Chapter 6 - The Hospital Mateo Refused to EnterBy sunset, Kora had changed into borrowed clothes and returned to the hospital she had sworn never to enter again.
Mercer Central Medical Center towered over Fifth Street.
Its glass façade reflected the evening sky.
Kora stood across the road.
Mateo had warned her.
“The chief surgeon belongs to Dominico.”
Kora had once worked under that chief surgeon.
Dr. Wallace Brenner.
The same man who signed her termination.
Gino waited beside her.
“We can leave.”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
She crossed the street anyway.
Inside, memories attacked before people did.
The smell of antiseptic.
The elevator chime.
Blue scrubs.
Rolling stretchers.
The emergency department where she had spent countless nights saving strangers.
And where one accusation had destroyed her career.
The receptionist looked up.
Then froze.
“Kora?”
“Hi, Melissa.”
“You’re—”
“Alive?”
Melissa glanced toward security.
“Apparently.”
Kora lowered her voice.
“I need access to my personnel record.”
“You know I can’t—”
“You were on shift the night the narcotics disappeared.”
Melissa went still.
Kora continued.
“You told investigators you saw me leave at seven.”
“I did.”
“My electronic badge supposedly accessed Pharmacy B at nine thirty.”
Melissa’s expression changed.
“I remember.”
“Someone used my credentials.”
“Kora—”
“Please.”
Melissa looked toward the hallway.
Then whispered, “Sublevel records.”
Gino and Kora took the service elevator down.
The archive room was unlocked.
Too easy.
Kora immediately stopped.
“What?”
Gino asked.
“Someone wants us here.”
The lights went out.
Gino swore.
A door slammed behind them.
Kora heard footsteps.
She grabbed his arm.
“Don’t chase.”
“Why?”
“Because that's what they expect.”
Emergency lighting flickered on.
Smoke began pouring beneath a door.
Gino stared.
“Again?”
Kora’s pulse accelerated.
But this smoke smelled different.
Artificial.
A diversion.
She crossed to the file cabinets.
“Find B.”
“Kora—”
“BELL.”
They searched.
Nothing.
Her personnel file was missing.
But in its place lay a white envelope.
Her name handwritten across it.
Kora opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Her mother.
Elena Bell.
Standing beside Dr. Brenner.
The date stamp showed the photograph had been taken two days before Elena died.
On the back, someone had written:
ASK WHAT SHE FOUND IN ROOM 614.
The alarm began screaming.
Gino grabbed Kora.
“We’re leaving.”
They reached the stairs just as security flooded the corridor.
And leading them was Dr. Wallace Brenner.
He looked older.
But Kora recognized the fear in his face immediately.
Not surprise.
Fear.
“Kora.”
She held up the photograph.
“What was in Room 614?”
Brenner’s face drained.
Behind him, one security guard slowly reached for his radio.
Brenner whispered:
“You shouldn’t have come back.”
Kora took one step toward him.
“My mother came here two days before she died.”
Brenner closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“What did she find?”
May you like
When he opened them again, his voice was almost inaudible.
“Proof that Dominico Vale had been paying for people to disappear.”
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