“Sophia?”
She pulled weakly at my hand.
“Lock it.”
I turned and pushed the door closed.
Then I sat beside her again.
“Who did this?”
Her lips trembled.
I expected a stranger’s name.
Instead, she whispered:
“Marcus.”
I felt the room tilt.
“Your brother?”
A tear rolled down her cheek.
Then she whispered something else.
“Dad knew.”
I stared at her.
“Knew what?”
Her breathing quickened.
The monitor changed.
A nurse entered immediately.
“That’s enough questions.”
I stood.
Sophia’s fingers caught my sleeve.
“Desk.”
“What?”
“At home.”
Her eyes were closing again.
“Bottom drawer.”
Then she said four words I would spend the next twelve hours trying to understand.
“He wanted the drive.”
The nurse moved me back.
Sophia drifted under again.
Outside the room, Richard was waiting.
I looked at him.
My anger wanted answers immediately.
Training told me something different.
Preserve evidence.
Call the people whose job it was to investigate.
Do not warn the person who might destroy what remained.
So I walked past Richard without saying Marcus’s name.
Then I called Detective Laura Chen.
“My wife is awake,” I told her.
“She identified someone.”
“Who?”
I looked through the ICU window at Richard.
“Her brother.”
There was silence.
Then Chen said:
“Do not go home yet.”
“Why?”
“Because our team is already on the way there.”
My stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
“We reviewed the original incident report.”
“And?”
“Your father-in-law didn’t just give the hospital a false location.”
She paused.
“He gave the police one too.”
THE FLASH DRIVE IN THE DESK
Detective Chen arrived at the hospital less than an hour later.
She was in her early forties, calm, direct, and uninterested in drama.
I appreciated that.
I showed her Samuel’s photographs.
She didn’t react emotionally.
She asked for the phone, documented the images, photographed the bracelet without removing it from the bag, and requested that Samuel remain available for a formal statement.
Then she asked me exactly what I had seen when I entered my house.
I described everything.
The bleach.
The broken furniture.
The stains.
The missing lamp.
