Chapter 3 - The Man in the Hospital Corridor
Audrey arrived at St. Catherine’s Medical Center eight minutes later.
The emergency entrance was surrounded by security officers and local police. A nurse had been found unconscious in a supply room. Her badge and uniform were missing.
The man who entered Chloe’s treatment room had worn hospital scrubs and a surgical mask.
He had disconnected Chloe’s heart monitor, injected something into her IV line, and attempted to move her onto a transport bed. Chloe had fought him by biting his hand.
A respiratory therapist entered unexpectedly, forcing the attacker to flee.
Chloe survived.
The hospital cameras showed the man leaving through a service corridor, but his face remained hidden. He moved with the confidence of someone who knew the building.
Audrey found Chloe in a guarded intensive-care room.
Her sister’s nose had been reset. A white brace covered the center of her face. Her shoulder was immobilized, and her voice sounded weak beneath the pain medication.
Audrey sat beside the bed.
“I’m sorry.”
Chloe looked at her.
“For what?”
“For not seeing it.”
“You weren’t here.”
“I should have been.”
“You tried.”
Audrey remembered the calls she had made over the years. Chloe always said everything was fine. Evelyn repeated that Chloe wanted independence and disliked interference. Julian insisted he had sacrificed his career to help their mother provide care.
Audrey had believed parts of it because believing was easier than admitting her family might be dangerous.
“Who attacked you?” Audrey asked.
“I don’t know his name.”
“Have you seen him before?”
Chloe nodded.
“He came to the house twice. Julian called him Mr. Gray.”
“What did he want?”
“The key.”
Audrey took the silver key from a sealed evidence pouch.
“This one?”
Chloe’s eyes moved toward the door.
“Put it away.”
Audrey returned it to her pocket.
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know. Dad gave it to me before he disappeared.”
“You were nine.”
“He said it was a game. He told me to hide it where no one could take it.”
“Why did you write that the second key was inside you?”
Chloe looked down at the blanket.
“When I was thirteen, I had surgery after the accident.”
The accident.
That was what the family called the night Chloe became permanently disabled.
She had fallen from the upper landing of the Mercer home and suffered severe spinal and pelvic injuries. Evelyn told police Chloe had been sleepwalking.
Chloe had never contradicted her.
Until now.
“After the surgery,” Chloe continued, “Mom said the doctors put metal in my hip. A plate and screws. But three years ago, I had an X-ray after another fall. The technician asked me why I had a small capsule near the plate.”
Audrey leaned closer.
“What kind of capsule?”
“He didn’t know. Mom came into the room and made him delete the image.”
“Did you see it?”
“Only for a second. It had the same numbers as the key.”
“Three-one-four?”
Chloe nodded.
Audrey felt sick.
“Who caused your original fall?”
Chloe’s lips trembled.
“Julian.”
The answer was quiet.
Certain.
Audrey closed her eyes briefly.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I did.”
“Who?”
“Mom.”
Audrey opened her eyes.
“What did she do?”
“She said Julian was only a boy. She said if I told the police, our family would be destroyed. Then she gave me medicine that made me sleep.”
Chloe stared at the ceiling.
“When I woke up, Dad was gone.”
Audrey took her hand.
“Tell me everything you remember.”
Chloe described an argument near the upstairs study. Thomas Mercer was speaking to a stranger. Julian listened from behind the door. Later that night, Julian demanded to know where their father kept a metal case.
Chloe had seen Thomas hide something beneath a floorboard.
When she refused to show Julian, he pushed her from the landing.
She remembered falling.
She remembered Evelyn kneeling beside her.
And she remembered Julian taking their father’s silver watch from the floor.
“Dad was there?” Audrey asked.
“I don’t know. I heard his voice, but I couldn’t see him.”
“What did he say?”
Chloe swallowed.
“He said, ‘Don’t let them open number three-fourteen.’”
Audrey looked toward the rain-darkened window.
A storage unit.
A bank box.
A room.
The number could identify anything.
“Why did Julian attack you today?”
“He searched my room while I was in the shower. He found the compartment but not the key. I had it taped beneath my chair.”
“He asked where it was?”
“He said Mother told him the second part had been placed in my body. He wanted to cut it out.”
Audrey’s grip tightened around Chloe’s hand.
“Did he have a knife?”
“A small one. He said he could remove the capsule himself.”
Chloe’s heart monitor accelerated.
Audrey pressed the nurse call button.
“You’re safe now.”
“No.”
Chloe’s gaze shifted toward the hallway.
“Audrey, he kept saying they were out of time.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why were they out of time?”
“Because Dad was coming back.”
The door opened.
Officer Ross entered with a hospital administrator.
“We found something,” Ross said.
Audrey stepped into the corridor.
The hospital administrator held a tablet showing security footage. The image displayed the masked attacker near a service elevator.
A second person stood behind him.
A woman wearing a dark coat.
Evelyn.
Audrey stared at the screen.
Her mother was not being held or threatened.
She was speaking to the attacker.
Then she handed him Chloe’s prepaid phone.
Ross lowered his voice.
“We traced the sedan from your mother’s neighborhood. It belongs to a private medical company called Vale Recovery Services.”
“Dr. Samuel Vale?”
“You know him?”
Audrey thought of the unmailed envelopes hidden beneath Chloe’s floor.
“Not yet.”
The elevator doors opened at the far end of the corridor.
A gray-haired man stepped out.
He wore a tailored black coat and carried an old leather medical bag.
He stopped when he saw Audrey.
Then his eyes moved to the guarded door of Chloe’s room.
May you like
“Dr. Samuel Vale?” Audrey called.
The man turned and ran.
