Chapter 6 - The Doctor Who Had No License
Emergency lights illuminated the library in red.
Marcus pursued Dr. Halden through the corridor while Lena remained beside Alistair and Nellie.
The cameras continued recording.
“Stay here,” Lena ordered.
Alistair ignored her and moved toward the door.
A crash sounded near the rear entrance.
Seconds later, Marcus spoke through Lena’s radio.
“He’s gone. A vehicle was waiting beyond the service gate.”
“Can you identify it?”
“Plates were covered.”
The main lights returned.
Beatrice stood beside the fireplace, still composed.
“You brought him here,” Alistair said.
“I did not.”
“He was hiding in your home.”
“This estate employs more than forty people.”
“People do not enter your library carrying medical cases without permission.”
Beatrice turned to her attorney.
“This conversation is over.”
Alistair took out his phone.
“No, it isn’t. I’m suspending you from every Vale Meridian board position effective immediately.”
“You cannot remove the chairwoman without a vote.”
“I can initiate an emergency vote, and after tonight’s broadcast, every director will support it.”
“You are acting emotionally.”
“My mother stole my son.”
“You do not know that.”
“I know you signed his transfer.”
Beatrice looked toward Nellie.
“This is what you wanted. You wanted to enter this house and turn him against me.”
Nellie’s voice remained quiet.
“I wanted my child.”
Alistair ordered the estate security system preserved and gave Lena authority to provide recordings to the police.
Beatrice did not attempt to stop him.
That worried Nellie more than anger would have.
By midnight, Site 14 had been surrounded by investigators and reporters.
The structure above ground had been replaced by a luxury hotel, but the original basement remained beneath an adjacent parking facility.
The brass key opened a rusted locker behind a sealed maintenance wall.
Inside were inspection reports, photographs of defective support brackets and a small cassette recorder wrapped in plastic.
There was also a hospital identification band.
The printed name had faded, but the number matched Sawyer’s neonatal record.
Nellie held it carefully.
“He was here.”
Alistair stared at the band.
“Why would they bring a newborn to a construction basement?”
“Maybe they didn’t,” Tessa said. “Someone could have hidden the band afterward.”
Lena found a second envelope behind the locker’s metal panel.
It contained employee payment records and a photograph of Dr. Halden standing beside Beatrice and the administrator of St. Matthew’s Hospital.
On the back, Conrad had written three words.
Ask Miriam Cole.
Tessa searched the name.
“Miriam was the nurse present during Sawyer’s birth.”
Nellie nodded.
“She told me he was healthy.”
“She resigned the next day.”
“Can you find her?”
Tessa studied the screen.
“There’s a Miriam Cole registered at an assisted living residence outside the city.”
They arrived the following morning.
Miriam was eighty-one and used an oxygen tube, but her eyes remained clear.
When she saw Nellie, she covered her mouth.
“I prayed you would find him.”
Nellie sat beside her.
“You knew he lived.”
Miriam began to cry.
“I tried to tell you.”
“Where did they take him?”
“Dr. Halden ordered me to prepare the child for transfer. The paperwork said he was being moved to a neonatal center.”
“Which center?”
“There was no name. Only a code.”
Miriam asked for an old wooden box from her closet.
Inside were handwritten notes, a photograph and a copy of a transfer label.
The code read MR-01.
“Meridian Relief,” Alistair said.
Miriam nodded.
“I followed them to the service elevator. Mrs. Vale was waiting with a social worker. She said the mother had surrendered the child.”
“I never surrendered him,” Nellie said.
“I know. I challenged the form. Dr. Halden threatened to report that I had administered the wrong medication during delivery.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“I was afraid. Then my husband became ill. An envelope arrived with enough money to pay for his treatment. There was no message.”
Alistair looked away.
His family’s money had purchased another silence.
Miriam handed Nellie the photograph.
It showed Sawyer wrapped in a blue blanket before the transfer. His eyes were closed, and a paper card rested beside him.
Baby Sawyer Carter.
Nellie pressed the photograph to her chest.
“Was he adopted?”
“I believe so.”
“By whom?”
Miriam hesitated.
“There was a couple waiting near the ambulance entrance. The woman called the baby Samuel.”
Tessa leaned closer.
“Did you hear their surname?”
“No.”
“Anything else?”
“The man wore a Harbor County Fire Department jacket.”
Alistair immediately called his investigation team.
Miriam touched Nellie’s hand.
“There is something more.”
Nellie looked at her.
“The medical report claiming Sawyer died was not signed only by Dr. Halden.”
“We saw Beatrice’s authorization.”
“Not that page. Another page.”
“What was on it?”
“A consent order approving the private placement.”
“Who signed it?”
Miriam looked toward Alistair.
“Your father.”
Alistair’s face emptied.
“My father believed Nellie had left me.”
“He visited the hospital the night Sawyer was taken.”
“That’s impossible. He never mentioned her.”
“He argued with Beatrice in the corridor. I heard him say, ‘You promised no one would be hurt.’”
Nellie gripped the edge of her chair.
“What did that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Miriam reached back into the wooden box.
The final document was gone.
Only an empty folder remained.
On its cover, someone had written a date.
Three days from now.
May you like
Beneath the date was an address in Harbor County and a message.
Bring Nellie alone if you want the truth about Sawyer.
