Chapter 2 - Someone Knew
Nathan slammed his shoulder into the trauma-room door before it could latch.
“Maya!”
She caught it from the other side.
The door bounced open.
Nathan rushed inside.
Claire's blood pressure had crashed again.
The evidence pouch was gone.
There was no time to look for it.
“Rhythm?” he demanded.
“Sinus tachycardia, one-fifty-eight.”
“Pressure?”
“Fifty-two over thirty.”
“Increase norepinephrine.”
“Already doing it.”
“Add vasopressin.”
Nathan moved beside Claire and checked her pupils.
Equal.
Reactive.
Her oxygen level remained acceptable because of the ventilator, but her circulation was failing.
The second compound on the toxicology screen could explain it.
Someone had exposed her to more than one medication.
That didn't happen by accident.
Not in those concentrations.
Not in a woman who had no prescriptions for either drug.
“Get pharmacy on the phone,” Nathan ordered.
Maya gave him a look.
He understood what she was thinking.
Daniel.
“Hospital pharmacy,” Nathan clarified.
She nodded.
Nathan glanced toward the glass.
Daniel stood outside.
He hadn't moved.
He watched through the window with both hands pressed against his mouth.
A terrified husband.
Or a man waiting to see whether something worked.
Nathan hated himself for thinking it.
He hated Daniel for making the thought possible.
Twenty minutes later, Claire's pressure began responding.
Nathan stepped away only after the monitor stopped screaming.
Maya came beside him.
“You lost the patch?”
“Someone took it.”
“From your pocket?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“You were never alone except in the medication room.”
Nathan thought through the previous minutes.
He had put the evidence bag into the front pocket of his scrub top after speaking with Rebecca.
He opened the medication-room door for Daniel.
Daniel never touched him.
Then Maya arrived with the laboratory paper.
Nathan took it.
He looked at the results.
His phone buzzed.
He read the messages.
Then the alarm sounded.
He ran.
Could the pouch have fallen?
Nathan searched beneath the bed.
Nothing.
He checked the hallway.
Nothing.
Maya called housekeeping and instructed them not to clean the area.
Nathan then walked toward Daniel.
“Did you come into the medication room?”
“No.”
“Did you touch me?”
Daniel stared at him.
“What?”
“Answer.”
“No.”
“Did anyone walk past us?”
“A couple of nurses. Maybe an orderly.”
“Anyone close?”
“I wasn't paying attention.”
Nathan stepped nearer.
“What did Claire tell you about being followed?”
Daniel looked toward his wife.
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
“Nate—”
“Your wife was poisoned.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Nathan saw it.
The knowledge landed physically.
“What?”
“Two drugs. Neither prescribed to her.”
Daniel's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
“One may have been administered through the skin.”
Nathan deliberately avoided saying patch.
Rebecca's warning echoed in his head.
Don't give him information only the person who placed it would know.
Daniel gripped the railing along the hallway.
“Is she going to die?”
“I don't know.”
The answer was cruel.
It was also honest.
Daniel's knees nearly gave way.
Nathan caught his arm.
For a moment they were no longer doctor and suspect.
They were five-year-old boys again, one helping the other after a fall.
Then Nathan remembered the missing evidence.
He released him.
“Tell me about the person following Claire.”
Daniel stared at the floor.
“Three weeks ago, she came home from work and said a dark SUV had followed her for six blocks.”
“Plate?”
“She didn't get it.”
“Again?”
“Four days later. Same vehicle outside the grocery store.”
“And after that?”
“Several times.”
“Why was she afraid to report it?”
“She said she knew why it was happening.”
Nathan's jaw tightened.
“You told me she didn't know who.”
“She didn't tell me who.”
“That's different.”
Daniel nodded miserably.
“What did she say?”
“That something from years ago had come back.”
“What?”
“She wouldn't explain.”
“Did she mention drugs?”
“No.”
“Your pharmacy?”
“No.”
“Someone at your company?”
Daniel looked away.
Nathan caught it.
“There.”
“What?”
“You reacted.”
“To what?”
“Your company.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Nate, not now.”
“Now is exactly when.”
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck.
“About a month ago, Claire started asking questions about an old medication recall.”
Nathan stared at him.
“What recall?”
Daniel hesitated too long.
“Daniel.”
“MedCore Therapeutics.”
Nathan knew the name.
Everyone in medicine did.
