Part 11
“Then read the one in the cabinet.”
Mara leaned closer without touching it.
Her face lost color.
“What?” Daniel demanded.
“It has the same lot number.”
Grant spoke into his wrist microphone.
“Lock down the floor.”
Daniel looked at him. “No one leaves the property.”
Grant repeated the instruction.
Mara remained crouched beside the open storage case.
“The cabinet was locked,” she said.
“Who has keys?” Daniel asked.
“I do. The agency supervisor has an emergency key sealed downstairs.”
“Anyone else?”
“The cabinet also opens with a coded override.”
“Who knows the code?”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t know the code to your own cabinet?”
“It belongs to the agency.”
“Who at the house has it?”
“No one should.”
Daniel almost laughed at the word again.
Should.
Every danger in the room seemed protected by that word.
He walked to the doorway and called into the sitting room.
“Corinne. Evelyn. Get in here.”
They returned immediately.
Evelyn saw the open medication case, then the vial on the blanket.
“What happened?”
“There are two.”
Corinne approached the cabinet and crouched beside Mara.
“Don’t touch it,” Mara said.
Corinne stopped.
Daniel explained what Lucy had said and how Mara found the second vial. As he spoke, the facts sounded impossible. Yet both red seals remained in sight, their identical labels giving the lie a physical form.
Evelyn looked at Mara. “You are certain you checked the cabinet at six fifteen?”
“Yes.”
“Documented?”
“Yes.”
“Was anyone with you?”
“No.”
Daniel closed his eyes briefly.
Of course.
Every critical moment had happened alone.
Evelyn turned to Grant. “Who entered this room between six and ten?”
Grant consulted the access log on his security device.
“Ms. Ellison. Mr. Vale. Lucy’s physical therapist, escorted. Housekeeping at seven ten, also escorted. Dr. Bell at nine fifty. You entered at ten forty-eight.”
“Anyone enter the medication cabinet?”
“We don’t have internal cabinet monitoring.”
“Who approached it?”
Grant looked uncomfortable. “The room camera doesn’t cover the cabinet directly.”
Daniel stared at him. “There’s a camera in my daughter’s bedroom?”
“It faces the door and exterior windows only.”
“Since when?”
“Since the driver report.”
Evelyn said, “I authorized it.”
“Without telling me?”
“It does not show the bed.”
“You put surveillance in her room.”
“To protect her.”
Lucy whispered, “Stop.”
No one heard except Mara.
The nurse crossed to the bed and knelt, but she kept her hands visible and away from Lucy.
“What do you need?” she asked.
Lucy’s lower lip trembled.
“Everybody to stop.”
Mara turned toward the adults.
“Outside,” she said.
Daniel started to object.
Mara’s expression stopped him.
Not authority. Not defiance.
Protection.
“Everyone except Daniel,” she said. “Give her two minutes.”
Evelyn looked at her son.
Daniel nodded.
Corinne closed the medication case without touching the vials, using the outer edges of the lid. Grant withdrew to the hall. Evelyn followed, pausing once as though she wanted to say something to Lucy, then deciding against it.
Mara remained until they were gone.
“Do you want me outside too?” she asked Lucy.
The girl shook her head.
Daniel sat beside her.
Mara moved to the opposite side but did not touch her.
Lucy stared at the rabbit.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Daniel leaned closer. “For what?”
“I made it worse.”
“No. You didn’t.”
“I said the bottle.”
“You did exactly right.”
“Everybody got louder.”
“That’s my fault.”
Mara looked down.
Daniel forced himself to continue.
“Not yours. Mine.”
Lucy rubbed the rabbit’s ear. “Is Mara bad?”
The question broke something open in the room.
Daniel looked at Mara.
Her face remained calm for Lucy, but her eyes shone.
“I don’t know what happened yet,” he said.
“That’s not what I asked.”
He swallowed.
“No,” he said. “I don’t think Mara is bad.”
The nurse looked at him.
He could not tell whether the answer relieved or hurt her.
Lucy considered it.
“Then don’t talk like she is.”
Daniel lowered his head.
“You’re right.”
Mara breathed in slowly and pressed her lips together.
Lucy looked at her. “Did you show me the red bottle last night?”
Mara shook her head. “I showed you the blue-sealed vial from the cabinet.”
“It looked red.”
“The room was dark. The night-light is pink.”
Lucy frowned. “Maybe.”
Daniel looked at Mara. “Why did you show it to her?”
“She asked whether the medicine was the same as the hospital medicine. I showed her the label and explained that she could decide whether she wanted the rescue dose. She said no after her back felt better.”
“Did you put it back?”
“Yes.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“No.”
Again.
Mara looked toward the doorway.
“I need to check the administration log.”
“Why?”
“If someone added a second vial, they may have altered inventory records too.”
Daniel stood.
“You’re not touching the tablet.”
“I don’t need to. Corinne can access it.”
“You’re staying here.”
Mara’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Am I being detained?”
The word startled him.
“No.”
“Then be careful what you ask security to do.”
“I’m trying to preserve evidence.”
“And I am telling you that confining staff without legal authority can damage the investigation you say you want.”
“You sound prepared.”
“I am a nurse. I have worked in homes where frightened families blamed the nearest employee.”
The sentence sat between them.
Daniel looked away.
“How many times?”
“Enough.”
“Were they wrong?”
“Sometimes.”
“And the other times?”
Mara’s face closed.
“That is not Lucy’s story.”
He understood the boundary and hated that he had tried to cross it.
Lucy’s eyelids lowered.
Mara watched her breathing.
“She needs rest,” she said.
“She needs medication.”
“Not from either vial.”
“What happens if she misses the dose?”
“We have an alternative medication in sealed unit packaging. It requires physician confirmation before substitution.”
“Call the covering doctor.”
“Corinne is doing that.”
“How long can Lucy wait?”
“Thirty minutes without concern. Longer depending on her symptoms.”
“You said not indefinitely.”
“I still mean that.”
Daniel nodded.
He did not apologize.
May you like
Not yet.
Mara raised the bed rail and adjusted the pillow beneath Lucy’s shoulders. This time Daniel did not stop her. Lucy leaned into the support and closed her eyes.
