Chapter 10 - Ava's Last Week
Julian sat in the police interview room with both hands around a paper cup he never drank from.
"Vivian was not Ava's nurse," he said.
Maya looked at him.
"She worked for the home health agency. She handled scheduling, medication deliveries, things like that. I met her there."
He closed his eyes.
"A year after Ava died."
Detective Cole pulled Vivian's employment file.
She had not just handled schedules.
During Ava's final week, two nurses called in sick. Vivian covered four overnight shifts.
Ava developed an infection on Thursday.
By Saturday, she was in intensive care.
She died Monday morning.
"Cancer patients can develop infections quickly," Cole said. "That does not prove anything."
"Lily remembers something," Maya said.
Dana arranged a second forensic interview.
Lily sat in a child-friendly room with crayons while a trained specialist asked gentle, open questions.
She remembered being three years old and waking at night.
She saw Vivian in her mother's room.
She remembered a syringe.
She remembered her mother saying, "That's not my medication."
Then Vivian noticed Lily in the doorway.
"She told me it was a vitamin," Lily said.
The recording room went silent.
Julian pressed his fist to his mouth.
Police reopened Ava's death review.
The hospital had preserved blood cultures and toxicology samples because of a research protocol connected to her cancer treatment.
Those samples still existed.
At the same time, investigators searched Vivian's storage unit.
They found designer clothes, cash, forged documents, and a locked metal box.
Inside were old home-health logs from Ava's case.
Several pages were missing.
One page remained.
It showed a medication inventory discrepancy for a drug that could dangerously suppress immune response if given at the wrong dose.
The employee initials beside the discrepancy were V.G.
Vivian Grant.
Cole looked at Julian.
"If the lab still has enough sample, we may be able to test for it."
Julian's phone rang.
Rachel Kim was calling.
"Julian," she said, "someone just tried to transfer Lily's shares this morning."
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Vivian was in custody.
So whoever was still moving the plan had not been arrested yet.
