The Brother Behind Glass
Chapter 06 - The Brother Behind Glass
Gabriel’s first court appearance drew national attention.
Reporters crowded the steps, shouting questions about Evelyn, the stolen millions, and his disappearance. Victor stood before the cameras and asked the public to respect Owen’s privacy.
Inside, federal prosecutors requested detention.
The original case against Gabriel included his fingerprints on transferred funds, blood in the burned car, and a witness who claimed to see him force Evelyn into her vehicle.
Nora gave Owen copies of the suitcase evidence.
He handed them to Gabriel’s public defender.
The judge found the new material substantial enough to suspend the old warrant while investigators reviewed possible fabrication. Gabriel was released with monitoring conditions.
Owen waited outside the courtroom.
“I heard the tapes,” he said.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“You heard her crash.”
“There was a man afterward. He said she was alive.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
For nineteen years, he had believed Evelyn died in the river. The possibility of survival did not bring immediate hope. It brought the horror of imagining what happened next.
Owen showed him the invoice.
Gabriel recognized the facility name: St. Arden Recovery Center, a private hospital financed by one of Malcolm’s trusts.
It closed seventeen years earlier after a fire destroyed the records wing.
They drove to the abandoned site.
Most buildings had been demolished, but the old east wing remained behind a chain-link fence. Room 408 overlooked a courtyard filled with weeds.
Inside the room, wallpaper peeled from damp plaster. A rusted bed frame stood beneath the window.
Gabriel found four lines scratched into the underside of the sill.
NORTH IS HOME.
FOUR NOTES BEFORE THE SONG.
OWEN WAS HERE.
I AM NOT ELAINE.
Owen touched the words.
Only his mother would know the first two phrases.
Nora searched property records. When St. Arden closed, long-term patients were transferred through a company called Haven Medical Logistics.
Haven belonged to Horizon Relief.
One patient, Elaine Ward, was sent to a private facility in Switzerland.
Payments continued for twelve years.
Then the name disappeared.
The final payment had been authorized by Victor Vale.
Gabriel looked at Owen.
“She may still be alive.”
Owen wanted to believe him.
Belief had already betrayed him once.
May you like
He answered carefully.
“Then we find the woman in room 408.”
