Chapter 4
The hospital kept my mother for three days.
Broken wrist.
Three fractured ribs.
Dislocated shoulder.
Grade one concussion.
Bruises that covered nearly forty percent of her body.
Dr. Martinez documented every single one.
Photographs.
Measurements.
Timelines.
He knew exactly what kind of case this was.
"She was struck multiple times with a long, cylindrical object," he told me in the hallway outside her room.
"The pattern matches a baseball bat almost perfectly."
"She's lucky to be alive. One swing higher and we'd be having a very different conversation."
I stared through the glass at my mother.
She was sleeping.
Her arm in a cast.
Her shoulder wrapped.
Her face still swollen and purple.
Lucky.
That word tasted like ash.
Lucky was getting to breathe when someone had tried to beat you to death.
Lucky was surviving the betrayal of your own son.
I pulled out my phone.
The inspection team.
I'd sent the message at 3:14 a.m.
They were due in six days.
I called Director Chen.
She answered on the first ring.
"Clara. I got your message. What the hell is happening in Westbridge?"
"Police corruption," I said. "Family connection. Captain Thomas Landry is the ringleader."
"His niece assaulted my mother with a baseball bat. Landry had Mom arrested instead. Officers turned off body cameras. Evidence room was left unsecured."
Chen was quiet for a long moment.
"Your mother?"
"Yes."
"Then we move the inspection up."
"Tomorrow morning."
I blinked.
"You can do that?"
"I can do whatever I want when Special Counsel to the AG calls with evidence of a cover-up."
"Have your people ready," she said. "We hit them at 0800. Full forensic audit. Every server. Every camera. Every file."
"And Clara?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't go back in there alone."
I hung up.
The next call went to Agent Torres.
My lead investigator.
He'd been with me since the beginning.
The only person I trusted completely in these situations.
"Torres. I need you in Westbridge."
"Pull everything on Captain Thomas Landry. Financials. Disciplinary record. Every complaint filed against him in the last ten years."
"And I want his niece. Brooke Vance. Married to Arthur Carter. My brother."
"Start digging. I want to know everything about her. Every job. Every address. Every person who's ever crossed her path."
"On it," Torres said. "Anything else?"
"Find the bat."
"Landry had nearly three hours to make it disappear. It won't be easy."
"Nothing worth finding ever is."
I sat in the hospital chair beside my mother's bed.
She stirred.
Her eyes fluttered open.
"Clara?"
"I'm here."
She tried to sit up and winced.
"Easy. Don't move."
She settled back against the pillows.
Her eyes found the cast on her arm.
Tears welled up.
"She really did it, didn't she?"
I nodded.
"Yeah, Mom. She really did."
"And Arthur..."
Her voice cracked.
"I know."
She stared at the ceiling.
"I just keep replaying it in my head," she whispered.
"I went over to drop off the anniversary gift. For their third year."
"Brooke was waiting by the door. She had the bat behind her back."
"She said... she said I was never going to interfere in her marriage again."
"Then she swung."
"Arthur came running from the kitchen. I thought... I thought he'd help me."
She stopped.
Swallowed hard.
"He just stood there, Clara. He just watched."
I held her hand.
The one that wasn't broken.
"I know."
"Why didn't he do anything?"
The question hung in the air.
I didn't have an answer.
Not one that would make it hurt less.
"I don't know, Mom."
"Was I too hard on her?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"Did I push him away?"
"No."
"Then why?"
Because Arthur had always been weak.
Because Brooke had isolated him from everyone who loved him.
Because it was easier to let his mother get beaten than to stand up to his wife.
Those were the answers.
But I couldn't say them.
Not yet.
"We'll figure it out," I said instead.
"Right now, you just need to heal."
She closed her eyes.
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
"I don't think I can ever look at him again."
That was the moment I understood.
This wasn't just about justice anymore.
It was about saving what was left of my family.
Even if that meant cutting out the parts that were already dead.
Torres called back three hours later.
His voice was tight.
"You're going to want to sit down for this."
"I'm already sitting."
"Brooke Vance. Born Brooke Landry. She's got quite a history."
"Three previous restraining orders. All from former romantic partners."
"Two arrests for domestic violence. Both dropped. Guess who was the investigating officer both times?"
"Landry."
"Bingo. And it gets better."
"She worked as a nursing assistant for seven years. Fired from three different facilities for 'patient neglect' and 'unexplained injuries.'"
"One elderly woman under her care died under suspicious circumstances. Case was closed as natural causes."
"Landry was the one who signed off on the police report."
My blood ran cold.
"She's done this before."
"Multiple times. And every single time, her uncle made it go away."
"There's more. Your brother. Arthur. He filed for divorce six months ago."
I sat up straight.
"What?"
"Papers were filed in March. Then suddenly withdrawn in April."
"Financial records show Brooke opened a new bank account two weeks before the withdrawal. Large cash deposit. Source unknown."
"Also... Arthur started seeing a therapist around the same time. Then suddenly stopped."
I thought about Arthur at the precinct.
The way he wouldn't look anyone in the eye.
The way he flinched when Brooke spoke.
He wasn't just weak.
He was scared.
"Torres, I need you to find that therapist."
"And I need you to talk to every one of Brooke's ex-partners. Every single one."
"Someone's going to talk. They've just been waiting for someone who would actually listen."
"Already on it."
I hung up.
My mother was sleeping again.
I looked at her.
At the woman who had given me everything.
Brooke had done this before.
To partners.
To patients.
To an elderly woman who might have been murdered.
And my brother had married her.
Brought her into our family.
Let her do this to his mother.
I pulled out my phone.
Texted Chen.
Bring everything. We're going to need it.
Then I texted Torres.
Find the bat.
And whatever else Landry has been burying for the last twenty years.
Outside the hospital window, the sun began to set.
Tomorrow morning, the inspection team would arrive.
And everything Brooke and Landry had built...
May you like
Everything they had hidden...
Would come crashing down.
