Chapter 2 - A Voice From Michael’s Funeral
Laura froze.
The hallway had become chaos.
Nurses pushed beds toward the stairwell.
Alarms screamed overhead.
Smoke rolled from the pharmacy corridor.
But Laura barely heard any of it.
That voice.
She knew it.
“Laura!”
Again.
Ranger barked.
A man emerged through the smoke wearing maintenance coveralls and a respirator hanging around his neck.
Gray hair.
Scar along the chin.
Laura whispered his name.
“David?”
David Mercer stopped.
For fourteen months, Laura had believed David Mercer was dead.
Michael’s closest friend had vanished only six days after Michael’s funeral.
His abandoned car was discovered near the river.
Police later told Laura they believed he had fallen into the water.
His body was never recovered.
Yet there he stood.
Alive.
“Move!” David shouted. “They started the fire to clear this floor!”
Cole bolted.
Ranger tried to follow, but Laura grabbed his harness.
“Stay!”
Emily shoved the syringe into her pocket.
Megan opened an emergency stairwell.
David reached Laura.
“We have maybe two minutes.”
Laura slapped him.
Hard.
David accepted it without reacting.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
“Because Michael wasn’t the first person they killed.”
The words hit harder than Laura’s slap.
Emily stared at him.
“Who is ‘they’?”
David looked toward the smoke.
“Not here.”
An explosion boomed somewhere behind them.
The ceiling lights flickered.
David grabbed Laura’s arm.
“Now.”
They descended six flights through the service stairwell.
Laura’s legs shook.
Ranger remained pressed against her side.
On the third floor, David stopped them.
“Main lobby is compromised.”
“Compromised by who?” Megan demanded.
David looked at her.
“Anybody carrying hospital security credentials.”
Emily’s eyes widened.
“You think security is involved?”
“I know at least two officers are.”
Laura stared at him.
“How?”
“Because they helped erase footage the night your husband died.”
Laura felt dizzy.
Michael.
She had spent fourteen months trying to accept his death.
Now every sentence was tearing that grief apart and replacing it with something far more dangerous.
Suspicion.
They exited through a loading dock.
David led them toward an old white utility van.
Laura stopped.
“I’m not getting inside until you tell me what’s happening.”
David turned.
“Michael discovered St. Matthew’s was billing for treatments that never happened.”
“That sounds like insurance fraud.”
“It started that way.”
“Started?”
“He found patient files.”
David’s voice changed.
“People admitted with manageable conditions. People who suddenly deteriorated after receiving medications they were never supposed to receive.”
Emily slowly looked at the syringe in her pocket.
Laura understood.
“You’re saying patients were being harmed deliberately?”
David nodded.
Megan whispered, “Why?”
“Money.”
David looked toward the hospital.
“Wrongful deterioration meant longer stays. More procedures. Experimental treatments. Insurance claims.”
Emily looked sick.
“And deaths?”
“Sometimes deaths solved other problems.”
Laura’s throat tightened.
“Michael found out.”
“Yes.”
“Cole?”
David hesitated.
“Cole was involved.”
Laura thought about the USB.
She held it up.
“This belonged to Michael.”
David’s eyes widened.
“Where did you get that?”
“Cole dropped it.”
David stepped closer.
“Michael told me that drive contained the only complete copy.”
“Copy of what?”
“The Black Ledger.”
Megan frowned.
“What’s that?”
“A private accounting file tracking every patient they manipulated.”
Laura stared at the USB.
Michael had died for this.
Perhaps.
Before anyone could say more, tires squealed.
A black SUV entered the loading dock.
David shouted, “GET DOWN!”
Gunshots shattered the van’s rear window.
Emily screamed.
David shoved everyone behind a concrete pillar.
Ranger barked furiously.
Two men stepped from the SUV.
Not doctors.
Not police.
One wore a hospital security jacket.
David pulled a handgun from beneath his shirt.
Laura stared.
“You’re armed?”
“I’ve been hiding for fourteen months, Laura.”
Another bullet struck concrete.
David fired back.
One attacker retreated.
The second moved around the SUV.
Ranger watched him.
Laura loosened her grip.
“Ranger.”
The dog’s ears lifted.
“Take him.”
Ranger launched forward.
The attacker turned too late.
Ninety pounds of German Shepherd knocked him flat.
David ran after Ranger and kicked the man’s weapon away.
The second attacker sped off.
Minutes later, distant sirens approached.
David removed the unconscious attacker’s security jacket.
Inside the pocket was a phone.
No password.
One text message sat open.
ROOM 614 FAILED.
A second message followed.
RECOVER BENNETT DRIVE.
Laura felt cold.
Then a third appeared.
IF MERCER SURFACES, FINISH WHAT COLE COULDN’T.
Laura slowly looked at David.
“Cole tried to kill you?”
David nodded.
“But somebody else gave the order.”
“Who?”
David looked at the phone.
A contact name appeared above the messages.
Initials only.
E.V.
Laura’s breath caught.
She knew those initials.
Everyone in St. Matthew’s did.
Dr. Eleanor Voss.
Hospital president.
May you like
Michael’s mentor.
And Laura’s godmother.
