Chapter 13 - The Floor That Did Not Exist
St. Catherine Medical Center officially had twelve floors.
The elevator control system contained a hidden thirteenth level accessible only with Diane’s key card.
Mara obtained emergency authorization while a federal fraud team secured the hospital’s records. Connor and Amy were told to remain behind.
They refused.
At 5:40 in the morning, the elevator doors opened onto a silent corridor.
There were no room numbers.
No nurses’ station.
Only six locked rooms and a surveillance camera that turned away as they stepped out.
Ross disabled the camera.
The first four rooms were empty.
The fifth contained medical equipment, recent food containers, and restraints fixed to the bed frame. No patient remained.
Amy stopped outside the final door.
A woman was singing softly inside.
The melody was the lullaby Evelyn used to sing when Amy was a child.
Amy pressed the key card to the reader.
The door unlocked.
An older woman sat beside the window wearing a pale hospital gown. Her hair was gray at the temples, and her body looked weak from prolonged confinement.
She turned.
Amy saw her own eyes.
“Rose?” she whispered.
The woman stood unsteadily.
“Amy.”
Connor caught Amy’s arm as she moved forward.
Rose began crying without sound.
“I thought he killed you.”
Amy crossed the room and embraced her.
For a few seconds, every question disappeared.
Then Rose pulled away and looked toward the officers.
“We need to leave. Malcolm checks the cameras every morning.”
“The system is secured,” Mara said.
“No system is secure if he designed it.”
“Where is Malcolm Vale?”
Rose looked at Connor.
“With Thomas.”
Connor stepped forward.
“My father helped keep you here?”
“Thomas helped me escape the first time. He did not help Malcolm.”
“The warehouse had his name everywhere.”
“Because Malcolm uses the names of people he owns, frames, or kills.”
“Why did Thomas call us?”
“To keep you away from this floor.”
“That sounds like he works for Malcolm.”
“He was afraid Malcolm would move me before you arrived.”
“Why didn’t he tell us where you were?”
“Because he does not know whom to trust.”
Amy remembered Evelyn’s warning about the police.
“Who brought you here?”
“My sister.”
“Helena?”
Rose nodded.
“She told me Amy had died. She said Malcolm would release me after I signed the trust transfer.”
“Did you sign?”
“No.”
Rose looked toward the hallway.
“But they do not need my signature anymore. Malcolm created a complete identity for Helena. By noon, she will legally become me.”
Mara checked her phone.
“The bank transfer is still frozen.”
“The bank is not the real target,” Rose replied.
“What is?”
“The coastal property beneath the trust.”
Amy frowned.
“It is an abandoned parcel.”
“It sits above the largest undeveloped lithium deposit in the region. Malcolm discovered it before Evelyn created the trust. The mineral rights may be worth billions.”
Connor stared at her.
“This was never about forty million dollars.”
“No. The house deed, your company, the death records, all of it was designed to place the mineral rights in Malcolm’s control.”
An alarm sounded in the corridor.
Ross checked the elevator.
“It’s been recalled to the lobby.”
Mara ordered the officers to move Rose toward the emergency stairs.
The stairwell door would not open.
Every lock on the floor engaged simultaneously.
A voice came through the ceiling speaker.
“Rose,” Malcolm said, “you have disappointed me again.”
Amy looked up.
“You lost.”
Malcolm laughed softly.
“You still think this building contains the only Rose Ward.”
A screen illuminated on the wall.
It showed Helena standing inside a courtroom beside an attorney. She wore the blue ring and held a temporary judicial order.
The judge signed the document.
Mara read the text visible on the screen.
The order recognized Helena as Rose Ward and granted her emergency control over the trust assets.
At the bottom, a second order authorized police to detain Amy Hayes.
The charge was identity fraud.
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In Malcolm’s version of the world, the dead woman had returned under a false name.
And the real Amy had become the criminal pretending to be her.
