Chapter 4 - Dr. Voss
Daniel stepped in front of Claire.
Dr. Samuel Voss remained outside the elevator as though they had met by coincidence in a grocery store rather than inside a storage facility at seven in the morning.
He was older than the photograph.
But not much different.
Silver hair.
Thin mouth.
Measured eyes.
The kind of man who had spent his career convincing frightened people that his calmness meant he must be reasonable.
“Move,” Daniel said.
Voss looked past him at Claire.
“And this must be the new mother.”
“Do not speak to my wife.”
Voss gave a gentle smile.
“There’s the temper.”
Daniel felt Claire grip the back of his coat.
That sentence was deliberate.
Everything about Voss was deliberate.
Daniel forced his hands open.
“You have ten seconds to move before I call the police.”
“Of course.”
Voss stepped aside.
The elevator doors closed.
Only when they reached the lobby did Claire breathe.
“He wanted you angry.”
“I know.”
“He wanted cameras to record you threatening him.”
Daniel looked toward the ceiling.
A security camera pointed at the elevator.
Claire was right.
By the time they reached the parking lot, Daniel understood the first rule of fighting people like this.
Every reaction could become evidence.
They drove directly to the police department.
Detective Maria Alvarez met them in a small interview room after an officer photographed Claire’s cheek.
Daniel gave Alvarez the bottle footage, the custody documents, Michael’s letter, and the text messages.
Alvarez watched the nursery recording twice.
“What happened to the bottle?”
“My mother took it.”
“Any idea what was inside?”
“No.”
“Did the baby show symptoms?”
Claire answered.
“He gets unusually sleepy sometimes after Evelyn visits. Twice he refused to feed afterward.”
Alvarez wrote something down.
“When was his last examination?”
“Four days ago.”
“Take him again today. Ask for toxicology.”
Daniel told her about Voss.
Alvarez stopped writing.
“Samuel Voss?”
“You know him?”
“I know the name.”
She didn’t explain.
That worried Daniel.
Alvarez excused herself.
Twenty minutes later, she returned with another detective and a warning.
“Dr. Voss has spent thirty-eight years as a forensic psychiatrist. He’s testified in hundreds of custody cases.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“That doesn’t make him innocent.”
“No. It means we need evidence stronger than suspicion.”
Daniel slid Michael’s documents across the desk.
“These are almost identical.”
Alvarez studied them.
“Your father accused them of conspiring?”
“Yes.”
“Was there ever an investigation?”
“I don’t know.”
Alvarez looked at Michael’s letter.
Then she said something Daniel had not expected.
“Your father is alive.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
Alvarez turned her computer screen toward him.
“Michael Andrew Walker. Seventy-one. Registered address in northern Wisconsin.”
The room became silent.
Daniel’s mouth went dry.
“My mother told me he died in 2012.”
“He renewed a driver’s license last year.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Daniel stared at the photograph on the screen.
Older.
Bearded.
But unmistakably Michael.
His father.
Alive.
Alvarez leaned back.
“If you contact him, don’t tell anyone where he is.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to reopen something.”
She pulled an old database record onto the screen.
In 2001, Michael had filed a criminal complaint alleging coordinated fraud, falsified medical records, unlawful surveillance, and attempted poisoning.
The complaint had been closed within nine days.
The investigating officer?
Captain Arthur Bell.
One of the names on the back of the Covenant photograph.
Daniel felt the room tilt.
“So the person investigating the Covenant was in the Covenant.”
“That is what your father claimed.”
Claire whispered, “And nobody listened.”
Alvarez’s jaw tightened.
“We’re going to listen now.”
Leo’s pediatrician, Dr. Priya Shah, agreed to examine him immediately.
The blood test results took hours.
Claire paced the hospital room.
Daniel held Leo and tried not to imagine every possible outcome.
Finally, Dr. Shah returned.
Her face was serious.
“We found something.”
Claire stopped moving.
“What?”
“Phenobarbital.”
Daniel stared.
“That’s a seizure medication.”
“Yes.”
“Leo doesn’t take seizure medication.”
“I know.”
Claire sat down hard.
“How much?”
“Not enough to cause an emergency at the moment. But enough that it didn’t happen accidentally.”
Daniel felt rage surge through him.
Dr. Shah continued.
“In an infant this young, repeated exposure can cause extreme drowsiness, feeding problems, respiratory depression, and worse.”
Claire began crying silently.
Daniel kissed Leo’s forehead.
His son made a tiny sound.
Alive.
Safe for the moment.
Alvarez arrived at the hospital shortly afterward.
With toxicology results, the case changed.
An arrest warrant was requested for Evelyn.
But when officers reached her apartment, she was gone.
Her closet had been partially emptied.
Her computer was missing.
So were several boxes from the garage.
On the dining table sat one envelope.
Daniel’s name was written across the front.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
You always were your father’s son.
Below that was an address in Wisconsin.
Daniel immediately called Alvarez.
“She knows where Michael lives.”
Alvarez swore softly.
“We need to reach him first.”
Daniel booked the earliest flight north while Claire stayed with Leo under hospital observation.
Before leaving, he stood beside Claire’s bed.
“I don’t want to leave you.”
“You need to find him.”
“What if this is bait?”
“It probably is.”
Daniel looked at her.
Claire managed a tired smile.
“Then don’t walk into it alone.”
Alvarez arranged for a Wisconsin state investigator to accompany him.
Daniel landed after dark.
Snow covered the roads.
The address led to a small cabin near a frozen lake.
No lights.
No car.
Daniel approached with Investigator Grant Miller.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, a lamp had been knocked over.
A chair lay on its side.
There were drops of blood near the kitchen.
“Mr. Walker?” Miller called.
No answer.
Daniel noticed a photograph on the mantel.
Himself at age nine.
Michael had kept it.
Then they heard a sound beneath the floor.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Three more.
Daniel and Miller found a cellar door hidden beneath a rug.
Miller drew his weapon and opened it.
Michael Walker looked up from the darkness.
His forehead was bleeding.
His wrists were tied.
When Daniel stepped into view, the old man stared at him as though seeing a ghost.
“Danny?”
Daniel’s throat closed.
“Dad.”
Michael began to cry.
But before Daniel could reach him, Michael said the words that changed everything again.
“You have to get back to Claire.”
Daniel froze.
Michael struggled against the rope.
“Your mother isn’t trying to take your son.”
May you like
His eyes filled with terror.
“She’s trying to take Claire.”
