Chapter 11 - The Trade
I walked into St. Catherine’s through the employee entrance wearing a dead man’s badge.
Ortiz had borrowed it from Evidence.
Mara came ten paces behind me in a hospital coat.
The real microSD stayed with Ortiz.
The card in my pocket was a duplicate loaded with junk files.
Reed chose the old surgical education wing for the exchange.
Closed for renovation.
No patients.
No cameras on the public map.
Which meant there were cameras.
I reached the lecture room first.
Lucy sat in the front row.
Eleanor stood behind her.
Reed leaned against the podium.
“No police?” he asked.
“No.”
He smiled.
“You’ve become a poor liar.”
“Let her go.”
“Card.”
I took it out.
Reed held out his hand.
Lucy stared at me.
Her lower lip shook once.
I crossed half the room.
Reed said, “Stop.”
I stopped.
“Mara.”
She entered from the side door.
Eleanor’s face tightened.
Mara said, “You should have killed me when you had the chance.”
Reed shrugged.
“Too many bodies create patterns.”
I tossed the card onto the floor between us.
“Take it.”
Reed did not move.
Eleanor did.
She picked it up, slid it into a tablet, and waited.
The screen populated with meaningless files.
Reed sighed.
“Adrian.”
He sounded disappointed.
Then he turned the tablet toward me.
A different folder opened.
Not from my card.
From his server.
Transfer approvals.
Dozens.
My electronic signature on every page.
“Five years,” Reed said. “You’ve been useful for five years.”
Mara went rigid.
I said, “You cloned my credentials.”
“Eventually.”
“Eventually?”
“Rachel suspected you first.”
The words hit harder than I expected.
Reed saw it.
“She found your signature on transfers. She thought you were hiding something from her.”
“That’s a lie.”
“It became a lie after she confronted me.”
I moved one step toward him.
Eleanor lifted a gun.
Lucy flinched.
Reed continued.
“You trusted me so completely I barely had to work. Your token. Your scheduling privileges. Your old teaching laptop. You left doors open everywhere.”
Sirens rose outside.
Too early.
Reed smiled.
“Right on time.”
He pushed Lucy toward me.
I caught her.
Then Reed raised both hands and shouted toward the hall:
“Police! He has the child!”
The doors burst open.
Weapons came up.
Reed dropped to his knees like a victim.
Eleanor slid the gun under a chair.
An officer screamed, “Dr. Shaw, get your hands where I can see them!”
Lucy wrapped both arms around my neck.
Then she opened her mouth and screamed the first clear words I had ever heard from her.
May you like
“HE KILLED RACHEL!”
