Chapter 12 - THE HOSPITAL THAT BURIED HER NAME
Smoke rose over St. Ambrose before Willa could see the building.
Fire trucks filled the street.
Patients were being evacuated.
Staff crowded outside.
Tomas parked two blocks away.
Everett had been forced to remain at the safe location under Marquez’s supervision.
He had threatened everyone for twenty minutes.
Willa had ignored him.
Now she and Tomas entered through a service entrance.
Willa’s chest tightened immediately.
Three years.
Three years since she had walked these halls as Nurse Hayes.
She remembered the smell.
The fluorescent lights.
The sound of rubber soles against polished floors.
Then she remembered security escorting her out.
People staring.
Whispers.
Murderer.
Careless.
Dangerous.
Willa forced herself forward.
The records wing was burning.
But Tomas had learned something Sterling didn’t know.
The old hospital kept duplicate archives beneath the pathology department.
They headed downstairs.
A security guard blocked them.
“Restricted area.”
Willa recognized him.
Paul Nader.
He had worked security the night she was fired.
He stared at her.
“Willa?”
She stopped.
“Paul.”
His face changed.
“I heard you were…”
“Homeless?”
He looked ashamed.
“I heard things.”
“So did everyone.”
Tomas stepped forward.
“We need the archive.”
Paul shook his head.
“Can’t.”
“Why?”
“Administrator Allison ordered it sealed.”
Willa stared.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Where is he?”
Paul hesitated.
“Willa.”
“Where?”
“Sublevel two.”
They moved.
The basement corridors were almost empty.
At the far end, they heard voices.
Sterling.
“Burn it all.”
Allison answered.
“The fire department is already suspicious.”
“I don’t care.”
Willa looked at Tomas.
He raised a finger.
Wait.
They moved closer.
Allison sounded terrified.
“You said Everett was dead.”
“He should be.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Whitfield failed.”
“And Willa Hayes?”
Sterling paused.
“Also alive.”
Allison cursed.
“She can connect us.”
“She can’t prove anything.”
“She doesn’t need to if Everett has the ledger.”
Silence.
Then Allison asked.
“Does he?”
“I don’t know.”
Willa recorded everything on Tomas’s phone.
Sterling continued.
“Destroy the Fisk files.”
“All medication audits.”
“All Whitfield access logs.”
“And Hayes’s disciplinary record.”
Allison laughed nervously.
“Her record is fake.”
“That’s the point.”
Willa’s entire body went still.
There.
The admission.
After three years.
Allison had said it.
Her record was fake.
She fought tears.
Tomas touched her shoulder.
Not yet.
They continued listening.
Allison asked.
“What about the girl?”
Willa frowned.
Sterling’s voice became quieter.
“What girl?”
“The Fisk girl.”
Willa looked at Tomas.
He looked equally confused.
Allison continued.
“The daughter.”
“She saw Whitfield switch the medication.”
Willa’s heart pounded.
A witness.
There had been a witness.
Sterling cursed.
“You told me she disappeared.”
“She did.”
“Then why mention her?”
“Because she came back.”
Silence.
Willa could barely breathe.
“Where is she?”
“Third floor.”
“Name?”
“Emma Fisk.”
Willa stepped backward.
Harold Fisk’s daughter.
The daughter of the man whose death had destroyed Willa’s life.
She was here.
Sterling said.
“Handle it.”
Willa moved.
Tomas caught her.
She shook her head.
Emma was in danger now.
They couldn’t wait.
Willa ran toward the stairwell.
“Willa!”
She kept going.
Third floor.
Room 317.
She found it.
A young woman in her twenties lay in the bed.
An IV line ran into her arm.
A man in scrubs stood beside her with a syringe.
Not Whitfield.
Another doctor.
He turned.
Willa saw panic.
“What are you doing?”
He shoved the syringe into his pocket.
“Who are you?”
Willa ripped the IV line free.
The man lunged.
Tomas appeared and slammed him into the wall.
Willa checked Emma.
“Emma?”
Her eyes opened.
“Who…”
“I’m Willa Hayes.”
Emma’s eyes widened.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Tears filled Emma’s eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Willa froze.
“For what?”
“I should have told them.”
“Told them what?”
Emma began crying.
“I saw him.”
“Whitfield.”
“The night my dad died.”
“I saw him put something in the IV.”
Willa’s heart broke.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I did.”
“To Allison.”
Willa stared.
Emma sobbed.
“He told me I was grieving.”
“Then someone followed me home.”
“They threatened my little brother.”
“So I left Chicago.”
Tomas looked toward the hallway.
“We need to move.”
Emma grabbed Willa’s wrist.
“I have proof.”
“What?”
“My dad recorded a meeting.”
“Where?”
Emma looked terrified.
“Whitfield has it.”
Willa’s stomach dropped.
Then every door in the hallway automatically locked.
A voice came over the hospital intercom.
“Mrs. Kane.”
Sterling.
Willa turned toward the speaker.
“I know you’re on the third floor.”
Tomas checked the exit.
Locked.
Sterling continued.
“You wanted the truth.”
May you like
“Now you can die with it.”
Smoke began pouring through the ventilation system.
