Chapter 14 - MIDNIGHT AT ST. VINCENT
At 11:58 P.M., Andrew walked into the abandoned children's wing alone.
At least, that was what whoever watched the entrance was supposed to believe.
Natalie had officers positioned three blocks away.
Thomas remained with Ashley.
Charles was under strict instructions to stay home.
Naturally, Charles ignored them.
Andrew discovered him behind a boarded pharmacy entrance.
“What are you doing?”
“Helping.”
“You're seventy.”
“Sixty-eight.”
“That's the part you object to?”
Charles lifted his chin.
“You're my son.”
Andrew stared.
A year earlier, those words would have made him angry.
Tonight they made him afraid.
“Stay here.”
Charles nodded.
Andrew knew that meant absolutely nothing.
He entered the building.
The old hospital smelled like dust, mildew and abandoned memories.
His flashlight moved across faded cartoon animals painted on the walls.
A smiling giraffe.
A blue elephant.
Stars.
Things designed to make sick children less frightened.
Now they looked haunted.
His phone buzzed.
SECOND FLOOR.
Andrew climbed.
Another message.
ROOM 203.
He entered.
Empty.
Except for a chair.
Leah's blue notebook goes here.
Andrew placed a duplicate notebook on the chair.
Natalie had the original.
He stepped back.
Nothing.
Then speakers crackled overhead.
A man's voice.
“You look like her.”
Andrew froze.
“Who are you?”
“Leah always looked angry when she was scared.”
“Where's Rebecca?”
“You sound angry too.”
“Where is she?”
A light turned on behind a glass observation window.
Rebecca sat tied to a chair.
Andrew rushed forward.
The door locked.
“Rebecca!”
She lifted her head.
“Andrew!”
“You okay?”
“No!”
Fair answer.
Then another figure stepped into the observation room.
A man.
Gray hair.
Hospital scrubs.
Andrew didn't recognize him.
But Rebecca did.
Her face collapsed.
“No.”
The man looked through the glass.
“Hello, Andrew.”
“Who are you?”
“Dr. Martin Vale.”
Andrew searched his memory.
Nothing.
Rebecca whispered:
“He was Emily's nephrologist.”
Andrew went still.
Dr. Vale smiled sadly.
“And Ashley's.”
Andrew's blood turned cold.
“No.”
“Not directly. But I reviewed her case.”
“Why?”
“Because Parker cases interested me.”
Andrew slammed his hand against the glass.
“What did you do to Emily?”
Vale's smile disappeared.
“I saved children.”
Rebecca screamed:
“You killed them!”
Vale turned toward her.
“I corrected mistakes.”
“You experimented on them!”
Andrew froze.
Experiments.
Vale looked back at him.
“Your wife used emotional words too.”
“You knew Leah.”
“Oh, very well.”
Andrew's hands curled.
“What happened?”
Vale sighed.
“Medicine advances because somebody goes first.”
Rebecca shouted:
“They didn't consent!”
Vale ignored her.
“Emily received an experimental immunosuppressive protocol. Early results were promising.”
“She died.”
“Complications occur.”
“You changed her chart.”
“To protect a program that could eventually save thousands.”
Andrew stared.
Eleven children.
Not accidents.
Not isolated mistakes.
An unauthorized experimental protocol.
Leah had discovered it.
Rebecca had helped her.
“Why didn't Rebecca expose you?”
Vale laughed.
“Because Rebecca signed the orders.”
Rebecca sobbed.
Andrew looked at her.
“I didn't know,” she said. “He told us it was an approved protocol. I was twenty-six. I trusted him.”
Vale shrugged.
“She became inconveniently moral afterward.”
Andrew felt sick.
“And Leah?”
Vale's face hardened.
“Leah found Emily's original chart.”
Andrew whispered:
“She was going to expose you.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
Vale said nothing.
Andrew stepped closer to the glass.
“What did you do to my wife?”
Rebecca began crying.
“Andrew…”
His eyes moved to her.
“What?”
“Leah didn't die from her illness.”
The world stopped.
Andrew stared.
“No.”
Rebecca's tears fell.
“I tried to tell you.”
“No.”
“I was scared.”
“NO.”
His voice echoed through the abandoned hospital.
Vale watched silently.
Andrew pressed both hands against the glass.
“What happened?”
