Chapter 4 - THE LOCKED FLOOR
Claire was transported to St. Catherine’s Hospital under police protection.
Dr. Patel rode in the ambulance with her while Hannah carried the sealed samples.
The baby’s heartbeat remained steady but showed brief periods of slowing whenever Claire’s blood pressure rose.
“You’re going to feel people moving around you quickly,” Dr. Patel said. “That does not mean the baby is in immediate danger. We’re being careful.”
Claire nodded.
“What did Daniel mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“He said people made my mother disappear.”
“Right now, we focus on stabilizing you.”
Claire looked through the rear windows.
An unmarked police car followed behind them.
Beyond it, a black sedan turned onto the same road.
Claire watched it for three intersections.
“Is that car with the police?”
Dr. Patel looked back.
The sedan slowed and disappeared behind a delivery truck.
“I’ll tell Detective Ortiz.”
At the hospital, Claire was taken through a private entrance and admitted to a restricted maternity floor.
No visitors were permitted.
A guard stood outside her room.
Nurses connected monitors to her stomach and arm. Blood was drawn repeatedly. An intravenous line delivered fluids and medication.
Dr. Patel consulted with a toxicologist named Dr. Aaron Bell.
He examined the test results and frowned.
“This compound doesn’t have a commercial designation.”
“Could it be an illegal drug?” Claire asked.
“It appears to have been designed for a clinical purpose.”
“What purpose?”
“To suppress a very specific immune response.”
Dr. Patel crossed her arms.
“Pregnancy-related?”
“Possibly.”
“What would happen if she suddenly stopped taking it?”
Dr. Bell looked toward the fetal monitor.
“That depends on why someone started giving it to her.”
Claire’s phone had been taken as evidence, so Ortiz provided a secure replacement.
At seven that evening, the detective entered carrying a thin folder.
“We searched your house.”
Claire sat higher in the bed.
“What did you find?”
“Multiple containers of powdered compounds in a locked refrigerator in the basement.”
“I didn’t know we had a refrigerator in the basement.”
“It was behind a false wall.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“What else?”
“Medical files.”
“Mine?”
“Yours and your mother’s.”
Claire opened her eyes.
“My mother’s medical records were in Daniel’s house?”
“Some appear to predate your marriage.”
Ortiz opened the folder.
“There are also photographs.”
She placed one on the bed.
The image showed Claire at age eight standing outside an elementary school.
Another showed her at twelve.
Another showed her entering college.
Each photograph had been taken from a distance.
“Daniel and I didn’t meet until I was twenty-seven.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Someone connected to his family had been monitoring you for years.”
Claire studied the photographs.
In several, a black car appeared in the background.
“Did Evelyn take them?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where are Daniel and Evelyn?”
“Daniel is cooperating selectively. Evelyn requested an attorney and has refused to speak.”
“Are they under arrest?”
“Evelyn is being held for suspected poisoning and evidence tampering. Daniel’s status depends on what we can prove.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
The monitor alarm sounded.
A nurse entered and helped her breathe through the contraction.
After it passed, Ortiz leaned closer.
“There’s something else.”
She placed a photocopy of a medical document on the blanket.
The heading read:
PROJECT EVE
SUBJECT A-17
MATERNAL LINEAGE STUDY
At the bottom was the name Amelia V. Rowe.
Claire felt cold despite the heated room.
“What is Project Eve?”
“That’s what we’re trying to determine.”
“Who created the document?”
“The institution listed on the original no longer exists. It was called Bellwether Reproductive Research Center.”
Claire recognized the name.
“My father donated money to Bellwether.”
Ortiz’s expression sharpened.
“How do you know?”
“I saw it on his tax records when I handled his estate.”
“Your father died three years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Natural causes?”
“Heart failure.”
Ortiz wrote something down.
“Did he ever discuss your mother’s work?”
“She was a biochemist. He said she quit after I was born.”
The lights flickered.
The fetal monitor turned black.
A second later, emergency lights activated.
The guard outside shouted.
Dr. Patel rushed into the room.
“Backup power should have switched instantly.”
From the hallway came the sound of metal striking metal.
Then silence.
Ortiz drew her weapon.
“Stay behind the bed.”
The door handle moved.
Someone on the other side used a key card.
The door opened.
A hospital orderly stepped inside wearing a mask and pushing an empty wheelchair.
Ortiz aimed at him.
“Hands where I can see them.”
He stopped.
Then he raised one hand.
On his finger was a silver ring shaped like a coiled serpent.
Claire stared at it.
The orderly looked directly at her.
“Your mother is alive.”
He reached into his pocket.
Ortiz shouted for him to stop.
He pulled out a photograph and threw it onto the floor.
Then he bit down hard.
His body convulsed.
By the time Dr. Patel reached him, he was dead.
Ortiz picked up the photograph.
It showed a woman standing beside a hospital window.
Older.
Thin.
But unmistakable.
Claire’s mother.
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On the back, someone had written:
SHE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR THE CHILD.