MedCore had manufactured several widely used medications before a major safety scandal nearly twenty years earlier.
One product had been recalled after undisclosed adverse reactions surfaced.
Several executives had resigned.
There were lawsuits.
Then the company reorganized under a new ownership structure.
Nathan suddenly remembered something.
Daniel had worked for MedCore for eleven months after pharmacy school.
It was his first job.
“You worked there.”
“Yes.”
“Why was Claire asking about it?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying again.”
Daniel turned angrily.
“Because she found a box!”
The corridor went quiet.
Nathan stared at him.
“What box?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“In our attic.”
“What was inside?”
“Old documents. Files from my MedCore days.”
“What kind of files?”
“Mostly reports.”
“Mostly?”
Daniel looked toward Claire.
“She found copies of adverse-event reports that were never included in the original disclosure.”
Nathan felt the floor shift beneath him.
“You had them?”
“I didn't know I still did.”
“Why did you have them at all?”
“I was young. I copied everything.”
“Why?”
“Because something felt wrong.”
Nathan stepped back.
Daniel continued.
“People were getting sick. Reports were disappearing. Numbers changed between internal meetings and regulatory submissions. I thought I might need proof someday.”
“And did you?”
“No.”
“You kept silent?”
Daniel's eyes hardened.
“I was twenty-five, Nate. My supervisor told me if I accused anyone without evidence, they'd destroy my career. Then the recall happened and I left.”
“You had evidence.”
“I had suspicions.”
“You had reports.”
“Copies. Incomplete ones.”
“And Claire found them.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“A month ago.”
“What did she do?”
“She started digging.”
Nathan closed his eyes briefly.
Claire was exactly the kind of person who would.
She couldn't tolerate dishonesty.
Not even small dishonesties.
At dinner once, she had returned twenty dollars to a cashier who accidentally gave her too much change and spent fifteen minutes explaining to her children why keeping it would have been stealing.
“What did she discover?”
“I don't know.”
“She told you nothing?”
“She stopped talking to me about it after we argued.”
“Why did you argue?”
“Because I told her to leave it alone.”
“Why?”
“Because MedCore isn't dead.”
Nathan stared at him.
Daniel looked around the corridor.
“The company changed names. Executives moved. Investors changed. But some of the same people are still connected to pharmaceutical distribution networks.”
“Including you?”
Daniel said nothing.
Nathan's stomach tightened.
“Including you?”
“My pharmacies purchase through a distributor whose parent company has ties to them.”
“You knew?”
“Not originally.”
“When did you find out?”
“Two years ago.”
“And you stayed?”
“My contracts are complicated.”
Nathan nearly laughed.
“Your wife is dying and you're talking about contracts.”
“You think I don't know how that sounds?”
“No, Daniel. I don't think you understand how anything sounds right now.”
Daniel pressed his palms against his eyes.
“I never hurt Claire.”
Nathan said nothing.
Daniel dropped his hands.
“I love her.”
“People say that right before doing terrible things.”
“You think I poisoned my wife?”
“I don't know what I think.”
“That means yes.”
“That means I found a medication delivery system on her body that could have killed her, and the one person I know who understands exactly how dangerous it would be is you.”
Daniel stared at him.
Then something strange happened.
Instead of defending himself, he whispered, “Where is it?”
Nathan's entire body went still.
“Where is what?”
Daniel realized too late.
His face changed.
Nathan stepped forward.
“The patch.”
Daniel said nothing.
“I never told you it was a patch.”
“Nate—”
“I said skin exposure.”
Daniel backed away.
“You said delivery system.”
“Not patch.”
“I guessed.”
“No.”
“I work in pharmacy.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel's voice rose.
“I didn't put it on her!”
People nearby turned.
Nathan lowered his voice.
“Then how did you know?”
Daniel's eyes filled with panic.
“Because Claire showed me one.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Nathan stared.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“She found it in our garage.”
“What?”
“Inside an envelope.”
“From whom?”
“No return address.”
“What was with it?”
Daniel swallowed.
“A photograph.”
Nathan's anger shifted into dread.
“Of what?”
“Claire leaving school.”
“Anything written?”
Daniel nodded.
“What?”
“Forty-seven.”
Nathan remembered the blue number printed on the patch.
“Why forty-seven?”
“I don't know.”
Nathan grabbed Daniel's shoulders.
“Stop saying that.”
“I don't!”
“What happened to the patch Claire found?”
“She gave it to me.”
