Chapter 3 - SOMEONE WANTED ME SILENT
“What does ‘contingency patient’ mean?”
Dr. Rhodes didn’t answer immediately.
That was answer enough.
I stepped toward Lucia’s room.
Rhodes moved sideways.
“Isabella, your sister needs rest.”
“She needs a doctor who isn’t secretly meeting the nanny who drugged a seven-month-old baby.”
Every nurse within twenty feet became very interested in not looking at us.
Rhodes’s face went white.
Adrian didn’t move.
He didn’t have to.
Something about his stillness was worse than shouting.
Rhodes adjusted his glasses.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Detective Santos arrived ten minutes later.
The yellow sticker was gone.
Fortunately, I had already photographed it.
Rhodes claimed the phrase was an internal billing code.
The hospital administrator claimed no such code existed.
By midnight, Santos had ordered Lucia’s records secured.
By one in the morning, Adrian’s people discovered something else.
Dr. Rhodes had treated three members of the Valente family over fourteen years.
Including Adrian’s father.
Including his late wife Elena.
Including Emma shortly after birth.
I stood beside Lucia’s bed while rain streaked the hospital windows.
Adrian remained near the door.
“You knew him.”
“I knew of him.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
His jaw tightened.
“He treated my father after a stroke.”
“And Elena?”
Adrian’s face changed at his wife’s name.
“She had complications after Emma was born.”
“Did she trust him?”
“She trusted almost everyone.”
There was something in the way he said it that ended my anger for half a second.
Almost.
Lucia stirred.
“Isa?”
I turned immediately.
“I’m here.”
Her eyes opened weakly.
Then widened when she saw Adrian.
“Why is the scary man from television standing in my room?”
Despite everything, I nearly laughed.
Adrian looked genuinely uncertain how to answer.
“That’s Adrian.”
“I know who he is.”
Lucia looked at my bruised cheek.
Then at him.
Her expression sharpened.
“You hit my sister?”
“Lucia—”
Adrian answered.
“Yes.”
Lucia pointed toward the door.
“Get out.”
I expected Adrian Valente to react like the feared man everyone described.
Instead, he nodded.
“All right.”
And left.
Lucia watched the door close.
“I like him less in person.”
That time I did laugh.
Then she started coughing.
The monitor beside her bed changed rhythm.
I pressed the nurse button.
Three people rushed inside.
Within seconds, I was pushed into the hallway.
Adrian was still there.
“You didn’t leave.”
“No.”
I wrapped my arms around myself.
“I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t.”
“You don’t get to promise me things.”
His voice softened.
“No. I suppose I don’t.”
At three in the morning, Lucia stabilized.
At four, Santos returned with news.
Rhodes’s medical privileges had been temporarily suspended while the hospital investigated irregularities in his patient files.
He was furious.
Good.
But Karen Mitchell remained missing.
Then Dante called.
They had found her car near a motel outside Joliet.
Adrian looked at me.
“You’re staying here.”
I stood.
“No.”
“You’ve been attacked once already.”
“And Karen is the woman who framed me.”
“She may also be bait.”
“I don’t care.”
Adrian’s eyes darkened.
“I do.”
The words landed strangely.
I stared at him.
“You don’t know me.”
“No.”
“You believed I murdered your daughter.”
“Yes.”
“You sent me to jail.”
His face tightened.
“I remember every second of it.”
“Then stop acting like you suddenly get to protect me.”
He stepped closer but left space between us.
“I don’t think I get to do anything. I think I owe you something I can never repay.”
“My sister needs surgery.”
“I know.”
I hated that he knew.
“I’m not taking your money.”
“I didn’t offer money.”
“You were about to.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
That made me pause.
“Fine?”
“If you say no, the answer is no.”
For the first time, I saw something in Adrian I hadn’t expected.
Restraint.
Not goodness.
Not yet.
But maybe the possibility of it.
I went to Joliet anyway.
Santos insisted I remain in the police vehicle.
Adrian followed separately with Dante.
The motel looked abandoned except for a flickering vacancy sign.
Karen’s room was empty.
Bathroom window open.
Bed unmade.
A paper coffee cup still warm.
“She just left,” Santos said.
Then I saw the pink corner of something beneath the bed.
I reached down.
A baby sock.
Emma’s.
My stomach turned.
“Why would she have this?”
Dante crouched beside the nightstand.
“Maybe she kept it.”
“Why?”
“Guilt.”
A voice came from the bathroom.
“I didn’t mean for Emma to die.”
Karen stood behind the open door.
Everyone froze.
Her face was gray.
Hair tangled.
Hands shaking.
Santos drew her weapon.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Karen slowly raised them.
I wanted to hate her.
I had spent three nights imagining what I would say if I saw her again.
But she looked destroyed.
“Why?” I asked.
Karen stared at me.
“They told me she’d sleep.”
“Who?”
“They said it was supposed to look like a kidnapping.”
“Who, Karen?”
Her eyes moved to Adrian.
Fear swallowed her face.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Who touched my daughter?”
Karen began crying.
“I gave Emma the medicine. Dr. Rhodes told me the dose was safe. I was supposed to carry her to the service door. Someone else would take her.”
“Who?”
“I never knew his name.”
“Liar.”
“I swear!”
Karen looked at me desperately.
“When I realized she wasn’t breathing right, I tried to stop it. He took her from me.”
“The man on the camera?”
“Yes.”
“Describe him.”
Karen swallowed.
“Tall. Black coat. Gloves.”
Adrian looked unimpressed.
“That describes half my employees.”
Karen shook her head.
“There was one thing.”
“What?”
“He used an access card to open the service gate.”
Dante went still.
Karen looked directly at him.
“It had your name on it.”
The motel room became silent.
Adrian slowly turned toward the man who had stood beside him for fifteen years.
Dante’s face didn’t move.
“My card never left my possession.”
Karen backed toward the wall.
“I saw it.”
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“Dante.”
“Boss, if I wanted Emma dead, she would be dead.”
I flinched.
Dante closed his eyes briefly.
“That came out wrong.”
Then a phone began ringing.
Not mine.
Not Adrian’s.
Not Santos’s.
Karen stared toward the mattress.
Santos pulled the blanket away.
A cheap prepaid phone vibrated beneath it.
She put on gloves and answered using speakerphone.
Nobody said a word.
A distorted male voice spoke.
“Karen?”
Karen covered her mouth.
The caller continued.
“You have ten seconds to tell me whether Isabella Martinez is with you.”
My blood went cold.
Adrian stepped toward the phone.
Santos lifted one hand, warning him not to speak.
Karen was crying silently.
The voice became impatient.
“Nine.”
Karen shook her head violently.
“Eight.”
“Don’t,” Santos whispered.
“Seven.”
Karen suddenly screamed.
“She’s not here!”
Silence.
Then the man laughed.
“Good.”
My heart stopped.
“Because we already know where her sister is.”
May you like
I ran for the door.
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