Chapter 3 - The Man in Scrubs
“Don't move,” Rebecca ordered.
The man stopped halfway down the corridor.
Nathan knew him.
Dr. Elliot Price.
Hospital chief pharmacist.
Fifty-two.
Meticulous.
Respected.
The kind of man who remembered nurses' birthdays and corrected medication charts with a fountain pen.
He held the clear evidence pouch casually at his side.
The missing patch was inside.
Daniel stared through the glass.
“You?”
Elliot looked at him.
His expression was calm.
Too calm.
Rebecca stepped between him and the trauma-room door.
“Put the bag on the floor.”
Elliot complied.
“Hands where I can see them.”
He raised them.
Nathan's heart pounded.
“You took that from me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Elliot looked toward Claire.
“To keep her alive.”
Nathan stared.
“You stole evidence to keep her alive?”
“The patch isn't what you think.”
“I know exactly what it is.”
“No,” Elliot said. “You know what it's designed to look like.”
Rebecca didn't blink.
“Explain.”
Elliot lowered his hands slightly.
“May I?”
“No.”
“Then cuff me and test it.”
Rebecca approached cautiously, secured him, and collected the pouch.
Nathan reached for it.
She pulled it away.
“Not yet.”
“I need to know what's on it.”
“And for once, you're going to let evidence stay evidence.”
Nathan clenched his jaw.
Elliot looked toward him.
“Run a mass spectrometry analysis on the adhesive.”
Nathan frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the active compound isn't the commercial medication.”
“What is it?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to verify it.”
Daniel stepped out of the trauma room.
“You knew Claire was in danger.”
Elliot looked at him.
“I knew someone was asking questions.”
“About what?”
“Your old employer.”
Daniel's face tightened.
Rebecca noticed.
“MedCore?”
Elliot nodded.
“How are you connected?”
“I worked there.”
Daniel stared.
“When?”
“Nineteen years ago.”
“I never saw you.”
“You worked formulation support. I was clinical compliance.”
Nathan looked between them.
“You both worked at the same company?”
“For eight months,” Elliot said.
“And neither of you knew?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Different campuses.”
Elliot gave a humorless smile.
“That was intentional. MedCore kept departments compartmentalized.”
Rebecca crossed her arms.
“Why?”
“To make sure no one person understood the whole operation.”
“What operation?”
Elliot looked toward Claire.
“The one she found.”
Nathan felt a chill.
“What did Claire discover?”
Elliot's eyes shifted toward him.
“Not here.”
Rebecca laughed once.
“No. We're done with mysterious warnings. You're in handcuffs holding stolen evidence from a suspected poisoning. Start talking.”
Elliot took a breath.
“Twenty years ago MedCore developed an experimental transdermal system. It was supposed to provide extremely precise dosing.”
Nathan glanced at the patch.
“Forty-seven.”
Elliot's expression changed.
“You saw the number.”
“Yes.”
“That wasn't a dosage.”
“What was it?”
“A trial designation.”
Daniel whispered, “Project Forty-Seven.”
Elliot looked at him sharply.
“You know.”
Daniel stared at the floor.
Nathan felt anger returning.
“Of course he knows.”
“I knew the name,” Daniel said. “Not the details.”
Elliot continued.
“Project Forty-Seven tested ways of combining two medications so the first appeared therapeutically normal while the second altered absorption.”
Rebecca frowned.
“Why?”
“For legitimate research originally.”
“And later?”
Elliot's mouth tightened.
“Someone realized it could hide cause of death.”
Silence.
Even the ICU monitors seemed quieter.
Nathan stared at him.
“You're saying MedCore developed a system that could disguise poisoning?”
“I am saying individual employees manipulated a research platform for purposes that were never approved.”
“Who?”
“I don't know all of them.”
Rebecca stepped closer.
“Name one.”
Elliot looked toward Daniel.
Daniel went pale.
“No.”
Nathan's stomach dropped.
“What?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Don't look at me like that.”
Elliot said quietly, “His father.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Nathan stared at his oldest friend.
“Your father?”
“It's not what you think.”
“Then tell me what to think.”
Daniel's father, Thomas Bennett, had died six years earlier.
Nathan remembered the funeral.
Hundreds attended.
Thomas had been charming, wealthy, and endlessly proud of Daniel.
He had also invested in pharmaceutical companies throughout his career.
Nathan suddenly remembered seeing MedCore mentioned in one of Thomas's old business profiles.
“How involved was he?”
Daniel looked defeated.
“He was an early investor.”
“That's not what Elliot said.”
Elliot watched him.
Daniel glared.
“Go ahead. Tell him.”
Elliot did.
“Thomas Bennett financed a private research unit inside MedCore after the public recall.”
Nathan's mouth went dry.
“After?”
“Yes.”
“So the company continued operating?”
“Parts of it.”
“Project Forty-Seven?”
Elliot nodded.
Daniel rubbed his face.
“I found out after my father died.”
Nathan stepped toward him.
“You knew for six years?”
“I knew he'd invested in something secret. I didn't know they poisoned people.”
“You found reports.”
“Yes.”
“You hid them.”
“I put them away because I didn't know what they meant.”
“Claire knew.”
“Eventually.”
Nathan thought of Claire frightened on the bed.
“You told her to stop investigating.”
“To protect her.”
“How did that work out?”
Daniel flinched.
Nathan regretted the cruelty immediately.
But not enough to apologize.
Rebecca interrupted.
“Dr. Price, why did you take the patch?”
Elliot looked at her.
