Chapter 5 - The Key Without a Lock
The key was old, narrow, and marked with the number 314.
Rosa stared at it in disbelief.
“I have never seen this before.”
“Which coat were you wearing at the hospital?” Nathan asked.
“This one.”
“Then Elena put it in your pocket.”
“Why would she trust me?”
“Because Claire trusted you.”
Nathan took the key.
A tiny hospital emblem was engraved near the base.
Rosa recognized it first.
“That’s from St. Catherine’s original building.”
The original hospital had been renovated decades earlier. Most of its brass keys had been replaced by electronic cards, but some storage rooms in the lower levels still used mechanical locks.
“Room 314?” Nathan asked.
“There is no patient room 314 in the current building.”
“Could it be a locker?”
“Maybe.”
A violent sound came from the basement.
The intruders were using power tools against the lower barrier.
Nathan checked Lily’s temperature. She was improving, but her hands still trembled.
“Lily, did your mother say anything about the key?”
“She said the person with the bird would know where to go.”
Rosa closed her hand around the hummingbird necklace.
“I don’t know where to go.”
“Think,” Nathan said. “Why a hummingbird?”
Rosa looked at the photograph near the kitchen.
Claire had given her the necklace on the day Rosa became a registered nurse. On the back were engraved three words.
Keep moving forward.
Rosa turned the pendant over.
The engraving was still there.
Beneath the words was a date.
March 14.
3-14.
“Not a room,” she whispered. “A date.”
“What happened on March fourteenth?”
Rosa thought for several seconds.
Then she looked at Nathan.
“That was the night Claire came to the emergency department after meeting a client.”
Nathan remembered it clearly.
Claire had returned home after midnight with a torn sleeve and mud on her shoes. She claimed she had slipped near a parking garage. Nathan had believed her because he wanted to believe her.
Two weeks later, Claire received the medical diagnosis that changed their lives.
She died nine months after that.
“What if she didn’t fall?” Rosa asked.
Nathan did not answer.
A voice sounded through the security monitor as the backup power restored part of the system.
Marcus appeared on-screen again.
“Dr. Mercer, your brother is on his way.”
Nathan went still.
Marcus continued.
“Philip will confirm that the documents in your possession were stolen and altered. He will also confirm that Elena Kane is mentally unstable and legally prohibited from contacting the children.”
Lily shook her head.
“That’s not true.”
Marcus heard her voice through the monitor.
His expression softened immediately.
“Lily, sweetheart, I know you’re frightened. Open the door and bring the babies outside. Your mother has confused you.”
“She told me what you did.”
“Your mother tells stories when she is unwell.”
“She showed me the rooms.”
The softness vanished from Marcus’s face.
“What rooms?”
Lily pulled the blanket closer around herself.
“The white rooms under the hospital.”
Rosa looked at Nathan.
St. Catherine’s had no public underground treatment rooms.
But below the original building was an abandoned service level that had been sealed after a flood.
Nathan had seen the entrance once during a facilities inspection.
Marcus leaned toward the camera.
“Lily, listen carefully. Do not tell them anything else.”
Nathan switched off the microphone.
Marcus continued speaking, unaware that they could no longer hear him.
Rosa touched Nathan’s arm.
“If Elena hid evidence at the hospital, Marcus may already have people searching for it.”
“Then we need the police to reach us first.”
“What if Marcus is right about one thing?”
“What?”
“What if Philip is coming?”
Nathan looked toward the gate.
A fourth set of headlights appeared through the snow.
Unlike the other vehicles, this one stopped at a distance.
The driver stepped out alone.
Even through the storm, Nathan recognized his brother.
Philip Mercer raised both hands toward the camera.
Then he held up a phone displaying a message.
May you like
Do not open the gate.
He is watching my family.
