Adeline was still alive.
And they’d allowed me to come home.
PART 2: THE WARNING FROM A DYING WOMAN
Constance Voss was still smiling when two military police officers stepped out of the elevator.
Her smile disappeared when they walked directly toward me.
“Major Calloway,” the taller officer said. “Your secure communication has been established.”
Constance folded her arms. “You brought soldiers into my daughter’s hospital?”
“No,” I replied. “I brought people your money can’t order around.”
Detective Granger suddenly grabbed my elbow.
“Major, there’s something I didn’t put in the report.”
He slipped a small evidence bag into my hand. Inside was Adeline’s broken wedding necklace.
“She was clutching this when the paramedics arrived. The evidence technician was ordered to discard it.”
“Ordered by whom?”
Granger looked toward Constance. “The district attorney.”
Before I could respond, an alarm erupted inside Adeline’s room.
Doctors rushed past us. I turned and saw her heart monitor flashing.
“Her blood pressure is crashing!” a nurse shouted.
I ran toward the glass, but Dr. Pike blocked the doorway.
Then Adeline’s eyes opened.
Just for a second.
Her trembling fingers lifted toward me, and she mouthed three words through the breathing tube.
I couldn’t hear them, but I understood the last two.
“Not… Bethany.”
Behind me, Constance suddenly screamed, “GET HIM OUT OF HERE!”
And that’s when I noticed the bloodstained scratch marks on her youngest daughter’s wrist.
PART 3: THE SEVENTH DAUGHTER’S SECRET
Bethany Voss ran before anyone could question her.
I caught up with her near the hospital’s emergency stairwell.
“Bethany! Stop!”
She spun around, tears streaming down her face.
“I didn’t hurt Adeline,” she whispered. “I tried to save her.”
“Then tell me who did.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. They didn’t attack her because she married you.”
My stomach tightened.
“They attacked her because of what she found.”
Bethany pulled a tiny flash drive from inside her jacket.
“Adeline discovered Voss Aeronautics was falsifying inspection records on military aircraft. She copied everything.”
I stared at the drive.
“How many aircraft?”
“Forty-three. And three have already crashed.”
Before I could speak, footsteps echoed behind us.
Vivian appeared at the stairwell entrance with two men wearing hospital security uniforms.
“Bethany,” she said coldly, “Mother wants you downstairs.”
Bethany grabbed my arm.
“Those aren’t hospital employees!”
One man reached beneath his jacket.
I shoved Bethany behind me and slammed the emergency door against his approaching arm.
A metallic object clattered onto the stairs.
Then my secure phone vibrated with a message from military investigators.
MAJOR CALLOWAY — YOUR WIFE’S ATTACK WAS RECORDED. THE FOOTAGE SHOWS SEVEN WOMEN ENTERING YOUR HOUSE. ONLY SIX LEFT.
I slowly turned toward Bethany.
She was staring at the message, trembling.
Then she whispered, “Wesley… you need to know what happened to our eighth sister.”
PART 3: THE YOUNGEST DAUGHTER’S SECRET
Bethany Voss ran before anyone could question her.
I caught up with her near the hospital’s emergency stairwell.
“Bethany! Stop!”
She spun around, tears streaming down her face.
“I didn’t hurt Adeline,” she whispered. “I tried to save her.”
“Then tell me who did.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. They didn’t attack her because she married you.”
My stomach tightened.
“They attacked her because of what she found.”
Bethany pulled a tiny flash drive from inside her jacket.
“Adeline discovered Voss Aeronautics was falsifying inspection records on military aircraft. She copied everything.”
I stared at the drive.
“How many aircraft?”
“Forty-three. And three have already crashed.”
Before I could speak, footsteps echoed behind us.
Vivian appeared at the stairwell entrance with two men wearing hospital security uniforms.
“Bethany,” she said coldly, “Mother wants you downstairs.”
Bethany grabbed my arm.
“Those aren’t hospital employees!”
One man reached beneath his jacket.
I shoved Bethany behind me and slammed the emergency door against his approaching arm.
A metallic object clattered onto the stairs.
Then my secure phone vibrated with a message from military investigators.
MAJOR CALLOWAY — YOUR WIFE’S ATTACK WAS RECORDED. THE FOOTAGE SHOWS SEVEN WOMEN ENTERING YOUR HOUSE. SIX LEFT TOGETHER. ONE LEFT ALONE.
I slowly turned toward Bethany.
She was staring at the message, trembling.
“That was me,” she whispered. “I’m the one who left alone.”
She looked up, and the fear in her eyes had changed into something older.
“But Wesley, Adeline wasn’t the first Voss daughter to find those records. You need to know what happened to Corinne.”
PART 4: THE SISTER THEY NEVER MENTION
The two men in the stairwell never got the chance to finish what they’d started.
The metallic object on the steps was a collapsible baton. The man who’d dropped it was still clutching his forearm when the stairwell door banged open behind me and the two military police officers came through it at a run. They had him on the landing in seconds. The second man tried to bolt downward and met a third MP coming up.
I didn’t watch. I kept my body between Bethany and the door.
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
“No.” Her voice cracked. “Wesley, please. I have to tell you everything before they get to me. My mother has people who can make a witness disappear into a psychiatric hold. She’s done it before.”
I looked at the taller MP, Sergeant Ortiz. “Secure this stairwell. Nobody comes through. And I want someone from Army CID on the phone.”
“Already on it, sir.”
I sat Bethany down on the cold concrete steps. Up close, she looked about twelve years old: pale, shaking, her sleeve pushed up to show the scratch marks. She wasn’t wearing makeup, and her pearl earrings were gone. One earlobe was torn.
“Tell me about Corinne,” I said.
“She was the oldest,” Bethany began. “Eleven years older than me. She was a test engineer at Voss, probably the only honest person who ever worked there. When I was a kid she’d take me to the hangar on Saturdays and let me sit in the cockpit of the trainers. She said airplanes were the only machines that never lie to you.”
