Chapter 4 - The Nurse Dominic Vale Couldn’t Control
By sunrise, Dominic had turned one of the dining rooms into an investigation center.
I objected to the phrase.
“It sounds like a television show.”
Marco handed me coffee.
“You’re criticizing the room now?”
“I’m coping.”
Dominic stood over the table reading reports.
He had changed again.
Dark charcoal shirt.
Sleeves rolled to his forearms.
No jacket.
He looked less like the man who had stepped out of a black SUV and more like someone who had been awake too long worrying about his brother.
I hated that it made him seem human.
It was easier when he was simply intimidating.
“Blue boxes,” he said.
I nodded.
“Horizon supplies. Surgical kits, IV sets, emergency accessories. Some are blue.”
“Leo said that to you?”
“Right before he lost consciousness.”
“And you never reported it?”
“I thought he was confused.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Get photos of every Horizon product St. Jude’s purchases.”
Marco left.
I looked at Dominic.
“You’re not sending people into the hospital.”
“I didn’t say I was.”
“You were thinking it.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“You can read minds?”
“No. You’re predictable.”
“I’ve been called many things. Predictable isn’t one.”
“Congratulations.”
His mouth almost moved.
Not quite a smile.
But close.
Then his expression hardened again.
“We need to know what Leo meant.”
“We also need to know where Evelyn is.”
“We’re looking.”
“I want to speak to her family.”
“No.”
I stared.
“Excuse me?”
“They may be watched.”
“So may I.”
“Exactly.”
“You really enjoy deciding things for other people.”
“I enjoy keeping them alive.”
“That argument is getting old.”
His jaw tightened.
I picked up my phone.
“I’m calling Evelyn’s assistant.”
He reached for the phone.
I pulled it away.
“Try it.”
We stared at each other.
Something electric passed through the room.
Not fear.
Not exactly anger either.
Dominic stepped back.
“Fine.”
“Thank you.”
“But use a secure line.”
I sighed.
“Compromise. Look at us.”
Evelyn’s assistant, Melissa Grant, answered on the fourth ring.
Her voice shook.
“Clare?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my God. Are you okay?”
“Are you?”
“Security told everyone not to discuss what happened.”
“What happened?”
A pause.
“Evelyn never came home.”
“I know.”
“How?”
I looked at Dominic.
“Long story.”
Melissa lowered her voice.
“She was terrified after your termination meeting.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
That surprised me.
“Then what?”
“She received a call.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know. Afterward she locked her door. She kept asking whether the board had already accessed the disciplinary file.”
“What file?”
“Yours.”
I looked at Dominic.
“Why?”
Melissa hesitated.
“Clare, the official report says you were fired because you endangered a patient.”
“I know.”
“But Evelyn didn’t believe it.”
My chest tightened.
“What do you mean?”
“She told me Dr. Weber’s report had been altered.”
I sat straighter.
“Altered how?”
“The timeline.”
Dominic moved closer.
Melissa continued.
“The original nursing record showed the patient’s oxygen was collapsing for several minutes before you intervened. The copy submitted to the board made it look like you acted before there was any crisis.”
“That’s impossible. Clinical records log changes.”
“Normally.”
“Who altered it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Evelyn knew?”
“I think she found out after the decision was already made.”
Dominic’s expression had turned cold.
“What happened then?” I asked.
“She tried to access the original server backup.”
“And?”
“I heard her arguing with Dr. Weber.”
My pulse quickened.
“What did she say?”
Melissa took a breath.
“She said, ‘If this connects to Horizon, we’re calling federal investigators.’”
The room went silent.
Dominic held out his hand.
I put the phone on speaker.
“Melissa,” he said.
She stopped breathing for a second.
“Who is this?”
“Someone trying to find Evelyn.”
I gave him a look.
“Comforting introduction.”
He ignored me.
“Did Davis mention a blue shipment?”
Melissa hesitated.
“Yes.”
My heartbeat jumped.
“What?” I asked.
