Chapter 5 - Blackout

The room dropped into darkness.

Lily screamed once.

Claire pulled her close.

“Stay with me, baby. Stay right here.”

Emergency lights flickered on near the floor, painting the room in dull red strips.

Richard moved immediately to the doorway.

“Dad, don’t,” Claire said.

“I’m not leaving the room.”

In the hallway, someone shouted that the fifth-floor breaker had tripped. Security radios crackled. Shoes pounded past the door.

Then a figure appeared at the far end of the hall.

A woman in blue scrubs.

She looked toward Claire’s room.

And ran.

“That’s Tracy!” the charge nurse shouted.

Detective Bell sprinted after her with two officers.

Grant stood up.

Officer Collins pushed him back into the chair. “Sit.”

“I need to check on my wife.”

“You’re the reason we’re checking on your wife.”

Vanessa covered her face with both hands.

Claire watched her carefully.

“Why are you scared?”

Vanessa lowered her hands.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

For the first time, Vanessa’s glamorous confidence cracked. “You don’t understand what Grant is capable of.”

Grant twisted toward her. “Shut up.”

Richard stepped into the hall. “What did you just say?”

Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.

Grant stood again. “She’s trying to save herself.”

“So save yourself,” Claire said. “Tell the truth.”

Vanessa looked at Grant.

Then at the police.

Then back at Claire.

“He said no one would get hurt.”

Claire felt cold from the inside out.

“What did he say would happen?”

Vanessa opened her mouth.

A crash exploded from the stairwell.

Two officers shouted.

Bell reappeared, dragging a breathless Tracy Nolan back into view. One of her sleeves was torn. Her hospital badge hung from a broken clip.

In her hand was a small flash drive.

Bell took it.

“What’s on this?”

Tracy shook her head violently. “I didn’t do anything.”

Grant stared at the drive.

For the first time since the officers arrived, real fear crossed his face.

Claire saw it.

So did Bell.

The detective held up the drive.

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“Whatever is on this,” he said, “Mr. Mercer is more afraid of it than he is of me.”

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