Chapter 7 - THE RED BOTTLE
Rosa knew where Christine kept the red bottle.
“In the locked cabinet beside the wine cellar,” she told Laura. “Mrs. Ellison calls it her wellness cabinet. Mr. Ethan changed the lock last week.”
Miriam warned them not to enter the house without legal authority. Instead, she sought a preservation order. Before the judge signed it, the mansion’s security system reported a basement water leak. A cleanup company removed six boxes and the entire cabinet.
Ethan was erasing the room while obeying the letter of the law.
Rosa followed the cleanup truck from a distance. It drove not to a disposal facility but to an Ellison Diagnostics warehouse. She photographed employees unloading a red insulated case.
At the hospital, Emma asked for water and called for Laura. Her improvement made Laura almost forget the conspiracy—until the supervised transfer to Christine’s home.
Christine arrived with the cream blanket freshly laundered.
“She sleeps better with familiar things,” she said.
Laura examined the repaired seam. “Where is what you took from it?”
Christine’s expression remained perfectly smooth. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Emma said you gave her red drops.”
“Emma also says the moon follows the car.”
“If she gets sick in your house again, I will tear apart every lie you built.”
Christine leaned close. “You are already tearing yourself apart, dear. We are merely letting people watch.”
Laura’s supervised access ended. She stood behind the hospital’s glass doors while Ethan carried Emma away.
Emma reached over his shoulder. “Mommy!”
Laura followed until security stopped her.
That night, Rosa called from the warehouse parking lot. “They’re moving the case again.”
A crash sounded through the phone.
“Rosa?”
The connection remained open. Laura heard a man order Rosa out of her car, then the line went dead.
Police found Rosa’s vehicle abandoned with the driver’s door open. Her phone lay smashed beneath a tire. There was no blood, no sign of where she had gone.
Ethan called fifteen minutes later.
“Your housekeeper trespassed on company property,” he said. “Security detained her.”
“Let her go.”
“Sign the proxy.”
Laura put the call on speaker for Miriam, but Ethan laughed.
“Record me if you want. Rosa was caught stealing proprietary drugs at your request. Her written statement will say so.”
“She would never sign that.”
“Everyone signs when the alternative is worse.”
The call ended.
Miriam contacted police and obtained the warehouse incident report. It claimed Rosa attacked a guard and fled with a sample case.
The final page contained a witness signature.
May you like
Christine Ellison.
She had been waiting at the warehouse before Rosa arrived.
