The police questioned Michael for hours.
Eventually, he admitted that he had been worried about Emma’s headaches.
He had given her a small amount of a sedative twice.
But he insisted he had never given her the medication found in her blood.
Then investigators discovered something unexpected.
Emma wasn’t the only child on the list.
The other five children had all been patients at the same hospital.
All had complained about headaches.
All had been given routine neurological examinations.
And all had parents connected to the same research program.
The detective looked at me.
“Your daughter may not have been targeted because of your husband.”
“Then why?”
He placed a folder on the table.
“Because of you.”
I stared at him.
“Me?”
“You worked in the hospital’s pediatric unit.”
“Yes.”
“Six months ago, you reported irregularities in patient medication records.”
I remembered.
Several doses had disappeared from the system.
I had reported it.
The hospital told me it was probably a computer error.
But it hadn’t been.
Someone had been stealing medication.
And now that person knew I had noticed.
PART 7 — The Hidden Camera
That evening, police returned to our house.
They searched every room.
Under the kitchen table.
Inside the vents.
Behind picture frames.
Then an officer found something inside the smoke detector in Emma’s bedroom.
A tiny camera.
I stared at it in horror.
Someone had been watching my daughter.
The detective carefully removed it.
“How long has this been here?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I looked at Michael.
He shook his head.
“I didn’t put that there.”
The detective turned it over.
There was a serial number.
The same manufacturer used by the research company.
My hands began trembling.
Someone had been monitoring our family.
Then the detective received a phone call.
He listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He ended the call.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The woman with the red hair has been identified.”
“Who is she?”
He looked at me.
“She used to work at your hospital.”
My stomach dropped.
“What was her job?”
The detective paused.
“She was a research nurse.”
I suddenly remembered her.
A woman who had left the hospital six months earlier.
A woman who had once accused me of interfering in her work.
Her name was Claire Morgan.
PART 8 — Claire
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