Chapter 4 - The Man Who Never Raised His Voice
I should have gone to the police.
That was what every sensible person would have done.
Instead, at 9:15 p.m., I stood outside a private restaurant on the Chicago River with a photograph in my pocket and a growing suspicion that I had wandered into somebody else's nightmare.
A black sedan pulled up beside me.
The rear window lowered.
Adrian Vale sat inside.
"You came," he said.
"I came to ask how you got a photograph of my apartment."
"I didn't take it."
"Then why do you have it?"
"Because the man who took it works for someone who wants you dead."
He said the words without raising his voice.
That frightened me more than shouting would have.
I folded my arms.
"You can't just send strange men to my workplace and expect me to trust you."
"I don't expect you to trust me."
"Wonderful."
"I expect you to stay alive long enough to understand what's happening."
I almost laughed.
"Do you always talk to people like they're employees?"
"Only when they're ignoring a threat."
He opened the car door.
I didn't move.
"Who's Grace?"
For the first time, something inside Adrian's expression shifted.
It wasn't anger.
It was grief, buried so deeply that I might have missed it if I hadn't spent years watching people struggle to conceal pain.
"My younger sister."
"Was she a nurse?"
"She was a medical student."
"What happened to her?"
"She died at St. Catherine's three years ago."
The answer struck me with unexpected force.
I remembered the hospital's brief announcement about a tragic accident involving the daughter of a major donor. I had been a new nurse then, working a different rotation.
"They said it was a car accident."
"They said many things."
He looked toward the river.
"Grace discovered that certain patients were being admitted under false identities. Their medical records disappeared. Some left the hospital alive. Others never left at all."
My hands grew cold.
"The patient this morning?"
"Thomas Bell worked for my family. He helped Grace investigate what was happening. Then he disappeared."
"And Dr. Mercer?"
Adrian looked directly at me.
"Has he mentioned Grace to you?"
I said nothing.
His jaw tightened.
"Emma, I need you to understand something. The people responsible for her death have spent three years making sure nobody asks the right questions."
"Then take your information to the police."
"I tried."
"And?"
"Two detectives disappeared. Another was found with enough evidence planted on him to destroy his career. The investigation was closed."
He leaned forward.
"The police are not one organization, Miss Reed. Some officers protect people. Others protect their profits."
I hated that his words made sense.
He handed me a card.
"Whatever you found, don't bring it to the hospital. Don't use your personal phone to contact anyone involved. And don't go to Raven Pier."
I pulled the note from my pocket.
"Someone invited me there."
His expression turned utterly still.
"What time?"
"Eleven-thirty."
He checked his watch.
"It's ten-fifteen."
"How reassuring."
He handed the note to the man sitting beside him.
Within seconds, the man was speaking quietly into a phone.
Adrian looked back at me.
"I'm going to ask you one question. Answer honestly."
"All right."
"Did Thomas Bell give you anything besides that note?"
"No."
It was technically true.
I had found the note, not received it.
Adrian studied me long enough to make me uncomfortable.
Then he nodded.
"Good. Because if they believe you have the ledger, they'll stop threatening you and start hunting you."
I felt my stomach drop.
"What ledger?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he told his driver to take me home.
I refused.
"I have a shift tomorrow."
"Then I'll have someone drive you."
"Absolutely not."
For the first time, Adrian looked faintly surprised.
"You understand that someone may be planning to kill you?"
"Yes. I also understand that getting into another stranger's car would be a terrible decision."
A quiet laugh escaped him.
It transformed his face so suddenly that, for a second, I forgot who he was.
"Fair enough, Nurse Reed."
He stepped out of the sedan.
"I'll walk you to the entrance."
As we crossed the pavement, a man standing across the street raised his phone.
Adrian noticed.
He didn't run.
He didn't shout.
He simply looked at the man.
The stranger lowered his phone immediately and disappeared into the crowd.
I glanced at Adrian.
"What did you just do?"
"Nothing."
"That's obviously not true."
May you like
He opened the restaurant door.
"You're beginning to understand why people find me difficult."
