Chapter 7 - The Officer Who Closed the Case
Captain Lawson entered Chloe’s room after Audrey asked to speak with him.
He removed his hat and stood near the door.
Audrey positioned herself between him and the bed.
“Chloe believes you visited her house last month.”
Lawson looked at Chloe.
“She may have seen me checking on her mother.”
“Why?”
“Evelyn reported suspicious vehicles near the property.”
“There’s no record of the call.”
“Informal visit.”
“You led the investigation when my father disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You concluded he left voluntarily.”
“All evidence supported that conclusion.”
“What evidence?”
“Financial trouble. A packed suitcase. Withdrawals from a private account.”
Audrey took out the cassette player.
“We found a recording.”
Lawson’s eyes moved toward it.
Only once.
But Audrey saw the recognition.
“What kind of recording?”
“My father said he was in danger.”
“People under financial pressure often become paranoid.”
“He named Samuel Vale.”
Lawson’s jaw tightened.
“He accused Evelyn of helping a human experimentation program.”
“That is a serious allegation.”
“Do you deny knowing about Project 314?”
Lawson looked toward the camera in the corner of the room.
Then he reached for his radio.
Audrey drew her weapon.
“Keep your hands where I can see them.”
The officers outside moved immediately.
Mara entered with two state investigators.
Lawson raised his hands.
“This is a mistake.”
“Your access credentials were used during the jail attack,” Mara said.
“My credentials?”
“An administrative override assigned to your command profile opened the service tunnel.”
Lawson looked genuinely surprised.
“That is impossible.”
“Your profile also accessed Chloe’s sealed hospital location.”
“I was assigned to the security detail.”
“You assigned yourself,” Audrey said.
Lawson stared at her.
The room remained silent except for Chloe’s monitor.
Then Lawson lowered his voice.
“If I wanted your sister dead, she would already be dead.”
Audrey stepped closer.
“That is not a defense.”
“It is the truth.”
“Then tell us the rest.”
Lawson looked at Chloe again.
“I went to the house because Evelyn contacted me. She said Julian was losing control.”
“You knew he was abusing Chloe?”
“I suspected.”
“And you did nothing?”
“I was trying to prevent something worse.”
Chloe laughed bitterly, then winced from the pain in her nose.
“What could be worse than him trying to cut me open?”
Lawson’s expression shifted.
“He knew about the implant?”
“Yes.”
“Then Vale has started the recovery protocol.”
Audrey kept her weapon aimed.
“What is the recovery protocol?”
“Anyone with knowledge of Project 314 is removed. Records are destroyed. Assets are consolidated.”
“Removed means killed?”
“Usually.”
“Who runs it?”
“I never knew.”
Mara stepped forward.
“You helped bury Thomas Mercer’s case.”
Lawson nodded slowly.
“I was told Thomas stole classified research and intended to sell it overseas. I believed stopping him protected the country.”
“You falsified evidence.”
“I moved a suitcase into his office. I approved false witness statements. I allowed Evelyn to identify blood recovered from his vehicle as his, although no DNA comparison had been performed.”
Audrey’s anger became almost impossible to contain.
“You let us believe he abandoned us.”
“I thought he was dead.”
“You never looked for him.”
“I was ordered not to.”
“By whom?”
“A man from Argus Meridian. His name was Adrian Kessler.”
Mara checked her phone.
“There’s no current record.”
“There wouldn’t be. Kessler did not exist in the usual sense. He used different identities.”
Lawson reached slowly into his coat.
Audrey tightened her grip.
“Two fingers.”
He removed an old metal token and placed it on the bedside table.
The divided-circle symbol was engraved on its face.
“I was told to keep this in case Thomas contacted me.”
“What does it do?” Audrey asked.
“It opens the outer security gate at the old Mercer campus.”
Chloe stared at the token.
“You knew where they took me.”
Lawson’s eyes filled with regret.
“I drove you there once.”
Audrey nearly struck him.
Instead, she forced herself to ask:
“Why?”
“Evelyn said the treatment might help you walk again.”
“I wasn’t disabled then,” Chloe whispered.
Lawson looked confused.
“No. You were.”
Chloe shook her head.
“The trials happened before the fall.”
Lawson’s face changed.
The truth reached him slowly.
“The fall was not the beginning,” Audrey said.
“No,” Chloe answered. “It was the punishment.”
A loud knock came from the observation window.
Officer Ross signaled urgently.
Audrey stepped into the corridor.
A statewide alert had located Evelyn’s vehicle near the abandoned Mercer campus. Traffic cameras showed Julian in the passenger seat.
“They’re going to the facility,” Ross said.
“Where is Vale?”
“Unknown.”
Audrey looked through the glass at Chloe.
The project required three access elements.
The key.
The implant.
Chloe’s neural pattern.
Evelyn and Julian had only one of them.
Unless the attack at the hospital had accomplished something Audrey had not yet discovered.
She checked Chloe’s medical chart.
During the attempted abduction, the masked attacker had connected a small device to her IV monitor for forty-seven seconds.
Audrey returned to the room.
“Chloe, did you feel anything before he tried to move you?”
“The pressure.”
“Did you see numbers?”
“Yes.”
“What numbers?”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“Five. Nine. Two. Zero.”
Lawson went pale.
“What?” Audrey asked.
“That is not a coordinate.”
“What is it?”
“The Helix replication code.”
May you like
Chloe’s neural pattern had been copied.
They no longer needed her alive.
