Chương 6
They transferred her to an inpatient room before sunrise.
Adrian stayed in the chair beside the bed until she slept.
At 5:40 a.m., Daniel Brooks brought him coffee and a dark sweatshirt.
Brooks had changed out of the clothes he wore at the penthouse.
He handed Adrian the cup.
“Drink.”
“I’m not one of your corpsmen.”
“No. They listen.”
Adrian drank.
The coffee was terrible.
“Where are the babies?”
“Neonatal unit under separate access controls. Detective put an officer outside.”
“Together?”
“For now.”
“Vivian?”
“Arrested.”
Adrian looked up.
Brooks nodded.
“Assault charge pending review. They photographed her hands. Blood on the right glove is being tested.”
“Claire Mercer?”
“Alive. Different floor at St. Catherine. Recovering from emergency C-section.”
“Her baby?”
Brooks sat in the window chair.
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“St. Catherine reported Claire Mercer delivered a girl.”
“I know.”
“They also reported the infant had no spontaneous respirations for several minutes.”
Adrian stared.
“Then improved?”
“According to the electronic chart.”
“During the outage.”
Brooks nodded.
“Back-entered later.”
“By who?”
“Vivian Mercer.”
Adrian put the coffee down.
Brooks watched him.
“Do not do the thing.”
“What thing?”
“The thing where your face goes empty and you decide you’re going to personally kick down every locked door in the District of Columbia.”
“I don’t do that.”
“You absolutely do that.”
“What does Claire know?”
“Unknown.”
“Does she think the girl is hers?”
“Probably.”
“Is she asking for her?”
“I would.”
Adrian looked toward Elena’s bed.
She slept on her uninjured side.
“You said command issued the override.”
Brooks’s expression changed.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Duty office.”
“Name.”
“Adrian.”
“Name.”
“Lieutenant Owen Pike.”
Adrian knew him.
Twenty-seven. Good officer. New father. Nervous around admirals. Adrian had signed his warfare qualification recommendation six months earlier.
“Why?”
“Mercer called from a verified hospital line and identified herself as Elena’s physician. Said Mrs. Cole had left against medical advice after a postpartum psychiatric emergency and that neonatal lives were at risk.”
Adrian said nothing.
Brooks continued.
“She requested a medical welfare override. Pike followed the contact sheet.”
“My contact sheet.”
“Yes.”
Adrian had written the policy.
After a threat against a senior officer the previous year, residents in Navy-leased secure housing could authorize trusted medical and command personnel for emergency access.
Vivian Mercer was on Adrian’s list.
He had put her there during Elena’s complicated pregnancy.
“Pike didn’t give her my code.”
“No. He generated a one-time code.”
“So Elena was right.”
Brooks nodded.
“Your command did.”
Adrian leaned back.
It was easier to be furious with betrayal than procedure.
Procedure was more intimate.
Procedure had his handwriting on it.
At seven, he received three calls.
The first came from his executive officer.
The second from base legal.
The third from Rear Admiral Harlan.
Adrian ignored the first two.
He answered the third.
“Cole.”
“Where are you?”
“Hospital.”
“I heard.”
Adrian waited.
Harlan cleared his throat.
“I’m told your wife is stable.”
“Yes.”
“And the infants?”
“Alive.”
A pause.
“Both?”
The word carried more information than Harlan probably intended.
Adrian stood and stepped into the hallway.
“What have you been told?”
“That there was an incident involving Dr. Mercer.”
“By whom?”
“Command security notified my staff when civilian police requested the override record.”
Adrian looked through the narrow glass panel in Elena’s door.
She was still sleeping.
“Harlan, someone at my command gave a woman access to my home. That woman is accused of stabbing my wife.”
“I understand the seriousness.”
“No. You understand the sentence.”
“Adrian.”
There were people in the corridor. Nurses. A man carrying flowers. A woman in pajama pants holding two coffees and crying quietly into one sleeve.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing right now.”
“That’s not why you called.”
Another pause.
“The change-of-command announcement is scheduled Friday.”
Adrian stared through the glass.
“My wife was stabbed twelve hours ago.”
“I know.”
“My daughter may have been stolen.”
“I know.”
“You called about Friday.”
“I called because there will be press questions if the police report connects your residence, your command, and an alleged infant abduction.”
Adrian felt something almost like amusement.
Not because it was funny.
Because reality had become too precisely absurd.
“What would you like me to do?”
“I’d like you to say nothing publicly until legal has a complete picture.”
“I wasn’t planning a press conference.”
“Good.”
“Harlan.”
“Yes?”
“Did you know Mercer’s daughter was a patient at St. Catherine?”
“No.”
“Did you know Mercer had emergency access to my residence?”
A pause.
“I knew she was on your medical contact authorization.”
That answer mattered.
Adrian let it sit.
“So did I,” he said.
He ended the call.
When he returned to the room, Elena was awake.
“You look like you want to punch an admiral.”
“I don’t punch admirals.”
“Budget cuts?”
He looked at her.
This time she smiled faintly.
It disappeared quickly.
“Did they identify her?”
“Not yet.”
She nodded.
For the first time, she looked toward the empty corner where a bassinet should have been.
Adrian sat beside her.
“I’m sorry.”
“For which thing?”
“Leaving.”
She closed her eyes.
“That one will do for now.”
The biological testing took longer than Adrian wanted and less time than the hospital lawyers wanted.
A judge authorized a limited emergency parentage test after police, child-protection officials, and both families agreed that medical care could not remain entangled with disputed identity longer than necessary.
Claire Mercer asked for independent testing.
So did Adrian.
Neither trusted St. Catherine.
The samples went to an outside accredited laboratory under documented custody.
Two days passed.
Elena remained hospitalized the first night and was discharged the next afternoon.
They did not go home.
The marble had been cleaned, but Elena refused even to enter the building.
Brooks arranged a room at a secure Navy lodging facility, then pretended he had not arranged it.
“You’re not supposed to do favors,” Adrian told him.
“I didn’t.”
“Who did?”
“A person.”
“What person?”
“One with access to a room.”
May you like
Adrian looked at him.
Brooks shrugged.
