Chapter 8 - Havenridge
Liam concealed the note before Vance entered the consultation room.
“Who was meeting you?” she asked.
“A relative of one of the women from Room 614.”
“Name?”
“Claire Dunning.”
Vance’s expression sharpened.
“Amanda Dunning’s sister?”
“You know her?”
“She filed complaints after Amanda’s death. Then she disappeared.”
“She was just here.”
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
Vance looked at the open door.
“Did she give you anything?”
Liam hesitated.
The silver ring glinted on her hand.
He placed the memory card into his pocket.
“No.”
Vance studied him.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m protecting a witness.”
“From me?”
“From whoever warned Ethan before the Lake Ashford raid.”
Her face hardened.
“You think I did that?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
Vance removed the ring.
Inside the band were engraved initials.
A.D.
“This belonged to Amanda Dunning,” she said.
Liam said nothing.
“She gave it to me three days before she died. I was the detective who took her first report.”
“You said your former husband was the reason you understood these cases.”
“He was.”
“You didn’t mention Amanda.”
“Because her case destroyed my career.”
Vance closed her hand around the ring.
“I believed her. I prepared a warrant. Before it was approved, someone leaked the investigation. Amanda was taken to Havenridge. She died the next morning.”
“Why are you still wearing her ring?”
“To remember what hesitation cost.”
Liam removed Claire’s note and placed it on the table.
Vance read it.
“She doesn’t trust you.”
“She shouldn’t trust anyone.”
“Did you leak the warrant?”
“No.”
“Can you prove that?”
“No.”
The fire alarm stopped.
Hospital security announced that the activation had been caused by smoke in an empty stairwell.
A diversion.
Someone had known Claire was speaking to Liam.
Vance closed the door.
“What did she give you?”
Liam handed her the memory card.
Together, they watched the recording on an offline computer.
Amanda Dunning appeared weak and heavily medicated.
She was wearing a pale hospital gown.
A male voice spoke from behind the camera.
“Tell us why you’re here.”
“Because I lied about my husband.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
“Did he steal money from your family?”
“No.”
“Were you confused?”
“Yes.”
The voice sounded calm.
Liam recognized it.
Ethan.
Amanda continued repeating denials until another man entered the frame.
Dr. Vale.
He injected something into her intravenous line.
The recording ended.
Vance stared at the black screen.
“This was taken at Havenridge.”
“Then we raid it.”
“Havenridge closed eighteen months ago.”
“Where were the patients moved?”
“There are no records.”
Liam searched public property databases.
The Havenridge Recovery Center had operated under a parent company called HRC Wellness.
HRC Wellness dissolved after Amanda’s death.
Its equipment and patient accounts were purchased by a new company.
New Dawn Behavioral Care.
New Dawn owned a private facility forty miles north of Boston.
The property’s security system had been installed by a contractor partially owned by Northstar.
Vance requested a warrant.
This time, she shared the location with only three trusted officers.
Liam was ordered to remain at the hospital.
He ignored the order.
He and Rachel drove behind the police convoy but stopped a mile from the facility.
New Dawn appeared peaceful from the outside.
A brick building stood among pine trees. White curtains covered the windows. A sign near the gate promised privacy, healing, and renewal.
Police entered shortly after sunset.
They found twelve patients.
None was Sophia.
Most appeared sedated.
Several insisted they were staying voluntarily.
One woman grabbed Vance’s arm and whispered, “They move the difficult ones below.”
The building plans showed no basement.
A search team found a concealed elevator behind the laundry room.
It descended to an underground corridor.
Six locked rooms lined the walls.
Five were empty.
Inside the sixth, police found a blue dress stained with blood.
Sophia’s dress.
Liam recognized it from the last family photograph she had sent him.
Beside the dress lay a broken necklace.
Their mother’s necklace.
Liam picked it up with gloved hands.
“She was here.”
Vance examined a security monitor.
The hard drive had been removed.
A staff member named Nora Price was missing.
Records showed she had left thirty minutes before the raid.
Vance ordered roadblocks.
In one of the underground rooms, Rachel discovered writing scratched into the wall.
SHE HEARD THE NAME MERCER.
Beneath it were four letters.
E C J M.
Liam touched the marks.
“Ethan Cole. Charles Mercer. Julia Mercer.”
“What does the J mean?” Rachel asked.
Liam looked again.
“Maybe it isn’t Julia.”
Vance found a patient transfer sheet in a shred bin.
Only part of the page remained intact.
Patient S.C.
Transferred under emergency guardianship.
Authorized by E. Cole.
Receiving physician: Dr. L. Bennett.
Liam stared at his own printed name.
“That’s impossible.”
Vance turned toward him.
“The document says you authorized Sophia’s transfer.”
“I never signed it.”
At the bottom of the page was his signature.
Perfect in every detail.
Rachel looked frightened.
“If they can forge Liam’s authorization, where did they take her?”
Vance read the destination code.
“SMH.”
Liam’s face went pale.
May you like
St. Matthew’s Hospital.
Sophia had been brought back to the one place no one thought to search.
