Chapter 10 - Lockdown
The hospital locked the floor within three minutes.
Security stationed officers at both elevators.
Police covered the stairwells.
Nia hated every second of it.
“I want to go home.”
“We can’t.”
“This is a hospital, not a bunker.”
“Right now it’s both.”
She looked at me. “Is Caleb alive?”
“I don’t know.”
That hurt to say.
I was furious with him. I believed he had stolen money. I believed he had lied for years.
But I also remembered him teaching Nia to drive in an empty school parking lot.
People are rarely one thing.
That was the problem.
At 1:17 p.m., a man in green maintenance coveralls stepped out of the service elevator.
Security stopped him.
He produced ID.
The officer scanned it.
Valid.
They waved him through.
I didn’t see any of that.
I learned it later.
What I saw was the man pushing a covered cart past Nia’s room.
He glanced in.
Just once.
But I knew the eyes.
Martin Rowe.
Older than I remembered.
Thinner.
But him.
I stood so fast my chair fell.
“Security!”
Martin ran.
The cart crashed into the wall.
One officer chased him toward the stairwell.
Another blocked Nia’s door.
Then the fire alarm began screaming.
Red lights flashed.
Sprinklers did not activate.
A voice announced an evacuation.
Dr. Hale stepped into the room.
“Stay here.”
“But the alarm—”
“False trigger. Do not move.”
People poured into the hallway.
Martin had created chaos.
I grabbed Nia’s hand.
Then the power flickered.
The monitors went dark.
Emergency lights kicked on.
Somewhere outside, someone shouted.
A nurse screamed.
The backup system came alive ten seconds later.
Nia’s IV pump beeped.
Dr. Hale checked it.
Then froze.
“What?”
He held up the medication bag.
A tiny puncture mark was visible near the injection port.
His face changed.
“Don’t touch this.”
My blood turned cold.
“Was that bag always here?”
“No.”
Nia stared at it.
Dr. Hale hit the emergency call button.
“Someone switched her IV.”
I looked toward the hallway.
The nurse assigned to Nia was missing.
And on the floor near the medication cart was a blue hospital badge.
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The name printed on it was not Keisha’s.
It said MARISSA BROOKS.
