Chapter 6 - The Secret Beneath the Hospital
Maya took one look at my face and locked her apartment door.
Then she made tea.
It was such an ordinary thing to do that I nearly cried.
For the next hour, I told her everything: Thomas Bell, Dr. Mercer, the note, the break-in, and Adrian Vale.
When I finished, Maya stared at the untouched tea between us.
"We should quit."
"We can't both quit. We have rent."
"Emma, somebody broke into your apartment."
"I know."
"And you're sitting here talking about rent."
She stood and began pacing.
I understood her fear. Mine had simply become too tangled with curiosity to let me walk away.
"Grace's name was on the note," I said. "What if she discovered something at the hospital? What if somebody is still using St. Catherine's to hide it?"
Maya stopped moving.
"Do you remember Room 614?"
I frowned.
"Intensive care?"
"Three years ago, that room was sealed for two days. The hospital claimed it was a maintenance issue."
I remembered.
I had been a new nurse then. I'd asked why patients were being moved, and a supervisor had told me the room had a ventilation problem.
Maya continued.
"I worked an overnight shift during that period. I saw Dr. Mercer escort a patient out through the private service corridor. No discharge paperwork. No transfer documentation. Nothing."
"Why didn't you report it?"
"Because by morning, the patient had apparently never existed."
A cold feeling spread through me.
"What was the patient's name?"
Maya shook her head.
"I never learned it. But I remember one thing."
She reached for her laptop and opened an old folder of photographs from a staff event.
In one picture, several doctors stood outside the hospital beside a banner celebrating a donation.
Dr. Mercer was in the center.
To his left stood the mayor.
To his right stood a man I had seen in the news several times.
Dominic Rusk.
Businessman. Philanthropist. Owner of a construction empire. A man rumored to have connections to half the city's criminal organizations.
Rusk was smiling at the camera.
Beside him stood a police captain.
Captain Michael Shaw.
I felt my skin tighten.
"Why would a crime boss be making donations to a hospital?"
Maya looked at me.
"That's exactly what I wondered."
My phone vibrated.
Adrian.
I answered.
"We need to talk."
"About what?"
"Grace's records. I believe Mercer moved them into the hospital's archived storage system before her death."
"How do you know?"
"Because I received a photograph of the archive room ten minutes ago."
He sent it to me.
The picture showed a long corridor lined with metal cabinets.
At the far end stood a door marked SUBLEVEL B.
I recognized it immediately.
The hospital had renovated that section during my first year. Staff were forbidden to enter without authorization.
"What's down there?" I asked.
"Officially? Electrical equipment and old medical supplies."
"And unofficially?"
"Records that were never supposed to exist."
I looked at Maya.
She had gone pale.
"The maintenance corridor," she whispered. "That's where I saw Mercer taking the patient."
Adrian spoke again.
"Emma, I need you to do something for me."
I closed my eyes.
"Please tell me it doesn't involve breaking into a restricted hospital basement."
He didn't respond.
I laughed bitterly.
"Of course it does."
"Don't go alone. Don't touch anything unless you have to. And if anyone sees you, walk away."
"Why are you asking me to do this instead of your own people?"
His answer came quietly.
"Because the people who control that building know every face I employ."
He paused.
"They don't know yours yet."
I stared at the photograph.
Then I noticed a detail in the bottom corner.
Someone had left a white medical bracelet beside one of the cabinets.
The patient identification number was partially visible.
I enlarged the image.
And my hands began to tremble.
May you like
It was the same number assigned to a young woman whose death certificate I had signed three years ago.
A patient named Grace Vale.
