Chapter 7 - The Man in the Dark
Ethan reached the door before it locked.
Someone on the other side pulled with equal force.
Detective Ortiz ordered the person to identify themselves.
The response was the sharp sound of metal striking the doorframe.
Ethan released the handle and moved back just as the door slammed shut. A second later, the electronic lock activated.
They were trapped.
Mara used her phone flashlight while Ortiz called for assistance. No signal reached the room. The walls had been designed to block interference from medical equipment, but Claire suspected the isolation had another purpose.
A ventilation panel above the cabinets clicked.
A low mechanical hum began.
Mara looked upward.
“That system hasn’t worked in years.”
Claire smelled smoke.
Someone had activated the fire suppression unit.
Not water.
Gas.
Ortiz pulled the manual alarm, but nothing happened.
Ethan moved Claire away from the vent and used a metal chair to strike the narrow window in the door. The reinforced glass cracked but did not break.
Claire searched the room.
The patient files had been left for a reason. Whoever trapped them expected the gas to destroy both evidence and witnesses.
Her eyes landed on the scanner.
A heavy power cable ran from the machine into a floor panel. Claire remembered the hospital blueprints she had reviewed during an audit two years earlier. Research rooms had emergency utility passages beneath the raised floor.
“Move the scanner,” she said.
Ethan and Ortiz dragged it aside.
Beneath it was a metal panel large enough for a person to enter. Ethan forced it open.
Cool air rose from below.
Ortiz lowered herself into the passage first. Mara followed with the patient files. Ethan lifted Claire from the wheelchair and carried her to the opening.
“We have to leave the chair,” he said.
Claire hated the thought of abandoning it. The chair had become part of her independence, but it would not fit through the passage.
“Leave it.”
Ethan lowered her carefully into Ortiz’s arms.
The utility passage was narrow and dark. Ethan crawled behind Claire, supporting her body while Mara pulled the evidence ahead.
They reached a maintenance room on the floor below.
As Ortiz opened the door, footsteps ran down the corridor.
She followed.
Ethan remained with Claire until hospital security arrived with another wheelchair.
Minutes later, Ortiz returned holding a torn piece of dark fabric.
“The person escaped through the ambulance bay.”
“Did anyone see a face?” Ethan asked.
“No. But they dropped this.”
The fabric contained a gold thread shaped like part of an embroidered letter.
Mara recognized it.
Senior administrators at Vale Memorial wore formal overcoats during public events. Each coat carried the wearer’s initials inside the collar.
The surviving letter appeared to be R.
There was only one senior administrator whose first name began with R.
Dr. Raymond Cole, Harrow’s deputy director.
Cole had signed Claire’s transfer documents on the night of the accident.
When they searched his office, they found it empty.
His computer had been wiped.
His family had left the country three days earlier.
On his desk was a framed photograph of the Vale Foundation’s first medical board. Richard Vale stood in the center.
Beside him were Julian Harrow, Raymond Cole, and a much younger Celeste.
Ethan picked up the photograph.
“My father founded Northstar with them.”
Claire studied Richard’s hand.
He wore the Vale crest ring.
But the date printed beneath the photograph was six months after the family records claimed the ring had been placed in the vault.
Celeste had lied about when the ring was stored.
Before Ethan could confront her, Claire’s phone rang.
The caller identification displayed her own number.
Ethan answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“You found fifteen files.”
Ethan looked toward the evidence boxes.
“Who are you?”
“You should be asking why there were only fifteen completed patients.”
Ethan’s grip tightened.
“What do you want?”
“Patient sixteen.”
Claire placed a protective hand over her belly.
The voice continued.
“Bring us the original Northstar ledger, or your daughter will enter the program before she takes her first breath.”
The call ended.
Claire looked at Ethan.
“What ledger?”
Ethan did not answer.
For the second time that night, Claire saw guilt in her husband’s face.
May you like
This time, she knew exactly what it meant.
Ethan had heard of the ledger before.
