Chapter 11 - The Girl in the Wrecked Car

The crash came from the front drive. Through the consultation-room window, I saw a little silver hatchback crushed against a stone planter. Smoke curled from its hood. The gray sedan sped toward the highway.

"Delaney," Evelyn whispered.

I ran outside before anyone could stop me. Delaney was slumped over the steering wheel, a cut above her eyebrow. I opened the driver's door. She stirred when I called her name.

"My mom?" she asked.

"She's safe. Don't move. The ambulance is coming."

"I tried to call. Pike saw me."

A state trooper pulled in behind the wreck, followed by paramedics. I stepped back so they could work. Delaney grabbed my sleeve.

"Please don't hate me before I explain."

"Stay alive long enough to tell me," I said.

From the entrance, Evelyn watched the stretcher roll past. The nurse slipped an arm around her shoulders. For the first time all day, the older woman looked less like a prisoner than somebody's mother.

Back inside, the administrator insisted Evelyn had never been mistreated. Ruth laid the forged guardian paperwork beside the current prescriptions and asked for the facility's incident reports. The administrator stopped smiling.

Detective Kim reached us by video call. Her colleagues in Pennsylvania were locating Pike and protecting the witnesses. She had also obtained an emergency order preserving records at both Fox Run and the Halcyon.

"What did you find in the book?" she asked.

Miles held up the card. "We'll make a forensic copy. We're not plugging this into a random laptop."

Kim almost smiled. "Thank you for not destroying my evidence."

In the hospital waiting room, Delaney came out of imaging with a concussion but no serious internal injuries. Evelyn sat beside her bed and took her hand. Neither spoke for a long moment.

"He said you'd die without the medicine," Delaney finally whispered. "He said I had to do what he wanted."

Evelyn stroked her daughter's hair. "Baby, I've spent years trying to tell them I don't need half those pills."

I stepped into the hall, suddenly ashamed of how easily I'd reduced Delaney to a smirk and a burgundy vest.

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My phone buzzed. Kim had sent the first result from the card's copied directory. There were payroll files, an audio recording, and one video labeled 1117_FINAL.

The video thumbnail showed my father alive on the floor of Room 1704, looking straight into the camera.