“She said three emergency supply boxes arrived without being entered into inventory.”
“Horizon boxes?” Dominic asked.
“Yes.”
“What happened to them?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic leaned toward the phone.
“Think.”
Melissa’s voice became nervous.
I touched his arm.
“Don’t intimidate her.”
He looked at my hand.
Then at me.
I removed it.
“Melissa,” I said more gently. “Did Evelyn say where the boxes went?”
A pause.
“One.”
“What?”
“One was moved.”
“Where?”
“Trauma storage. The others disappeared.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“Who signed for them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out,” I said.
“I can’t. They suspended my access this morning.”
“Why?”
“Because they said I was too close to Evelyn.”
My stomach tightened.
“Go home.”
“I am home.”
“Lock your doors.”
Dominic shook his head.
I understood.
“Actually, don’t stay alone.”
“Clare, what is happening?”
“I don’t know yet.”
That was the truth.
After we ended the call, Dominic looked at me.
“You need to stop contacting people.”
“No.”
“Every person you call becomes visible.”
“They’re already visible.”
“You don’t know that.”
“And you don’t know they aren’t.”
He rubbed his temple.
“You are the most difficult person I have met in years.”
“I’m honored.”
Marco returned carrying a laptop.
“We found the Horizon shipment records.”
He placed the screen on the table.
Rows of invoices appeared.
Hospital equipment.
Batch numbers.
Delivery dates.
Payments.
At first, nothing looked unusual.
Then I saw a number.
“Wait.”
I pointed.
“This order is wrong.”
Dominic looked.
“How?”
“Quantity.”
The invoice listed two hundred emergency vascular kits.
“St. Jude’s doesn’t use that many in a month.”
“Could be stock.”
“No. Expiration rules. Storage limits. Somebody ordering that quantity would trigger a review.”
Marco scrolled.
Another identical order.
And another.
Millions of dollars.
Supplies apparently purchased.
Maybe never delivered.
“What are the blue boxes?” Dominic asked.
I read the product code.
My stomach tightened.
“They aren’t routine supplies.”
“What are they?”
“Controlled emergency infusion accessories.”
Marco frowned.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning hospitals track them carefully.”
Dominic leaned over the screen.
“So fake purchases of tracked equipment.”
“Maybe.”
“Why use something easy to audit?”
“Unless the equipment isn’t the point.”
He looked at me.
“What is?”
“Movement.”
“Explain.”
“Hospitals receive thousands of shipments. If someone wants to move something through a medical supply chain, you hide it inside legitimate orders.”
Marco stared.
“Money?”
“Documents. Drugs. Anything.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“Or cash.”
The encrypted flash drive from Julian’s room was delivered thirty minutes later.
Unlocked.
It contained payment ledgers.
Names.
Account numbers.
Hospital initials.
One repeated code.
SJ-14.
“St. Jude’s,” I said.
Marco nodded.
Then we found a list of payments.
D. WEBER — CONSULTING
E. DAVIS — ADMINISTRATIVE ACCESS
J. VALE — DISTRIBUTION AUTHORIZATION
I stared.
“Evelyn?”
Dominic’s face was hard.
“She was being paid.”
“No.”
“The list says otherwise.”
“No.”
“You knew her for nine years?”
“I knew enough.”
“She fired you.”
“Because someone forced her.”
“That is an assumption.”
“And yours isn’t?”
His eyes narrowed.
I pointed at the screen.
“She tried to warn me. She argued with Weber. She was going to investigators.”
Dominic said nothing.
I knew what he was thinking.
People betrayed him.
People lied.
To Dominic Vale, evidence always mattered more than faith.
Maybe that had kept him alive.
Maybe it had also left him alone.
“Look at dates,” I said.
Marco filtered the payments.
Evelyn’s payments began seven months earlier.
Then stopped six weeks ago.
Weber’s continued.
Julian’s continued.
“That matters,” I said.
“How?”
“Maybe she accepted money. Maybe she discovered what it really was.”
