Chapter 11 - THE NAME
Police found the investigator conscious behind a locked door at the ferry terminal. The bang had been an officer forcing a second entrance. She was frightened and bruised, but she was able to speak.
Her name was Agent Hannah Price.
She told Ruiz that Celeste had taken the files from her the night before, then locked her in the storage room. Celeste believed she had every copy. She was wrong.
“Who was she working for?” Dominic asked when Price reached the hospital.
Price looked at him. “At first, your father.”
Vittorio had hired Celeste years earlier to manage payments to people threatening the shipping business. He had let her control the accounts and had concealed the arrangement from Dominic. Eventually, Celeste began using those same accounts for herself.
“She paid people to intimidate witnesses,” Price said. “She also moved money out of the company. Your father found out when Mara started asking questions. By then, Celeste had enough evidence to expose what he’d done.”
“And you have proof of all that?” Dominic asked.
“We do. Mara helped us get it.”
Mara rested against the pillows, watching Price. “You said there was someone else.”
Price nodded. “Celeste had help inside the hospital.”
Dominic looked toward the hall.
“The ultrasound picture in her handbag,” Price said. “She got it from someone who had access to Mara’s records. That person also told her about today’s scan.”
Ruiz had already asked the hospital to check who accessed Mara’s chart. Only a few names appeared on the list. One belonged to a scheduling clerk who had left work early.
As they spoke, an alarm sounded from the hallway.
Dominic stood. “What is that?”
A nurse hurried past the door. Then another called for security.
Ruiz stepped into the corridor. Dominic followed at a distance, with Mara calling after him.
Two NICU doors stood open.
The nurse who had shown Dominic his daughter pointed down the hall. “A woman came in with a visitor badge. She said she was taking the baby for a test.”
“Which woman?” Dominic asked.
The nurse described the scheduling clerk.
Dominic ran.
At the elevator, a security guard was holding a woman by the arm. Her visitor badge had been turned backward. She carried nothing.
“Where’s my daughter?” Dominic demanded.
“I didn’t take her,” the clerk cried. “Celeste told me to get access. I changed my mind.”
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Ruiz reached them and took over. The clerk kept shaking her head.
“I went in to warn the nurse,” she said. “The baby was already gone.”
