Chapter 4 - A DETECTIVE’S VERSION OF THE TRUTH
Marcus arrived at
St.Jude’s at 8:17 the following morning.
He wore a dark suit and carried a paper cup of coffee. He had removed
his badge from his belt and clipped it inside his jacket, a small
gesture meant to make him look like a worried husband instead of a
police officer on official business.
Hospital security stopped him at the lobby desk.
“I’m here to see my wife.”
“She’s not accepting visitors.”
“I’m her emergency contact.”
“She’s requested that you not be admitted.”
Marcus smiled. “She’s confused. She’s been having episodes.”
The guard asked him to wait while he called the charge nurse.
Marcus used the pause to take out his phone. He sent Adeline a message.
I KNOW YOU’RE THERE. STOP MAKING THIS WORSE.
No reply.
He sent another.
You don’t want strangers involved in our marriage. Come home and we’ll
talk.
Still nothing.
Then a woman in a navy coat crossed the lobby. Nora Bell introduced
herself and asked Marcus to accompany her to a conference room.
He recognized the title on her identification.
“Public Integrity,” he said. “What a surprise.”
“Detective Prescott.”
“Is my wife here?”
“I’m not discussing her location.”
“I’m her husband.”
“And I’m asking you about a report you filed yesterday claiming she may
have taken a weapon magazine.”
Marcus leaned back. “I couldn’t find it.”
“Was the magazine registered to your service weapon?”
“It’s department property.”
“Did you notify your supervisor?”
“I filed a report.”
“After or before you told the missing-person desk that your wife might
have it?”
Marcus’s expression tightened. “Are you accusing me of something?”
“I’m asking about the sequence.”
He stood. “You can talk to my attorney.”
“You’re free to leave.”
Marcus did. He walked out without raising his voice. The lobby camera
recorded the entire exchange.
At the hospital, Adeline had heard that he was there. Her hands shook so
badly that Patrice helped her hold a cup of water.
“He’ll come back,” she said.
“He may try. We have a safety plan.”
“He knows how to get into places.”
“Not this one.”
Adeline looked at the closed door. “He always says no one will believe
me because he is the one people call when they need help.”
Patrice sat beside her. “We believe what the evidence shows. And we’re
listening to you.”
Later, Nora returned with Daniel Cho. She explained that the state had
secured a preservation order for Marcus’s department email and dispatch
records. The digital examiner had also confirmed that the phone
contained a series of messages from Marcus, but they would not use the
lock-screen preview alone as proof. The full extraction would be
documented and reviewed.
Adeline asked whether she could see the messages.
“Only if you want to,” Nora said.
“I want to know what he wrote.”
The examiner had recovered dozens of messages. Some were ordinary:
reminders about groceries, complaints about traffic, a photograph of a
restaurant receipt. Others were threats.
You don’t get to keep money from me.
I know where you work.
If you tell anyone, I’ll say you attacked me.
The last message had arrived minutes before Adeline collapsed.
Bring the cash. Don’t make me come there.
Adeline read it once and pushed the phone away.
“That’s enough.”
Nora closed the report.
“There’s something else,” Daniel said. “Your husband used his department
credentials to search your name and the restaurant’s address several
times over the last month.”
Adeline looked up. “Why?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Elias, who had been waiting in the corridor, heard the last part as he
approached. He stopped outside the room.
Nora noticed him. “Mr.Baron, you need to stay out of the
investigation.”
“I am.”
“Your people have been asking questions around the precinct.”
Elias’s expression did not change. “I told them to stop.”
“Tell them again.”
He nodded once.
After Nora left, Adeline asked Elias to come in.
“Did you send anyone to follow Marcus?”
“No.”
“Would you?”
He did not answer immediately. “The old version of me might have.”
“And the new version?”
“The version standing here knows that if I make this about revenge,
Marcus gets to call himself the victim.”
Adeline studied him. “You don’t have to pretend you’re a good man.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why help me?”