“And?”
“I locked it in my office safe.”
“At home?”
“At my pharmacy.”
Nathan's eyes narrowed.
“Which location?”
“Lakeside.”
“Who has access?”
“Me. My manager. Corporate compliance.”
“Anyone else?”
“Not supposed to.”
Nathan pulled out his phone.
He called Rebecca.
She answered immediately.
“You still have the evidence?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“It disappeared.”
A sharp silence.
“Explain.”
Nathan did.
Then he told her about the second patch at Daniel's pharmacy.
“I'm fifteen minutes away,” Rebecca said. “Do not go there.”
“We need that patch.”
“I said do not go.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone stole evidence from inside your hospital within minutes of you finding it, they may already know about the other one.”
Nathan looked at Daniel.
Rebecca continued.
“I'll send officers.”
“Fine.”
“And Nathan?”
“Yes?”
“Those messages you received. Forward them.”
He did.
Rebecca studied them while remaining on the line.
“Number's likely spoofed.”
“Can you trace it?”
“We'll try.”
“I think someone inside the hospital took the patch.”
“So do I.”
“That's not reassuring.”
“It isn't meant to be.”
Rebecca arrived twelve minutes later.
She wore jeans, a black jacket, and the expression Nathan had seen before courtroom testimony.
Focused.
Calm.
Suspicious of everyone.
Daniel stiffened when Nathan introduced her.
“Detective?”
Rebecca didn't shake his hand.
“Mr. Bennett.”
“What is happening?”
“Right now? Your wife is receiving medical treatment. Separately, we're determining whether a crime occurred.”
Daniel looked at Nathan.
“You called police before telling me?”
“I called someone I trust.”
Daniel flinched at the wording.
Rebecca noticed.
“Mr. Bennett, I need the alarm codes and exact location of your pharmacy safe.”
Daniel gave them.
She dispatched two officers.
Then she walked Nathan away from him.
“You said something else was in Claire's blood.”
Nathan showed her the results.
Rebecca frowned.
“What does this second drug do?”
“It can intensify respiratory depression in combination with the first.”
“So together?”
“Much more dangerous.”
“Would someone need medical knowledge?”
“Not necessarily a physician. A pharmacist could know. A nurse could know. Anyone with access to pharmaceutical information could research it.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Could she survive?”
“Yes.”
“How confident are you?”
Nathan looked through the glass.
“Ask me tomorrow.”
Rebecca folded the printout.
“I won't.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because before tomorrow, I think we're going to learn why someone wanted her dead.”
At 1:18 a.m., the officers reached Lakeside Pharmacy.
At 1:27, Rebecca received the call.
The safe had been opened.
No sign of forced entry.
The second patch was gone.
Daniel insisted he hadn't been there.
Security logs showed the alarm had been disarmed at 10:54 p.m.
Twenty minutes after Claire collapsed at the gala.
Using Daniel's personal access code.
Rebecca looked at him across the consultation room.
“Where were you at 10:54?”
“With my wife.”
“Witnesses?”
“Hundreds.”
“Then someone had your code.”
“No one has my code.”
Rebecca leaned back.
“Apparently someone does.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
Nathan watched both of them.
Then Maya appeared at the door.
“Nathan.”
Something in her voice made him stand immediately.
“What?”
“Claire's waking up.”
They hurried into the trauma room.
Sedation had been reduced.
Claire's eyes fluttered.
Nathan stood beside her.
“Claire, you're safe. You're in the hospital.”
Her gaze slowly focused on him.
“Don't try to speak around the tube.”
Her hand moved.
Nathan placed a marker and small whiteboard beneath her fingers.
She struggled to write.
The first letter looked like an M.
Then another.
Nathan leaned closer.
Claire's hand shook violently.
MAYA.
Nathan glanced behind him.
Maya stared at the board.
“What?”
Claire wrote again.
NOT SAFE.
Maya's face went white.
Daniel stepped through the doorway.
“Claire?”
Claire saw him.
Her eyes widened in terror.
Her hand jerked across the board.
Nathan grabbed it.
She wrote three words.
NOT HIM.
BEHIND HIM.
Everyone turned.
The corridor outside the trauma room was empty.
Then the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
The secure door at the end of the ICU hallway unlocked with a soft electronic click.
A man in hospital scrubs stepped through.
May you like
He was carrying Claire's missing evidence pouch.
And Nathan recognized him immediately.
