Chương 8
“Gavin?”
“I didn’t know Gavin.”
“You knew his name.”
“Everyone in your office knew his name. People stopped laughing when he walked into a room.”
Adrian set the damaged cup on the vending machine.
“What exactly did you take?”
“Why? So you can help the police?”
“So I can understand why someone poisoned a child.”
Claire shook her head. “You don’t get the files.”
“If Gavin knows about them—”
“You still trust him.”
“I trust what he has done for eleven years.”
“No. You trust the version of him that lets you sleep.”
Adrian’s face tightened.
Claire continued before fear could catch up. “You told me Noah died because you chose the building instead of the ransom. What was in that building?”
“Men who had killed two of mine.”
“And Noah.”
“We did not know whether he was still alive.”
“Gavin believed he was.”
“He believed what the kidnappers told him.”
“What did you believe?”
“That paying would invite more kidnappings.”
Claire stared at him. “A boy died so you could establish a policy.”
Adrian looked past her toward the dark hallway. “That is one way to say it.”
“What is the other?”
“There isn’t one that makes me better.”
The vending machine compressor clicked on.
Adrian rested both hands against the edge of the machine. “The files you took included communication logs from that night.”
Claire’s silence answered him.
His eyes closed briefly.
“You read them.”
“Some.”
“Did you see the second call?”
“I saw a timestamp.”
“Did you hear the recording?”
“There was no recording.”
“There was.”
“Not in the copy I took.”
Adrian looked at her sharply. “Then your copy was altered before you downloaded it.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
He stepped away from the machine. “The second call came after we had already entered the building. The kidnappers claimed Noah was at another location.”
“Did you redirect the team?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I thought they were lying to divide us.”
“And if they weren’t?”
His mouth tightened.
“You decided that too,” Claire said.
“Yes.”
The admission was quiet.
“What happened at the other location?”
“A fire. Noah’s body was found the next morning.”
Claire felt sick.
“Did Gavin know about the second call?”
“He knew after.”
“And he stayed.”
“He made me listen to the recording every year on the date Noah died.”
The detail was so strange and human that Claire could not answer.
Adrian picked up the ruined coffee cup and carried it to the trash.
“At first he played the whole thing,” he said. “Later, only Noah saying his name.”
“Your name?”
“Gavin’s.”
Claire pictured a father standing in a room once a year beside the man whose decision had killed his son, forcing both of them to listen.
“That is not loyalty,” she said.
“No.”
“What is it?”
“I stopped asking.”
He dropped the cup into the bin.
Claire watched him walk back toward Ethan’s room and understood, with a certainty that frightened her, that Gavin had not stayed because he had forgiven Adrian.
He had stayed because leaving would have ended his access.
At three-twenty in the morning, the hospital’s internal network went down for eleven minutes.
Backup systems kept the monitors running. Staff switched to paper notes and handheld devices. The lights did not fail, but printers stopped, doors briefly lost badge access, and every elevator on the pediatric side returned to the ground floor.
Maya swore under her breath while checking Ethan’s medication labels manually.
Claire stood beside the bed.
“What happened?”
“Probably an update crashing something it shouldn’t.”
“Do you believe that?”
“No.”
The officer outside tried his radio. Static answered.
Adrian entered from the corridor before Claire could stop him.
“Gavin is missing,” he said.
Alvarez appeared behind him. “He is not missing. He stopped answering his phone.”
“That is missing.”
“He was last seen in the security office.”
“Which is now locked.”
Maya looked at Ethan. “Take this conversation outside.”
The monitor gave a sudden rapid alarm.
Ethan’s heart rate climbed.
Dr. Ruiz arrived within seconds, pulling gloves onto her hands. She checked his pupils, abdomen, and lines while issuing short instructions. Claire backed toward the wall. Adrian stood beside her, close but not touching.
“What is happening?” Claire asked.
“His blood pressure is dropping again.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Maya examined the medication pump.
“The rate changed.”
Dr. Ruiz looked at her. “How much?”
“Not enough to explain this.”
“Disconnect it.”
Maya clamped the line.
Alvarez stepped into the doorway. “Was the pump connected to the network?”
“It can be,” Maya said. “Not for dosing changes without authorization.”
“Could someone alter it remotely?”
Park, the compliance officer, had arrived behind the detective. “Not under normal operation.”
Dr. Ruiz did not look away from Ethan. “This stopped being normal yesterday.”
Claire pressed both hands to her mouth.
Adrian moved toward the door.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To find Gavin.”
“No.”
He turned.
“You walk out now,” Claire said, “and every person in this hospital will assume you are going to kill him.”
“I’m not concerned with assumptions.”
“You should be. He wants you angry.”
Adrian’s nostrils flared.
Alvarez stepped forward. “She’s right.”
“Do not use her to control me.”
“I’m using your visible pattern of behavior.”
Ethan’s heart rate began to slow.
Dr. Ruiz checked the monitor. “Pressure is recovering.”
Maya examined the disconnected line. “The pump delivered an extra amount of anticoagulant.”
“How?” Claire asked.
“We need to pull the log.”
“The network is down,” Park said.
Maya looked at her. “Then find someone who knows where the paper manuals are.”
Adrian remained near the door.
Claire moved in front of him.
“Gavin knew the second call might mean Noah was alive,” she said. “He knew you chose not to redirect.”
“This is not the time.”
“It is exactly the time. He wants you to feel what he felt. He wants you to choose wrong while a child is dying.”
May you like
Something in Adrian’s face broke open and closed again.
Behind them, Gavin’s voice came through the hospital intercom.
