Chapter 5 - PATIENT D.V.
The underground lights switched off.
Lily pressed herself against Emma’s side.
“It’s all right,” Emma whispered, though the words felt dishonest. “I’m going to get us out.”
She turned on her phone flashlight and examined the steel door.
There was no interior handle, only a digital panel requiring a six-digit code.
Emma tried Lily’s birthday.
Denied.
Claire’s date of death.
Denied.
Grant’s birthday.
Denied.
The ventilation fan stopped.
Renata’s voice returned through the speaker.
“You have taken a frightened child into a restricted archive and exposed her to confidential medical material. When Grant sees the security footage, what do you think he will believe?”
Emma looked toward the ceiling.
There was a camera above the filing cabinets.
“You have footage of us entering,” Emma called. “You also have footage of someone locking us inside.”
A soft laugh came through the speaker.
“Footage can be edited.”
Lily pulled the wooden bird from her pocket and struck it twice against the filing cabinet.
Pause.
Three times.
Emma looked at the camera.
Camera two.
Camera three.
The signal was not merely identifying cameras.
It was telling someone which cameras to watch.
Mrs. Cole.
Emma remembered the housekeeper’s claim that the cameras had been installed to know when someone entered Lily’s room.
Perhaps Lily had used the tapping code before.
Perhaps Mrs. Cole monitored it.
Emma lifted Lily toward the camera.
The child tapped twice on the lens housing.
Paused.
Then tapped three times.
Nothing happened.
Renata spoke again.
“Give me the phone and recorder. Place them in the red evidence box. Then stand against the back wall.”
Emma scanned the shelves.
A red box rested near the door.
“What happens after that?”
“You and Lily return upstairs.”
“And the medical files?”
“Not your concern.”
“Who is Patient D.V.?”
Silence.
Emma pressed.
“Why is Lily being tested as an organ donor?”
Renata’s breathing became audible through the speaker.
“She is not.”
“The authorization form says otherwise.”
“It is an outdated preliminary assessment.”
“Signed six days ago?”
Renata did not answer.
The emergency lights flickered.
Lily pointed toward a ventilation grille near the floor.
It was wide enough for a child.
“No,” Emma whispered immediately.
Lily touched the wooden bird to her chest.
Then she pointed at Emma’s phone and the vent.
She wanted to take the evidence through the shaft.
Emma shook her head.
“I’m not sending you alone.”
Lily pointed to the door, then made a locking motion.
She understood they might not both escape.
Emma hated that a seven-year-old had learned to think this way.
A metallic sound came from the corridor.
The digital panel flashed.
ACCESS OVERRIDE.
The door opened.
Mrs. Cole stood outside holding a ring of keys.
“Move,” she said.
Emma grabbed the medical folder and Lily’s hand.
They followed the housekeeper down the corridor.
Alarms began sounding behind them.
“Renata knows you opened the door,” Emma said.
“She will in fifteen seconds.”
“Why are you helping us?”
“Because Eleanor lied to me.”
“About Claire?”
Mrs. Cole did not answer.
They reached a junction.
“Take the left passage,” she said. “It leads beneath the greenhouse.”
“Come with us.”
“I have to erase the camera record.”
“You said the footage could protect Lily.”
“It can also show where she hid the recorder.”
Mrs. Cole pressed a brass key into Emma’s palm.
The same key Lily had used for the locked drawer.
“There is a box in the old boathouse. Claire left it for Grant.”
“Why didn’t you give it to him?”
“Because I believed Claire killed Daniel.”
“Who was Daniel?”
Mrs. Cole looked toward Lily.
“Grant’s brother.”
Footsteps echoed from the archive.
Mrs. Cole pushed Emma toward the passage.
“Go.”
Emma and Lily ran.
The tunnel narrowed as it rose toward the greenhouse. Dust filled the air. Roots broke through the stone ceiling.
Behind them, Renata shouted Mrs. Cole’s name.
A loud impact followed.
Lily stopped.
Emma pulled her onward.
“We can’t help her if we’re trapped too.”
At the end of the passage, they found a rusted ladder leading to a wooden hatch.
Emma pushed it open.
They emerged beneath a potting table inside the greenhouse.
Rain hammered the glass roof.
Emma checked her phone.
No signal.
She led Lily toward the side door.
It was chained shut.
The main entrance opened.
Eleanor stepped inside.
She wore a black coat and held her silver-handled cane.
“You have caused enough disruption,” she said.
Emma moved Lily behind her.
“Did you authorize the medical tests?”
Eleanor’s expression did not change.
“I authorized nothing that would harm my granddaughter.”
“Then explain Patient D.V.”
“I cannot.”
“Cannot or will not?”
“Both.”
Emma held up the photographed form.
“Grant will see this tonight.”
“He will see what he expects to see.”
“That sounds like Renata.”
Eleanor’s eyes hardened.
“Renata is reckless. Do not mistake her actions for mine.”
“You told Mrs. Cole you needed forty-eight hours to complete Lily’s transfer.”
“A financial transfer.”
“Why does it require tissue compatibility testing?”
Eleanor’s gaze shifted toward Lily.
The child was staring at her grandmother with an expression Emma could not read.
Eleanor lowered her voice.
“Because someone has combined two separate files to frighten you.”
“Who?”
“The same person who placed Claire’s recorder where Lily could find it.”
Emma thought of the locked drawer.
“Renata?”
“No.”
“Mrs. Cole?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Eleanor stepped closer.
“Claire.”
Emma stared at her.
“You believe Claire is alive.”
“I believe someone wants Lily to think she is.”
A crash sounded from the underground hatch.
Renata climbed into the greenhouse, her sleeve torn and blood visible along one wrist.
“She attacked me,” she said, pointing back toward the tunnel. “Mrs. Cole has lost her mind.”
“Where is she?” Eleanor demanded.
“In the archive.”
“Alive?”
Renata hesitated.
Emma saw the answer before she spoke.
“I don’t know.”
Lily stepped from behind Emma.
Her face was white.
She raised one hand and pointed at Renata.
Then she touched her own throat.
Renata moved toward her.
“You are confused, sweetheart.”
Lily backed away.
Emma raised the phone.
“Don’t touch her.”
Renata smiled coldly.
“You have no idea what that child has done.”
Eleanor struck the floor with her cane.
“Enough.”
Renata turned on her.
“You promised she would be ready.”
“She is not a package to be delivered.”
“She is the only match.”
The words escaped before Renata could stop them.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Emma looked between them.
“The only match for whom?”
Lily began tapping the wooden bird against her palm.
Four times.
Then once.
Then four times again.
D.
A.
D.
Emma’s blood ran cold.
“Patient D.V.,” she whispered. “Is it Grant?”
Renata laughed.
“No.”
A voice spoke from behind the greenhouse glass.
“Patient D.V. is me.”
May you like
A man stood outside in the rain.
He looked almost exactly like Grant.