“Because someone contacted me forty minutes after Claire arrived.”
“Who?”
“Unknown number.”
“What did they say?”
“That Nathan would find a patch and call police.”
Nathan stared.
“Before I found it?”
“No. After.”
“Then whoever contacted you knew what happened inside this hospital.”
“Yes.”
“What did they tell you to do?”
“Destroy it.”
“And you didn't.”
“No.”
“You stole it.”
“I needed to examine it privately.”
“Why not tell Nathan?”
“Because I didn't know who I could trust.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“Apparently neither did I.”
Elliot looked at Maya.
Then away.
Nathan noticed.
“So why did Claire write Maya's name?”
Everyone turned toward the nurse.
Maya stood beside Claire's bed.
Her face was rigid.
“I don't know.”
Claire's eyes were open.
She stared at Maya.
Nathan moved closer to her.
“Claire, are you afraid of Maya?”
Claire shook her head.
Maya exhaled.
Nathan handed Claire the board.
She wrote slowly.
MAYA KNOWS WOMAN.
Maya stared.
“What woman?”
Claire wrote again.
GALA.
Maya stepped closer.
“I wasn't at the gala.”
Claire's hand shook.
PHOTO.
Nathan looked at Maya.
“What photo?”
Maya's face changed.
Rebecca caught it immediately.
“You know what she's talking about.”
Maya looked trapped.
“Last week, Claire came to the hospital.”
Nathan stared.
“She what?”
“She asked for me.”
“Why?”
“She had a photograph.”
“Of whom?”
Maya's eyes filled with dread.
“My mother.”
Nathan felt silence gather around them.
“Why would Claire have a picture of your mother?”
“Because my mother worked for MedCore.”
Elliot closed his eyes.
Rebecca stared from one person to another.
“You've got to be kidding me.”
Maya continued.
“She was a research nurse. She died when I was fourteen.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Elliot spoke softly.
“It wasn't an accident.”
Maya turned toward him.
“What?”
He said nothing.
She stepped closer.
“What did you say?”
“Maya.”
“No. Tell me.”
Elliot looked almost ashamed.
“Your mother was preparing to testify.”
Maya's face emptied.
“About Project Forty-Seven?”
“Yes.”
“She died three days before meeting federal investigators.”
Maya backed against the wall.
Nathan saw tears fill her eyes.
“My father told me she fell asleep driving.”
“He was told to say that.”
“By whom?”
“I don't know.”
“You keep saying that!”
“So do you,” Nathan said quietly.
Everyone looked at him.
He turned to Daniel.
“You said Claire found documents.”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
“At home.”
“Exactly where?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Her desk.”
Rebecca immediately called for officers to secure the Bennett house.
Daniel gave her the address.
Nathan's attention returned to Claire.
“Did you find something about Maya's mother?”
Claire nodded.
“Was she killed because of this?”
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
She nodded again.
Maya pressed one hand over her mouth.
Rebecca turned to Elliot.
“You're going downtown.”
“Fine.”
“You're going to tell me every name you remember.”
“I will.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“And my father?”
Elliot looked at him.
“Your father wasn't the person running Project Forty-Seven.”
Daniel's shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly.
Then Elliot finished.
“He was the person who financed the man who did.”
“Who?”
Elliot didn't answer.
Rebecca noticed.
“You're afraid to say his name.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because as far as I know, he's still alive.”
Nathan looked toward Claire.
Her eyes suddenly widened.
She began pulling against the tube.
“Claire, calm down.”
Her hand reached for the board.
Nathan gave it to her.
She wrote one word.
PHONE.
“Your phone?”
She shook her head.
Then pointed toward Daniel.
Daniel took his phone from his pocket.
Claire shook her head harder.
PURSE.
“The phone in your purse?”
She nodded.
Nathan remembered Daniel saying her purse had been left at the gala.
Rebecca made another call.
“Get officers to the event venue. Find Claire Bennett's purse.”
Daniel stepped close to the bed.
“Claire, what is on the phone?”
Her hand trembled.
She wrote.
VIDEO.
“Of what?”
Claire looked at Elliot.
Then Daniel.
Then Nathan.
Her eyes filled with terror.
She wrote three letters.
T B.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Nathan looked at him.
“Thomas Bennett?”
Claire nodded.
Daniel whispered, “My father is dead.”
Claire shook her head.
No.
Daniel stared at her.
“No?”
Claire wrote another word.
RECENT.
Nathan felt ice move down his spine.
“Claire, are you saying you have a recent video of Daniel's father?”
She nodded.
Daniel staggered backward.
“That isn't possible.”
Rebecca's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed immediately.
“What do you mean it's gone?”
Nathan turned.
She listened.
“Who took it?”
Another pause.
“When?”
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
Then at Nathan.
“Lock down the hospital.”
“What happened?” Nathan asked.
“The officers reached the gala.”
“And?”
“Claire's purse was gone.”
Daniel stared.
Rebecca continued.
“Security footage shows someone removing it nine minutes after the ambulance left.”
“Who?”
“They're sending me the image.”
Her phone buzzed.
She opened it.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she turned the screen toward Daniel.
Nathan saw an older man in a dark coat walking out of the gala ballroom carrying Claire's purse.
Daniel made a sound Nathan had never heard from him before.
A broken whisper.
“Dad.”
Nathan stared at the image.
Thomas Bennett had been buried six years earlier.
May you like
But the timestamp was from tonight.
And in the photograph, the dead man was looking directly into the security camera.
