Chapter 5 - THE MAN IN SCRUBS
The door opened.
A man in blue scrubs stepped inside.
Elena had never seen him before.
He wore a surgical mask and carried a syringe.
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
“Who are you?”
The man shut the door.
“Night shift.”
“My nurse is a woman.”
“She asked me to give you something for pain.”
“I didn’t ask for pain medication.”
He walked closer.
Elena reached for the call button.
He grabbed her wrist.
Fast.
Too fast.
She screamed.
Rachel woke with a jolt.
“What the hell?”
The man shoved her backward.
Rachel hit the wall.
Elena ripped the IV from her arm and swung the metal pole.
It cracked against his shoulder.
He cursed.
Rachel jumped on his back.
“Run!”
Elena stumbled into the hallway barefoot, blood dripping from her hand.
“Help!”
The man threw Rachel off and charged.
A security guard rounded the corner.
“Stop!”
The man slammed into him, grabbed his radio, and struck him across the face.
Elena ran.
She reached the nurses’ station and ducked behind the counter.
An alarm screamed.
Doors began locking.
The man turned toward a stairwell.
Detective Nora Bennett appeared from the elevator.
“Police! Freeze!”
The man ran.
Nora chased him down two flights.
By the time officers reached the loading bay, he was gone.
They found the syringe in the stairwell.
Thirty minutes later, Nora stood beside Elena’s bed.
“Fentanyl.”
Elena stared at her.
“Enough to kill me?”
“Enough to kill three people.”
Rachel pressed an ice pack against her bruised cheek.
“Can we arrest Daniel now?”
Nora’s expression tightened.
“We need evidence connecting him.”
Claire’s call.
Elena grabbed her phone.
“I recorded it.”
Nora looked up.
“What?”
“My phone records calls automatically. Work thing.”
They played it.
Claire’s voice filled the room.
Daniel has somebody inside the police department.
Nora listened without moving.
Then came the line.
You were supposed to make sure she never reached the morgue alive.
Nora stopped the recording.
Rachel whispered, “You believe us now?”
“I believed you before.”
Nora looked toward the hall.
“This changes the problem.”
“How?”
“If Claire’s right, I don’t know who I can trust.”
She lowered her voice.
“I’m moving you.”
“Where?”
“Not home.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“I wasn’t planning to go home.”
Nora arranged for a private ambulance.
No police radio.
No official destination.
Only four people knew where Elena was going.
Nora.
Rachel.
Elena.
And the driver.
At 1:40 a.m., the ambulance left through a service entrance.
For ten minutes, everything was quiet.
Then Elena noticed headlights behind them.
A black SUV.
It stayed two car lengths back.
Every turn.
Every stop.
Rachel looked through the rear window.
“Are we being followed?”
The driver checked his mirror.
“No.”
Elena watched the SUV accelerate.
“Then why is it speeding up?”
The driver suddenly locked the doors.
Nora’s voice crackled from Elena’s phone.
“Elena, get out of that ambulance.”
Elena stared at the driver.
May you like
He smiled into the mirror.
Then he said, “Too late.”
