Chapter 6 - The Room Without a Patient
Detective Ruiz drew her weapon when the magnetic doors locked.
"Everybody away from the elevators."
The security administrator raised both hands.
"I didn't authorize this."
Ruiz pointed toward the main entrance.
"Can you override the system?"
"I'll try."
"Try faster."
Daniel stared at the message on his phone.
Whoever had sent it knew exactly where he was.
He turned toward Dr. Keene.
"Where did you keep my wife?"
Keene looked frightened.
"I don't know."
"Then who does?"
"Dr. Samuel Pierce."
"Who's that?"
"The former director of clinical operations."
"Former?"
Keene swallowed.
"He resigned last month."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
Vanessa stepped closer.
"Daniel, we need to get out."
He looked at her.
"You brought me here."
"No."
"Then who did?"
"Whoever sent Catherine's video."
Ruiz spoke into her radio.
"Dispatch, this is Detective Ruiz at St. Agnes."
Static answered.
She tried again.
Nothing.
The administrator looked toward a wall-mounted security panel.
"Internal interference."
Ruiz frowned.
"Meaning?"
"Something is disrupting our communications."
Daniel glanced toward the lobby windows.
Outside, the city was beginning to wake.
Cars moved along the street.
A delivery truck stopped near the loading dock.
Life continued beyond the glass as though nothing unusual were happening.
Then Daniel noticed a nurse standing near the pediatric elevators.
She wore navy scrubs and held a paper chart against her chest.
She wasn't looking at Ruiz.
Or Vanessa.
She was looking directly at him.
When their eyes met, the nurse raised two fingers to her lips.
Then she pointed toward the stairwell.
Daniel hesitated.
The nurse turned and disappeared.
"Detective."
Ruiz looked over.
"What?"
"That nurse."
"What nurse?"
"She just went through the stairwell."
Ruiz motioned to an officer.
"Stay with the witnesses."
Then she followed Daniel toward the door.
The stairwell wasn't locked.
Inside, fluorescent emergency lights illuminated the concrete steps.
A woman stood on the landing below.
She looked about thirty-five, with dark circles beneath her eyes and a hospital badge clipped to her shirt.
"Mr. Whitmore?"
Daniel nodded.
"My name is Mara Chen."
Ruiz kept her weapon low but ready.
"Identification."
Mara showed her badge.
"I'm a registered nurse in the private care unit."
"What do you want?"
Mara looked at Daniel.
"Your wife asked me to find you."
Daniel's heart lurched.
"Where is she?"
"She was here yesterday."
"Where?"
"Room 614."
"Then take me there."
Mara shook her head.
"They moved her."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Ruiz stepped closer.
"Who authorized the transfer?"
"Dr. Pierce."
"You said he resigned."
"He still has access."
Daniel felt anger rising again.
"Why?"
Mara looked away.
"Because half the people who work here are afraid of him."
Ruiz asked, "Why didn't you report this?"
Mara's eyes filled with tears.
"I tried."
"To whom?"
"Hospital compliance."
"And?"
"The complaint disappeared."
"Then the police?"
"I called."
"What happened?"
"A man from a federal agency came to my apartment."
She swallowed.
"He knew where my son went to school."
No one spoke.
Mara looked at Daniel.
"Mrs. Whitmore told me you were the only person who could end this."
Daniel shook his head.
"She thought I wanted her dead."
"Not anymore."
The words hit him hard.
"What?"
Mara reached into her pocket.
She removed a small folded note.
"She wrote this after she saw you on a television interview last month."
Daniel remembered the interview.
A local station had asked him to speak about the Whitmore Foundation's scholarship program.
The reporter unexpectedly asked how Lily was coping without Catherine.
Daniel had almost ended the interview.
Instead, he told the truth.
He said his daughter still set an extra plate at dinner sometimes.
He said grief didn't get smaller.
You simply learned to carry it.
And he admitted he would give away everything he owned for one more ordinary morning with his wife.
Mara handed him the note.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Daniel, I heard you.
I know now that the recordings were lies.
I tried to reach you, but every message was intercepted.
Please forgive me for believing them.
Please protect Lily.
I am coming home.
Daniel read the note three times.
His eyes blurred.
For eleven months, he had imagined Catherine dying without knowing how much he loved her.