“Because I know what it looks like when someone powerful expects the
world to look away.”
He glanced at the door, then back at her.
“And because you deserve a choice that isn’t made by fear.”
Adeline looked at the message report again.
For years, Marcus had made every decision sound inevitable. Maybe it was
time she began asking who had given him that authority.
Marcus did not return to the precinct after leaving the hospital. He went to a private gym, showered, and spent twenty minutes sitting in his car with the engine off. He had expected Adeline to call him by now. She always called after he raised his voice. Sometimes she apologized. Sometimes she promised to bring home the money. Either way, the silence usually lasted less than a day.
This silence was different.
He opened the department system and searched for hospital admissions under Adeline's name. The system returned no result. He tried the emergency department's public number and was told that staff could not confirm patient information.
He called his partner, Detective Sean Rourke.
“Have you heard anything?” Marcus asked.
“About what?”
“My wife.”
Rourke paused. “You filed a missing-person report.”
“She's not at home.”
“Then maybe she's somewhere safe.”
Marcus's jaw tightened. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Just saying.”
“Did someone from the state call you?”
“Not yet.”
Marcus ended the call.
He then contacted Peter Lasky, the former evidence clerk. Lasky did not answer. Marcus sent a short message: We need to talk about the old files. Do not use your work phone.
Across town, Nora Bell received a notification that Marcus had accessed Adeline's hospital search history through a department terminal. The access had occurred after he had been warned not to seek her location.
Nora forwarded the log to Daniel.
“That's not a husband looking for a missing person,” Daniel said.
“No,” Nora replied. “That's an officer using a restricted system after being told to stop.”
They issued a preservation request for the terminal logs and contacted the department's internal affairs division. The department's deputy commissioner agreed to suspend Marcus's database access while the review proceeded.
When Marcus learned that his credentials had been disabled, he called the deputy commissioner and demanded an explanation. He was told to direct all questions to counsel.
For the first time, he was not able to use his badge to make a door open.
At the hospital, Adeline heard none of this. She was asleep while Dr. Evans adjusted her pain medication and Patrice arranged the safe property retrieval. When she woke, she asked whether Marcus had called.
“Several times,” Patrice said. “You don't have to listen to the messages.”
“I want them saved.”
“That's a good choice.”
Adeline thought about the word choice. For years, Marcus had described her choices as evidence of disloyalty. Now the word was being returned to her, one small decision at a time.
She asked Patrice to bring the notebook.
Beneath the sentence she had written the day before, she added: I do not have to answer every call.
Rourke eventually called Nora Bell and requested an interview. He said he had noticed Marcus taking cash from a sealed property envelope months earlier, but had convinced himself it was a bookkeeping mistake. He had not reported it. He also admitted that Marcus had asked him to enter a false note in the dispatch log on the night Adeline collapsed.
Nora did not promise him immunity. She told him to bring his attorney and tell the truth.
When Daniel informed Adeline, she asked whether Rourke would be charged.
“That depends on what the evidence shows and what the prosecutor decides,” he said.
Adeline nodded. “I don't want anyone punished just because they knew him. I want them to stop lying.”
Daniel wrote that down. It was the clearest statement of what she wanted.
The next morning, Marcus's attorney sent a formal request for Adeline's employment records, medical history, and financial statements. Nora objected to the breadth of the request and asked the court to require a clear connection to the charges. Adeline was frightened by the list, especially the request for her counseling records.
Patrice explained that she did not have to surrender private medical information simply because the defense asked for it. The prosecutor filed a motion to protect the records, and the judge limited disclosure to material directly relevant to the case.
May you like
Adeline read the ruling twice. It was the first time she had seen a court say that her privacy mattered even when someone powerful wanted access to it.
Before the interview ended, Rourke asked whether Adeline would be willing to identify the voice in a recorded call. She said yes, but only after Nora explained the process and confirmed that the recording would be played in a controlled setting. Adeline wanted the truth documented, not turned into a spectacle.
