Page 72 of Fatal Fame
"There's something else," she said as Noah prepared to leave. "Whoever set this up knew exactly what they were doing. They knew Gideon would contact me, knew we'd go out there alone, knew how to make it look like an accident. This wasn't opportunistic—this was planned by someone with inside knowledge of the investigation."
Noah ran his hand over her hair with the gentle touch of a father who'd nearly lost his daughter to forces he didn't fully understand. He looked like he wanted to say something—probably another lecture about staying away from dangerous investigations—but instead he simply nodded.
"We'll figure it out," he said finally. "But right now, you need to focus on healing. The doctors want to keep you for observation for at least another day to make sure there's no internal bleeding or concussion complications."
“Before you go. How did Ethan find us?"
Noah's expression grew complicated in a way that suggested there were aspects of the rescue he wasn't ready to discuss. "He'llexplain when he gets here. Right now, he's dealing with some things at home."
Hugh placed a hand on Noah's shoulder. "We should let her rest. The bones aren't going anywhere, and she needs time to recover."
As her father and grandfather prepared to leave the room, Mia felt the morphine pulling her back toward unconsciousness. But even as sleep approached, her mind continued processing the events at Hemlock Hollow Farm, trying to understand who had orchestrated the trap and why they'd been willing to kill to protect secrets that had been buried for a decade.
The skeletal remains of Travis Rudd represented more than just evidence of his death, they were proof that the Hale murders involved a conspiracy sophisticated enough to eliminate witnesses and manipulate investigations. Someone with access to law enforcement resources had been protecting the real killers for ten years, and that same someone had just tried to eliminate the two people who'd gotten closest to the truth.
In the hallwayoutside Mia's room, Noah and Hugh stood in the kind of uncomfortable silence that followed family arguments without clear resolution. The hospital corridor bustled with the controlled chaos of medical staff, visitors, and the electronic sounds of equipment that never rested.
"She's not going to stop," Hugh said finally, stating what both men already knew.
"I know," Noah replied, staring at the bones in his hand. "That's what scares me."
"Then maybe it's time to stop fighting her instincts and start protecting her by working with her instead of against her."
Noah looked at his father, recognizing unwelcome truth. "These bones could be the evidence that breaks the case wide open. But they also could make her a target for people who've already killed to protect their secrets."
"Then solve this fast," Hugh said. "Before they get another chance at her."
26
The late afternoon sun slanted through the hospital room windows, casting long shadows across linoleum floors that had been mopped countless times but still carried the institutional smell of disinfectant and human suffering. Mia lay propped up in her adjustable bed, her broken arm immobilized in a cast that felt heavier with each passing hour. The morphine had worn off enough for her thoughts to clear, but not enough to eliminate the constant ache that reminded her how close she'd come to dying in an abandoned well.
The room felt too quiet. Noah and Hugh had left to handle the bone evidence, taking with them their protective energy. Now she was alone with her thoughts, processing the implications of what had happened at Hemlock Hollow Farm and trying to understand it all.
A knock at the door interrupted her brooding. She glanced over to see Sergeant Anita Emerson. "Ah, there she is," Anita said, approaching the bed with genuine concern. "How are you feeling, Mia?"
"Anita?" Mia was familiar with most personnel from the Adirondack County Sheriff's Office through years of visitingher father at work, but Emerson's presence here seemed unexpected. "As good as I can be.” Mia was puzzled. “Why are you here?"
"The office needs your official statement about what happened out there. You know, how you knew about the location, what you found, what you remember about the incident. It’s just protocol." Anita paused, studying Mia's face. "And, of course, I wanted to check up on you personally. Make sure you're okay. That was quite an ordeal you went through. They're saying the blogger may not pull through. It's touch and go. Still in a coma."
"Yeah," Mia said, feeling guilty about Gideon's condition despite knowing she wasn't responsible for what had happened to him.
Anita looked at her with an expression that seemed oddly calculating. "Oh, by the way, I received the bones from your father. Clever that you kept some for backup. Good thinking. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it? Who knows, maybe they'll be a match for Travis Rudd."
"Wait. He gave those to you?" Something in Mia's stomach tightened with unease.
"Of course. All evidence has to be logged before it’s processed. The county has jurisdiction over that farmland where you were found." Anita looked around the room as if cataloging its contents. "So, about that statement. What do you remember about the incident?"
Mia closed her eyes for a moment, trying to organize her thoughts. "Heading out to the farm with Gideon. Climbing into the well. Finding the skeletal remains. Then falling when I was climbing back out. I heard a commotion. Like Gideon was fighting with someone. Then after that, Gideon being pushed into the well. Someone placing the wooden cover back over the well opening."
"Did you see who put the cover back?"
"No. I just saw the wood being shifted into place."
"Are you sure?" Anita's question carried an intensity that seemed disproportionate to the information being gathered.
"Positive."
Anita picked up Mia's bag of clothes from the bedside chair, examining it with professional interest. "Were you wearing these when it happened?"
