Chương 6
“Fair.”
“I told him you lived far away.”
“Less fair.”
“I told him you didn’t know about him.”
Adrian’s eyes lifted.
“He thinks that means you might come when you do know,” she said. “Children are cruel that way. They keep hope in places adults have already cleaned out.”
Adrian looked at Ethan again.
“Why Blackwood?” Claire asked.
“What?”
“The hospital donor system. Why would your blood be in a regional emergency registry?”
“My company funds a private medical program for employees and their families. Executives are typed and screened twice a year. Kidnapping precautions.”
“That is a sentence normal people never say.”
“I have never claimed to be normal.”
“No. You claimed not to be dangerous to me.”
“I was wrong.”
The words came without defense.
Claire waited for more.
He gave none.
Her phone vibrated on the counter. Detective Alvarez had sent a message asking her to step into the hall.
Claire rose. “Do not touch him.”
Adrian looked offended.
“I mean the lines.”
“I know what you meant.”
“You once tried to reset your own broken finger with a spoon.”
“It worked.”
“It pointed left for a year.”
A faint, unwilling smile touched his mouth.
It vanished when she left the room.
Alvarez waited beside the nurses’ station with a woman Claire had not seen before. The woman wore a charcoal suit and held a hospital badge that read EVELYN PARK, RISK AND COMPLIANCE.
“We confirmed an unauthorized chart access,” Alvarez said. “Eighteen minutes before Mr. Blackwood received the text.”
“From where?”
Park answered. “An external account connected to the Blackwood Medical Foundation.”
Claire looked through the glass at Adrian.
He had not changed position.
“Who has that access?”
“We are still determining that.”
“Determine faster.”
Park’s expression tightened. “The foundation supports several hospital programs. Access structures are complicated.”
“Complicated means many people?”
“It means permissions were layered over time.”
“It means nobody wanted to delete a donor with money,” Alvarez said.
Park glanced at her.
Claire asked, “Could Gavin Rusk access it?”
Park did not answer immediately.
Alvarez did. “The administrator credential that opened Ethan’s chart was last reset by an employee at Blackwood Protective Services.”
“Gavin.”
“We don’t have proof he used it.”
“He erased the cameras.”
“His company erased the cameras.”
“He was with Adrian when the message arrived.”
“That could make him a witness, an accomplice, or a man standing near a phone.”
Claire pressed her hand against the counter. “He knew the shutters would come down.”
Park looked at her. “What?”
“In the trauma room, Adrian told him to raise the west exit. Gavin signaled the opposite first. Like he already had control.”
Alvarez wrote it down.
“Can you arrest him?” Claire asked.
“Not for making a hand gesture.”
“For deleting evidence.”
“He claims it was standard security procedure, and the footage may still exist on a company server. We need the warrant.”
“How long?”
“A judge is reviewing it.”
Claire almost asked how a child could be poisoned faster than a warrant could be signed. She knew the answer would be procedure, probable cause, jurisdiction, words that were reasonable until they stood beside Ethan’s bed.
“Can you keep Gavin out of the hospital?”
“Hospital security can revoke visitor access.”
Park shook her head. “Mr. Blackwood’s team is coordinating with our security office under the threat protocol.”
Claire stared at her. “You are letting the company that deleted your video coordinate security?”
“We are managing an active public-safety concern.”
“You are managing liability.”
Park’s cheeks colored.
Alvarez stepped between them. “I’ll put an officer outside Ethan’s room.”
Claire looked through the glass again.
Adrian had moved closer to the bed. He was not touching Ethan. He sat with his elbows on his knees, looking at the small wooden train on the windowsill as if it had asked him a question.
“Put the officer outside,” Claire said. “And keep Gavin away.”
When she returned, Adrian looked up.
“What did Alvarez want?”
“Your foundation opened Ethan’s chart before you got the message.”
His expression did not change quickly enough.
Claire saw the delay.
“You knew there was a breach.”
“I knew the foundation had access.”
“That is not what I said.”
Adrian stood and moved toward the glass. “Gavin manages emergency medical coordination.”
“Of course he does.”
“He has managed it for eleven years.”
“And you trust him.”
“With my life.”
Claire looked at Ethan. “That is not the life I’m worried about.”
Adrian turned back.
“Gavin had a son,” he said. “Noah. He died nine years ago.”
“What happened?”
“A kidnapping.”
Claire waited.
Adrian rubbed his thumb across the indentation where his watch usually sat. “A rival group took two people from one of our warehouses. Noah had come to bring his father dinner. He was sixteen.”
“Did you get him back?”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
“We located the building. There was disagreement about whether to pay or move in.”
“What did Gavin want?”
“To pay.”
“What did you choose?”
Adrian’s eyes remained on the dark window. “I chose the building.”
Claire felt the old fear returning, but it had changed shape. It was no longer fear of what Adrian might do. It was fear of what he had already done and carried so quietly.
“Did Noah die there?”
“Yes.”
“And Gavin stayed with you?”
“He had nowhere else to put what happened.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
Ethan made a small sound.
Both of them turned.
His eyelids fluttered but did not open. Claire moved to the bed and took his hand. Adrian remained a step behind her.
“Ethan,” she whispered. “Mom’s here.”
His mouth moved.
Claire leaned closer.
A breath passed his lips. Then another.
“Green,” he whispered.
“What, baby?”
His brow tightened. “Mr. Green.”
“Who is Mr. Green?”
His eyes opened a fraction, unfocused. “Said… from Dad.”
The monitor quickened.
“Don’t make him talk,” Adrian said.
Claire looked over her shoulder. “I know.”
May you like
Ethan’s fingers tightened weakly around hers.
“Who said it was from Dad?”
