poured a glass of water.
“She is not mine to control.”
Renato’s smile disappeared.
Eleanor shifted in her chair.
A tremor passed through her right hand.
Emily noticed.
“Are you cold?”
“No.”
Eleanor’s speech had begun to slow.
Her eyelids looked heavy.
Emily crouched beside her.
“When did you take your medication?”
“Before the gala.”
“What did you take?”
“My usual pills.”
Renato looked toward the door.
“Dr. Cole changed the dosage yesterday.”
Emily glanced up.
“What dosage?”
Renato did not answer.
Alexander opened a cabinet beside the fireplace.
Several medication bottles stood inside.
Emily picked up the most recent one.
The label read ADRIAN COLE, M.D.
“What is this?”
Alexander looked at the bottle.
“A nerve medication.”
Emily read the dosage.
“This is too high.”
Renato laughed.
“You are a waitress.”
“I completed three years of nursing school.”
“Completed?”
“I left before graduation.”
“Then perhaps you should avoid diagnosing patients.”
Emily ignored him.
She checked Eleanor’s pulse.
It was slow.
“Mrs. Moretti, can you lift your right hand?”
Eleanor tried.
Her fingers barely moved.
Emily looked at Alexander.
“She needs a doctor.”
“Dr. Cole is on his way,” Renato said.
“Not him.”
Renato stepped closer.
“He has treated Eleanor for three years.”
“That does not make him competent.”
“It makes him more qualified than a hotel employee.”
Emily opened the medicine bottle.
The pills were pale blue.
One tablet was white.
She held it beneath the lamp.
“This does not belong in this bottle.”
Alexander’s expression changed.
Luca entered.
“Call Northwestern Memorial,” Alexander said.
“Request Dr. Miriam Shaw.”
Renato frowned.
“You are overreacting.”
Alexander held out his hand to Emily.
She gave him the white pill.
“Perhaps.”
He looked at his uncle.
“Then you have nothing to fear.”
Renato’s jaw tightened.
An hour later, Dr. Miriam Shaw entered the mansion.
She examined Eleanor.
She took blood.
She collected every medication bottle.
Dr. Adrian Cole arrived twenty minutes later.
He entered the sitting room with anger already prepared.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Alexander stood near the windows.
“You tell me.”
Dr. Cole saw Miriam.
His confidence weakened.
“Eleanor is my patient.”
Miriam held up the white tablet.
“Then identify this.”
Cole adjusted his glasses.
“It appears to be a sedative.”
“It is not.”
“You cannot know without testing.”
“I tested it in the mobile laboratory.”
Cole’s face changed.
Emily watched him.
Miriam placed the pill inside a clear evidence bag.
“It is a neuromuscular suppressant.”
Eleanor stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It causes weakness.”
“For how long?”
“With repeated doses?”
Miriam looked at Alexander.
“Months.”
The room became still.
Eleanor’s voice was barely audible.
“Could it prevent me from walking?”
“Yes.”
Alexander looked at Cole.
“Who gave you permission to prescribe it?”
Cole stepped backward.
“I did not.”
“Your name is on the bottle.”
“The bottle was tampered with.”
“By whom?”
“I do not know.”
Renato spoke calmly.
“Adrian has treated this family for years.”
Alexander did not look away from the doctor.
“Then he should be eager to explain.”
Cole wiped sweat from his forehead.
“I need to contact my attorney.”
“You need to sit down.”
Alexander’s voice carried no volume.
It did not need any.
Cole sat.
Luca placed a phone on the table.
“The security system shows Dr. Cole entering the medication room at 2:13 yesterday afternoon.”
Cole looked toward Renato.
It was only a glance.
Emily saw it.
Alexander saw it too.
Renato took a slow drink of whiskey.
Cole began to speak.
The mansion alarm suddenly sounded.
Red lights flashed across the ceiling.
Luca touched his earpiece.
“What happened?”
A guard’s voice answered.
“Fire in the east wing.”
Cole jumped from the chair.
Alexander grabbed his shoulder.
“Sit.”
Smoke began entering beneath the door.
Eleanor coughed.
Emily moved behind the wheelchair.
“I am taking her out.”
Renato opened a second door.
“This way.”
Emily pushed Eleanor into the hallway.
The smoke thickened.
Sprinklers activated.
Water crashed from the ceiling.
They reached the top of the marble staircase.
Then Eleanor’s wheelchair suddenly accelerated.
Emily grabbed the handles.
The brakes did nothing.
“Alexander!”
The chair pulled Emily forward.
The staircase waited six feet ahead.
Emily drove her heel against the floor.
Her shoe slipped.
Eleanor screamed.
Alexander ran toward them.
Emily threw her body sideways.
The wheelchair struck the wall.
Emily crashed onto the marble.
Alexander caught Eleanor before the chair overturned.
Luca secured the wheels.
Emily lay on the floor, breathing hard.
Her elbow burned.
Her ankle throbbed.
Eleanor reached toward her.
“Emily.”
“I’m okay.”
Luca examined the wheelchair.
“The brake cable was cut.”
Alexander turned slowly toward the hallway.
Dr. Cole was gone.
Renato was gone too.
Firefighters found no electrical fault.
They found a cloth soaked in accelerant inside an empty bedroom.
The fire had been deliberate.
Hours later, Emily sat on the edge of a guest bed while Miriam wrapped her ankle.
“You were lucky.”
Emily looked toward Eleanor’s damaged wheelchair.
“I do not think luck had much to do with tonight.”
A maintenance worker turned the chair upside down.
Something fell from beneath the seat cushion.
It landed near Emily’s shoe.
A small brass key.
One side was stamped with two characters.
H-17.
Eleanor stared at it.
“I have never seen that key.”
Emily picked it up.
A thin strip of paper had been wrapped around the metal.
She carefully unfolded it.
May you like
Three words had been written in Thomas Carter’s handwriting.
TRUST NO MORETTI.