Rebecca whispered:
“She was given potassium.”
Andrew knew enough from Ashley's medical history to understand.
Too much potassium could stop a heart.
“She was already weak,” Rebecca continued. “Everybody assumed cardiac complications.”
Andrew couldn't breathe.
“Who gave it?”
Rebecca looked at Vale.
Vale remained calm.
Andrew threw himself against the locked door.
“You murdered her!”
Vale stepped closer.
“I protected years of research.”
“You murdered my wife!”
“And yet that research eventually influenced protocols that saved children.”
“You don't get to count lives like numbers!”
Vale's face changed.
For the first time, anger appeared.
“That's exactly what medicine does.”
“No.”
Andrew stared at him.
“That's what monsters do.”
Vale pulled out a gun.
Rebecca screamed.
Andrew stopped.
Vale pointed it through an opening beside the glass.
“Where is the notebook?”
Andrew looked toward the chair.
“There.”
Vale sent someone to retrieve it.
A younger man appeared.
Andrew recognized him.
Hospital administrator.
The same man who had claimed records were missing.
Vale opened the notebook.
Blank pages.
His expression changed.
Andrew smiled.
“Wrong book.”
Vale raised the gun.
Then Natalie’s voice came through Andrew's hidden earpiece.
“Now.”
Windows shattered.
Police entered from both sides.
Vale fired.
Andrew dropped.
Rebecca screamed.
Officers returned fire into the ceiling and walls.
Vale ran.
Andrew kicked open a weakened side door and rushed to Rebecca.
Natalie shouted after him.
“Andrew!”
He cut Rebecca's restraints.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Go!”
But Rebecca grabbed him.
“Vale has another exit.”
“Where?”
“Old surgical tunnel.”
Andrew ran.
Vale disappeared through a steel door.
Andrew followed.
The tunnel descended beneath the hospital.
Water dripped from pipes.
Vale's footsteps echoed ahead.
Then stopped.
Andrew rounded the corner.
Gun pointed directly at him.
Vale smiled.
“Like father, like husband.”
Andrew froze.
“What?”
“Charles never told you?”
Andrew's stomach dropped.
Vale laughed.
“Of course not.”
“About what?”
“Who paid for the program.”
Andrew stared.
Vale whispered:
“Your father.”
Andrew's world tilted.
Charles.
Again.
“No.”
“He funded the research.”
“He didn't know.”
“Ask him.”
Vale stepped closer.
“Ask him why Leah confronted him in Room 614.”
Andrew heard movement behind Vale.
Charles emerged from the darkness.
“I already told him enough.”
Vale spun.
The gun fired.
Andrew shouted.
Charles fell.
Everything became chaos.
Andrew tackled Vale.
The gun skidded away.
Police rushed forward.
Natalie cuffed Vale.
Andrew crawled toward his father.
Blood spread across Charles's shirt.
“Dad.”
Charles looked up.
For once, no pride.
No secrets.
Only fear.
“Andrew.”
“Don't talk.”
“I knew.”
Andrew froze.
Charles grabbed his hand.
“I funded Vale.”
“Stop.”
“I didn't know about the children at first.”
“Dad—”
“When I found out, I tried to bury it.”
Andrew stared.
“Why?”
“Because my company would have collapsed.”
Andrew's eyes filled.
“So Leah confronted you.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Vale would kill her?”
“No.”
Charles began sobbing.
“God, Andrew, no.”
Sirens approached.
Andrew pressed his hands against the wound.
Charles whispered:
“There's something else.”
“Save your strength.”
“Emily wasn't the first child Leah tried to save.”
Andrew looked down.
“What?”
Charles struggled to breathe.
“She found another family.”
“Who?”
Charles looked terrified.
“The mother disappeared.”
Andrew leaned closer.
“What mother?”
Charles whispered a name.
Andrew stopped breathing.
Because he knew it.
Everyone in Bellwood knew it.
Patricia.
Patricia Vale.
Their neighbor.
The woman whose viral video had once accused Andrew of abandoning Ashley.
And suddenly Andrew understood why Patricia's last name had always sounded strangely familiar.
Vale.
Dr. Martin Vale.
Andrew looked toward the tunnel where Natalie was dragging the doctor away.
Then at Charles.
“Patricia is related to him?”
May you like
Charles whispered:
“She’s his daughter.”
