Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE SECOND VOICE
Police reached storage unit 814 in six minutes.
Adrian was alive.
Barely.
A bullet had passed through his shoulder.
Another had struck the wall beside him.
The shooter had fled through a rear service corridor.
Security footage captured only a partial image.
A woman.
Dark coat.
Dark hair.
Medium height.
Nothing more.
Inside the unit, police recovered the succession documents.
The forged insurance policy.
Two laptops.
And financial records Adrian had apparently been hiding.
Ruiz met Adrian at the trauma center later that morning.
Adrian was handcuffed to the bed.
His shoulder was bandaged.
He looked smaller than he had in photographs.
Less like the confident investor Elena had married.
More like a frightened man who had finally discovered the price of his own choices.
Ruiz sat down.
“Who shot you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You heard a woman.”
“Yes.”
“Recognize the voice?”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
Adrian looked away.
Ruiz leaned forward.
“You conspired to take control of your pregnant wife’s legal rights.”
No answer.
“You helped abduct your mother-in-law.”
“I didn’t know they were kidnapping her.”
“You removed her from her home.”
“Graham said she needed protection.”
Ruiz almost laughed.
“You’re going to need a better story.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Ruiz continued.
“Your mistress assaulted Elena.”
“She isn’t my mistress.”
Ruiz stared at him.
Adrian opened his eyes.
“Not anymore.”
“That distinction will comfort your wife.”
Adrian looked ashamed.
“Camille was supposed to convince Elena to sign.”
“By threatening her?”
“By upsetting her.”
“Why?”
“So doctors would see she was emotionally unstable.”
Ruiz’s expression hardened.
“You wanted to manufacture evidence of incapacity.”
“Yes.”
“And the staircase?”
“I swear I never told Camille to hurt her.”
“Who did?”
Adrian hesitated.
Ruiz saw it.
“There is somebody else.”
Adrian looked toward the door.
“Who?”
Adrian whispered.
“Helena Vale.”
Ruiz frowned.
“Graham’s wife?”
Adrian nodded.
That name changed everything.
Helena Vale was not a public executive.
She rarely appeared at Mercer events.
But Ruiz knew enough.
She had once been a psychiatrist.
She left clinical practice fifteen years earlier.
Then served quietly on several nonprofit boards.
One of those boards funded maternal health research.
Including Helix Biomedical.
Ruiz asked.
“What does Helena have to do with Haven?”
Adrian swallowed.
“She designed part of it.”
“The medical system?”
“The psychological profiles.”
Ruiz sat back.
Behavioral compliance.
Spousal influence.
Media vulnerability.
Those columns suddenly made sense.
“Helena was profiling heirs.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She said families were predictable.”
Adrian looked sick.
“She could identify who would break under pressure.”
“Who could be manipulated.”
“Yes.”
“And Elena?”
Adrian stared at the ceiling.
“Helena said Elena’s weakness was loyalty.”
Ruiz’s jaw tightened.
“To you?”
“To everyone.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“She said Elena would stay too long in a bad marriage because she hated disappointing people.”
Ruiz thought of the documents.
The staged instability.
The mistress.
The pressure.
None of it had been random.
They had studied Elena first.
Then built the trap around the person she was.
At St. Vincent’s, Elena heard the same information from Ruiz.
Her face barely changed.
“So my marriage was a psychological experiment.”
“No.”
Ruiz corrected her.
“Your husband made choices.”
“Helena may have exploited them, but Adrian chose every step.”
Elena appreciated that.
She did not want Adrian transformed into another victim.
Ruiz continued.
“Adrian claims Helena helped design Haven.”
“What does Graham say?”
“He doesn’t know we know.”
“And Charles?”
“Same.”
Elena looked out the window.
“Where is Helena?”
“At home.”
“You’re watching her?”
“Yes.”
“Then arrest her.”
“We need more.”
“She shot Adrian.”
“We can’t prove it.”
“She threatened me.”
“We have audio.”
“But no identification.”
Elena was frustrated.
Ruiz understood.
Then his phone rang.
He listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Elena asked.
Ruiz ended the call.
“Camille wants to talk.”
“Why?”
“She heard Vanessa was arrested.”
Elena remembered the woman at the farmhouse.
“Her sister.”
“Yes.”
“What does Camille want?”
“Protection.”
“From Helena?”
Ruiz nodded.
Thirty minutes later, Camille sat in an interrogation room.
No makeup.
No expensive dress.
No dramatic tears.
Her hands shook around a paper cup.
Ruiz entered.
Camille looked at him.
“Is Elena alive?”
“Yes.”
“The baby?”
“Alive.”
Camille lowered her face.
Something close to relief crossed it.
Ruiz sat.
“You pushed her.”
“I know.”
“You could have killed both of them.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get sympathy because you regret it.”
“I’m not asking for sympathy.”
“Then what?”
Camille looked directly at him.
“I’ll give you Helena.”
Ruiz remained silent.
Camille continued.
“But you get Vanessa out.”
“She participated in kidnapping.”
“She didn’t know Margaret was there until afterward.”
“That’s not what we have.”
“She was told to clean the farmhouse.”
Ruiz waited.
“Why did Helena use you?”
Camille laughed bitterly.
“She didn’t use me.”
Camille’s eyes hardened.
“She built me.”
Ruiz frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Camille looked toward the mirror on the wall.
“Helena was my therapist when I was seventeen.”
Ruiz became still.
“She knew my family.”
“My problems.”
“My debts.”
“My relationship with Adrian.”
“You knew Adrian at seventeen?”
“No.”
Camille shook her head.
“Helena introduced us years later.”
Ruiz felt the room change.
Helena had not simply exploited an affair.
She may have created it.
Camille continued.
“She told me Adrian was unhappy.”
“That Elena didn’t understand him.”
“That he needed someone who made him feel admired.”
Ruiz stared.
“You were assigned to him?”
Camille’s face twisted.
“I didn’t realize it at first.”
“When did you realize?”
“Six months ago.”
“Why stay?”
“Because Helena had things on me.”
“What things?”
Camille looked ashamed.
“Financial crimes.”
“Committed by you?”
“Some.”
“And some created by her?”
Camille nodded.
Ruiz leaned back.
“What did Helena want from Elena?”
Camille whispered.
“Not her money.”
Ruiz frowned.
“Then what?”
“Her child.”
Ruiz stopped moving.
May you like
Camille’s voice dropped further.
“The baby was always the real objective.”
