Chapter 5 - Michael’s Signature
Laura almost dropped the USB drive.
“No.”
Cole smiled.
“Ask Eleanor.”
Laura looked at her godmother.
Eleanor didn’t deny it.
Eight years earlier, Michael had been a junior finance administrator assisting with a pilot program.
Sophia’s medication order carried Michael’s electronic authorization.
But Eleanor explained the truth.
Michael had not prescribed anything.
Someone had stolen his credentials.
“He discovered it years later,” Eleanor said.
“That was why he started investigating.”
Laura shook her head.
“You knew?”
“Not until after Sophia died.”
“You let me believe it was an accident.”
“I believed it was.”
Cole laughed.
“Everybody believes whatever Eleanor tells them.”
Eleanor’s gun remained trained on him.
“You altered the order.”
Cole’s smile vanished.
“No.”
That single word changed everything.
David’s voice came through Laura’s earpiece.
“Laura, keep him talking.”
She did.
“If not you, who?”
Cole looked at Eleanor.
“Tell her.”
Eleanor lowered the weapon slightly.
And Cole moved.
He grabbed Ryan.
Gunfire exploded.
Eleanor fired.
Cole fired.
Ryan dropped.
Laura screamed.
Ranger lunged from the shadows.
He struck Cole.
David and Detective Hale rushed forward.
Cole escaped through a stairwell, leaving blood behind.
Ryan survived.
The bullet had grazed his shoulder.
But Eleanor was hit.
As paramedics treated her, she grabbed Laura’s hand.
“Michael found another name.”
“Whose?”
Eleanor whispered.
“Board chairman.”
“Charles Whitmore?”
Eleanor nodded.
Charles Whitmore was one of the wealthiest men in the state.
Founder of the Whitmore Medical Foundation.
He had donated hundreds of millions to hospitals.
And he had personally spoken at Michael’s funeral.
Eleanor explained that Whitmore had secretly funded illegal drug trials.
Patients were manipulated to make experimental treatments appear more effective.
Cole had been his fixer.
But then Cole began stealing from him.
“So Cole didn’t create the system,” Laura said.
“He profited from it.”
Eleanor nodded.
“And Michael?”
“He found everything.”
“Who killed him?”
Eleanor began crying.
“I don’t know.”
Laura almost screamed.
Then Eleanor whispered, “But Michael called me ten minutes before he died.”
Laura froze.
“What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Charles knows.’”
Eleanor was transported to surgery.
Detective Hale immediately requested a warrant for Whitmore.
Denied.
The district attorney demanded stronger evidence.
David warned Laura.
“Whitmore owns half this city.”
“Then we expose him publicly.”
They searched Michael’s files.
One folder remained encrypted.
S.B.
Sophia Bennett.
Laura tried passwords for hours.
Nothing worked.
Ranger lay beside her.
She whispered, “What would Michael use?”
Ranger lifted his head when Laura said Sophia’s childhood nickname.
Sunny.
Laura typed SUNNY.
The folder opened.
Inside was a video.
Security footage from the night Sophia died.
Laura watched a nurse enter Sophia’s room.
Then a man followed.
Younger.
Dark hair.
He adjusted the medication pump.
Laura zoomed in.
It wasn’t Cole.
It wasn’t Whitmore.
It was David Mercer.
Laura slowly turned.
David stood behind her.
May you like
His face had gone white.
And in his hand was a pistol.
