Chapter 13 - ST. CATHERINE'S
Detective Brooks didn't wait.
The hospital administration was contacted.
Security doubled.
The maternity wing was searched.
Cole insisted Emily remain somewhere else.
For once, she agreed immediately.
She and Carol were moved to a secure location.
Cole stayed with them.
Richard remained under police protection.
At St. Catherine's, officers searched an old records room Patricia had once supervised.
Nothing.
Then Brooks examined the key.
A number had been engraved into it.
Room 314 didn't exist anymore.
It had twenty years earlier.
Renovations had converted the old third-floor rooms into administrative offices.
Brooks found the original blueprint.
Room 314 had become a supply closet.
Inside, behind a wall panel, officers discovered a metal lockbox.
The key opened it.
The file was there.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Victor Shaw had spent almost two decades using Patricia's access to manipulate confidential records.
There was enough evidence to destroy careers.
And enough to send Victor running forever.
But Victor didn't run.
At 9:12 p.m., he walked into St. Catherine's wearing medical scrubs.
Security cameras captured him entering an elevator.
Then he disappeared.
At 9:19, the hospital fire alarm activated.
Patients began evacuating.
At 9:21, the maternity wing lost power.
At 9:23, Cole received a call.
Victor.
Cole answered.
“Where is Emily?”
Cole's expression remained flat.
“Somewhere you'll never reach her.”
Victor laughed.
“You soldiers always think everything is a battlefield.”
“No.”
Cole looked at Emily across the secure room.
“I know the difference.”
Victor became silent.
Cole continued.
“Battlefields have rules.”
The call ended.
Brooks contacted Cole moments later.
“We have him.”
“Where?”
“Hospital basement.”
But they didn't have him.
They had his discarded phone.
Victor had used the alarm to leave through a service tunnel.
Cole immediately understood what that meant.
Victor had never expected Emily to be at the hospital.
The hospital was a distraction.
Cole turned toward the window.
Across the street from the secure location, a black SUV had just parked.
The driver's door opened.
Victor Shaw stepped out.
Emily saw him.
Her face went white.
Cole reached for his phone.
May you like
“Brooks.”
Then the lights went out.
