Chapter 6 - The Wine Cellar
Vanessa agreed to meet us at an all-night diner near the highway.
Marcus arrived first and checked every entrance.
Nora and I sat in the rear booth beneath a security camera.
Vanessa entered twenty minutes late.
She wore jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, and no makeup.
Without designer clothes and Daniel beside her, she looked younger than I remembered.
She slid into the booth and placed a plastic prescription bottle on the table.
The label had been removed.
Nora did not touch it.
“Where did you get this?”
“Daniel’s office.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Vanessa kept looking toward the windows.
“He called me after the bank.”
“He was furious.”
“He blamed me for using the wrong box number.”
“It was his mistake,” I said.
“I know.”
“He copied it from a note in your desk.”
Vanessa pushed the bottle toward us.
“He told me to bring these to the estate.”
“What happened next?”
“Evelyn told him not to panic.”
“She said they still had Sunday night.”
A chill moved through me.
“What was supposed to happen Sunday night?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with shame.
“There’s a board dinner at the estate.”
“Daniel said you would come back if he apologized.”
“He planned to tell everyone you were confused but recovering.”
“Dr. Shaw was going to be there.”
Nora leaned forward.
“What were the pills for?”
“I don’t know.”
“Daniel said they would make Claire disoriented.”
“He said Dr. Shaw would handle the rest.”
I remembered the wine cellar beneath the estate.
Daniel had renovated it the previous year.
One section had no windows and a door that locked from the outside.
At the time, he said the room needed controlled temperature and additional security.
Now I wondered what else he had planned.
“Why help us?” I asked.
Vanessa wiped her face.
“Because I overheard Evelyn telling Daniel that I knew too much.”
“She said after Sunday, they should send me somewhere.”
“Where?”
“She didn’t say.”
Nora asked Vanessa to provide her phone and access to her email.
Vanessa hesitated.
“You’ll see messages between Daniel and me.”
“That is the point,” Nora said.
“You’ll see everything.”
I looked at Vanessa.
“Did you love him?”
She stared down at the table.
“I loved who he pretended to be.”
I understood that better than I wanted to.
Vanessa unlocked her phone.
There were hundreds of messages.
Some were romantic.
Some discussed foundation accounts.
Others referred to me by a name that made my stomach turn.
The Patient.
One message from Daniel read:
The Patient must sign before Monday.
Another read:
If she refuses, Shaw will certify.
Then we found a photograph taken inside the wine cellar.
A narrow bed had been placed against the wall.
Medical restraints were attached to its frame.
Vanessa covered her mouth.
“I didn’t know about that.”
Nora forwarded the image to herself.
“Who took this photograph?”
Vanessa looked at the message details.
“It came from Evelyn.”
May you like
Under the photograph, Evelyn had written six words.
This is where Claire finally becomes manageable.
