Chapter 3 - The Silver Bird on His Lapel Led Us to a Dead Man’s Office
We drove to an abandoned office building near the river.
Damon insisted I stay in the car.
I refused.
"Someone took my mother."
"And someone already hurt you."
"That doesn't make me helpless."
He looked at my splint.
Then opened the door for me.
Inside, dust covered the reception desk.
A blue bird was etched into the glass.
Damon said his father once owned the property.
He had closed the company after an internal investigation.
"Investigation into what?"
"Missing medical funds."
We found a records room behind a false wall.
Boxes lined the shelves.
Each carried a hospital name.
Saint Vincent's was among them.
I opened one with my good hand.
Inside were payment records and patient photographs.
My mother's name appeared twice.
One file listed her as a beneficiary.
Another listed her as a witness.
"Witness to what?" I asked.
Damon turned a page.
"A charity account that never reached patients."
A floorboard creaked behind us.
Matteo raised his flashlight.
An elderly janitor stood in the doorway.
"I told them those files would come back," he said.
His name was Samuel Ortiz.
He had worked here twenty years.
He recognized my mother's photograph.
"She refused to sign the false records."
"Who made them?"
Samuel's eyes filled.
"Your employer's father wasn't the only one involved."
He handed Damon an envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Preston Caldwell.
Beside Preston stood a much younger Damon.
I stared at the picture.
"You knew him?"
Damon's jaw tightened.
"I knew his brother."
May you like
Samuel shook his head.
"Then you still don't know who runs it."
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