Dominic studied the screen.
“Or maybe she got nervous.”
“Either way, she might still be alive.”
Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“We found Julian.”
Dominic stood.
“Where?”
“A warehouse on South Halsted.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Bring him.”
“He’s asking to speak to you there.”
“No.”
“He says he has Evelyn Davis.”
I was on my feet immediately.
Dominic looked at me.
“You’re staying here.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Evelyn is there because of something connected to me.”
“She is there because of my uncle.”
“And my hospital.”
“Clare.”
“No.”
Marco looked between us.
“I’m going,” I said.
Dominic stepped closer.
“You are not walking into a warehouse controlled by a man who may have poisoned Adrian.”
“Then take your security.”
“He specifically requested me alone.”
“Are you planning to do that?”
“No.”
“Then apparently we both ignore instructions.”
His eyes closed briefly.
Marco whispered, “I like her.”
Dominic glared at him.
“Not helping.”
Forty minutes later, I sat in the back of Dominic’s SUV.
He was furious.
I was equally furious.
Neither of us spoke.
Finally he said, “If anything happens, you stay behind me.”
“I’m a nurse, not luggage.”
“Clare.”
“What?”
“For once in your life, listen.”
“For once in your life, ask instead of command.”
His jaw tightened.
Then, after several seconds, he said:
“Please stay behind me.”
I blinked.
“Well.”
“Don’t make this memorable.”
“It already is.”
The warehouse was nearly empty.
Julian Vale stood beneath a hanging industrial light.
Late fifties.
Silver hair.
Elegant overcoat.
He looked nothing like a traitor.
Evelyn sat in a chair several feet away.
Alive.
Terrified.
Unhurt.
I started forward.
Dominic caught my arm.
“Wait.”
Julian smiled faintly.
“Nurse Brennan.”
“You know me.”
“Everyone knows you now.”
Dominic’s voice turned cold.
“Let her go.”
Julian looked at him.
“You always did skip the conversation.”
“You tried to kill Adrian.”
“No.”
“Your watch was on camera.”
“My watch was stolen two weeks ago.”
Dominic went still.
I looked at him.
Julian slowly raised his hands.
“I did not attack Adrian. I did not poison him. And I did not hurt Ms. Davis.”
Evelyn nodded quickly.
“He brought me here because someone else was looking for me.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Why run from the house?”
“Because the person who tried to kill Adrian is still inside it.”
Dominic did not react.
Julian reached slowly into his coat.
Three of Dominic’s men moved.
“Easy,” Julian said.
He removed a small envelope.
“Leo gave me this before his accident.”
Dominic stared.
“What is it?”
“Insurance.”
He tossed it onto the floor between them.
Dominic did not move.
I picked it up.
Inside was a photograph.
Dr. Weber standing beside a man I recognized from Dominic’s mansion.
Victor Kane.
Dominic’s security chief.
On the back was a date.
Three weeks earlier.
And one handwritten sentence.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, VICTOR IS THE DOOR.
Dominic stared at the photograph.
His face went blank.
Victor controlled the mansion cameras.
Victor knew Adrian’s route.
Victor knew the medical room.
Victor had been the one to “discover” the footage implicating Julian.
I whispered, “Dominic.”
He was already reaching for his phone.
No signal.
Marco checked his.
“Jammer.”
Julian’s expression changed.
“That’s not mine.”
Then the warehouse lights went out.
Darkness swallowed us.
Someone shouted.
A metal door slammed.
And from somewhere near the loading dock came the sound of an engine starting.
Dominic’s hand found mine in the dark.
“Stay with me.”
Then Evelyn screamed.
When emergency lights flickered on seconds later, her chair was empty.
So was Julian.
And on the concrete floor where Julian had been standing was Dominic’s phone.
Its screen was cracked.
A single new message glowed across it.
COME HOME, DOMINIC.
ADRIAN IS AWAKE.
May you like
HE’S READY TO TELL YOU WHO GAVE THE ORDER.
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