Chapter 6 - The Man She Didn't Know
Daniel Reyes stood beneath the pharmacy awning, rain shining on his uniform. He looked from Mara's swollen face to the men forcing their way through the doorway.
“Get in the car,” he said.
“Those men called you.”
“Because they're trying to make you think they work for me.”
“Do they?”
Daniel's mouth tightened. “Not anymore.”
Mara stepped backward. She was tired of being told to trust people who refused to tell her the truth. Daniel held both hands away from his weapon.
“Evan was my confidential source,” he said. “Before he died, he told me Victor had someone on the inside. I kept our friendship quiet because that was the only way to protect him.”
“And did it work?”
The question hit him harder than a slap. “No.”
One of the men burst outside. Daniel shouted, “Police! Stop!” The man reached inside his jacket. Daniel pulled Mara behind a parked car. A window cracked as something heavy struck it. People screamed and scattered.
Daniel didn't fire. He radioed for marked units and pointed toward a cab idling at the curb. “Take Sofia. Go to St. Agnes emergency department. Ask for Dr. Priya Shah.”
“Why her?”
“Because she treated Evan the night he was supposed to have died.”
Mara froze. “What?”
“Get moving.”
She shoved Sofia into the cab and gave the driver the address. Behind them Daniel tackled the stockroom man, pinning him against the wet pavement. Mara saw another dark sedan turn the corner, headlights off.
On the ride, Sofia squeezed her hand. “You can love someone and still not know their secrets.”
“I barely knew my brother at the end,” Mara said.
“You knew who he was.”
At St. Agnes, Priya Shah met them near the ambulance entrance. She looked at Mara's injuries, then at Sofia's shaking hands.
“You shouldn't have come here,” Priya said.
“Daniel said you saw Evan alive.”
Priya's eyes filled. “Yes. But the patient I saw was not the patient whose death certificate they filed.”
She opened a secure room and pulled a curtain aside.
May you like
A man sat on the examination bed, staring at his hands.
He wore Evan's silver bracelet.
