Chapter 9 - THE NURSE’S DEBT
Her name was Rebecca Sloan.
She had cared for Nancy through surgery, adjusted her medications, and stroked her hair when she woke frightened.
I had trusted her because Nancy trusted her.
Detective Vega pulled Rebecca’s employment file.
She had worked at the hospital for eleven years with no disciplinary record. Divorced. One child, a seventeen-year-old son named Mason.
Mason had disappeared six months earlier.
Rebecca told coworkers he had entered a residential treatment program for substance abuse. The facility listed on his leave paperwork was Crescent Ridge.
When Vega called, Crescent Ridge denied ever admitting him.
Rebecca had lied.
Or someone had forced her to.
A traffic camera located the stolen transport van heading east on Interstate 8. Police units moved toward Alpine while air support searched the winding roads beyond El Cajon.
I demanded to go.
Vega refused.
“You’re a target and a potential suspect. Stay here.”
“My daughter will be terrified.”
“Your presence in an active recovery operation could get her hurt.”
She was right, which made the order unbearable.
Brandon paced the security room.
For the first time, his panic looked real.
“If Mom took Nancy, she won’t hurt her.”
I turned on him.
“She fed her thirty-six magnets.”
“She may have been trying to make her sick, not kill her.”
The distinction revealed too much.
Vega stepped closer. “How would you know her intent?”
Brandon stopped pacing.
Leonard Price answered for him. “He’s speculating under extreme emotional distress.”
“No,” I said. “He’s remembering what she told him.”
Brandon rubbed both hands over his face.
“She said Nancy needed to be hospitalized. That was all.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the cameras.
“Because the trust required medical incapacity before a temporary financial guardian could be appointed.”
My father’s trust contained a provision allowing a guardian to manage Nancy’s medical expenses if she became incapacitated.
But the money could only be accessed for her care.
Unless invoices were falsified.
Brandon’s company supplied equipment to hospitals and residential facilities. Crescent Ridge could generate bills. Brandon could approve vendors. Evelyn controlled the family investment partnership.
The pieces aligned.
“You were going to steal from your daughter.”
“No. Mom said it was temporary. She said the company had a cash-flow problem and the funds would be replaced.”
“How many magnets did you think she would give Nancy?”
His silence answered.
I stepped closer.
“You heard Nancy say it hurt.”
His face crumpled for an instant.
“I panicked.”
“You left her in that room.”
“I went back.”
“When?”
“After Mom called and said Nancy had thrown up.”
“Why didn’t you call 911?”
“Because she said if the police came, she’d tell them I planned everything.”
Vega’s phone rang.
The transport van had been found abandoned near an access road outside Alpine.
There was blood on the rear floor.
A child-sized hospital bracelet had been cut in half.
The bracelet belonged to Nancy.
No one was inside.
Then an officer searching the van discovered Rebecca’s phone beneath the driver’s seat.
The last outgoing message had been sent to an unknown number thirty seconds before the van stopped.
I HAVE THE GIRL. RELEASE MASON NOW.
The reply contained a photograph.
A teenage boy sat tied to a metal chair in a windowless room.
Behind him stood Evelyn.
The photograph’s metadata showed it had been taken six months earlier.
Rebecca had not abducted Nancy for money.
She had traded her for the son she believed was still alive.
A new message appeared on Rebecca’s phone while police held it.
MASON WAS NEVER AT CRESCENT RIDGE. ASK BRANDON WHERE HE BURIED HIM.
May you like
Every person in the room turned toward my husband.
📖 Read Brandon’s explanation for Mason’s disappearance—and why his company vehicle contained soil from an unmarked desert grave in CHAPTER 10. 👇