Now he knew she'd been alive.
Terrified.
Trapped.
And trying to find a way back.
He folded the note carefully.
"When did she write this?"
"Four weeks ago."
"Where was she then?"
"Here."
Daniel looked toward the stairs.
"Room 614."
Mara nodded.
They climbed six floors.
Ruiz kept her radio near her mouth, trying unsuccessfully to contact the officers downstairs.
At the sixth-floor landing, Mara stopped.
"Before we go in, there's something I need to tell you."
Daniel stared at her.
"What?"
"Mrs. Whitmore wasn't admitted under her own name."
"What name?"
Mara hesitated.
"Elizabeth Hart."
Vanessa stepped back.
Daniel noticed.
"You know that name?"
Vanessa looked shaken.
"That was Rebecca's childhood name."
Mara nodded.
"According to the hospital's records, Elizabeth Hart had been in long-term care for years."
Daniel frowned.
"That's impossible."
Mara whispered, "That's what Mrs. Whitmore said."
They entered the corridor.
Room 614 stood at the far end.
The door was closed.
Mara opened it with her access card.
Inside was a narrow bed, a chair, and a window overlooking downtown Chicago.
The room smelled faintly of antiseptic.
A vase of dead flowers sat on the windowsill.
But there was no patient.
Daniel walked to the bed.
He touched the blanket.
Something was written on the underside of the mattress tag.
He bent closer.
Three words in black marker.
LOOK UNDER SIX.
Daniel frowned.
"Six?"
Mara looked around.
"Maybe the sixth drawer?"
There were only two drawers in the bedside cabinet.
Vanessa searched the closet.
Nothing.
Ruiz examined the windowsill.
Daniel looked at the bed.
Then he remembered Catherine's habit of hiding birthday gifts in places so obvious he always overlooked them.
Under six.
Room 614.
Bed six?
He looked at the room number again.
Six.
One.
Four.
Catherine loved architecture.
She thought in measurements, angles, and layouts.
"What's below this room?"
Mara frowned.
"Fifth floor."
"No."
Daniel pointed at the floor.
"Directly below."
Mara considered.
"The records storage level."
Ruiz looked at her.
"Can we get there?"
"There's a service stairwell."
They went down one floor.
The fifth-floor records room was locked.
Mara's badge didn't work.
Ruiz called for a supervisor.
No response.
Daniel looked at the keypad.
Four digits.
Six-one-four.
He entered 0614.
The light flashed red.
Then he tried the date of Catherine's birthday.
Nothing.
Vanessa watched him.
"What are you doing?"
"Catherine used to say the easiest codes are the ones nobody thinks to try."
He looked at the room number again.
Six.
One.
Four.
He entered 6140.
The keypad turned green.
The door clicked open.
Vanessa stared.
"How did you know?"
Daniel swallowed.
"Six-one-four-zero was the address of our first apartment."
Inside, the room was packed with metal shelving and archive boxes.
At the far wall stood six locked cabinets.
The sixth cabinet had a small silver keyhole.
Daniel removed the key from the burned teddy bear.
His hands trembled as he inserted it.
It turned.
Inside was a single blue folder.
Across the front, in Catherine's handwriting, were five words.
THE CHILDREN THEY NEVER BURIED.
Daniel opened it.
The first page was a list of names.
Forty-three children.
Each had been registered as deceased.
Each had later appeared in a private hospital transfer record.
And beside seventeen of the names was the same notation.
IDENTITY REASSIGNED.
Daniel stared at the list.
Then he saw one name near the bottom.
Lily Whitmore.
He turned to Vanessa.
"My daughter is alive."
Vanessa whispered, "I know."
"Then why is she on a list of dead children?"
No one answered.
Daniel flipped to the next page.
It was a photograph of a newborn baby.
A tiny pink hospital hat.
A white blanket.
A bracelet around the ankle.
The printed name read LILY WHITMORE.
But beneath the photograph was a handwritten note.
This is not the baby Catherine took home.
Daniel felt the room disappear around him.
Then Mara whispered from the doorway, "Someone's coming."
Footsteps approached.
Slow.
Deliberate.
A man's voice echoed down the corridor.
"Daniel?"
Daniel recognized it immediately.
His brother.
May you like
Nathan.
"I'm glad you finally found the folder."
