Chapter 7 - The Man in Room 614
His name was Harold Vane.
For fourteen years, Vane had been Saint Matthew's director of patient administration. Three months after Emma's birth, he retired without ceremony and moved out of state.
Dana found that much by morning.
She found something else by noon.
"He didn't retire," she said, spreading printed documents across Alexander's office. "He was paid to leave."
"By the hospital?" Grace asked.
"A confidential separation agreement. I can't see the terms yet. But his pension was accelerated, and he sold his house the same week."
Jenna sat beside Grace, holding a mug she had barely touched.
The night before, a DNA collection company had taken samples from Jenna and Emma under legal supervision.
No one had slept.
Grace's emotions were a mess she could not name.
If Jenna was Emma's biological mother, then something terrible had been done to her.
But a selfish part of Grace was terrified that justice for Jenna could mean losing Emma.
She hated herself for feeling it.
Jenna seemed to read the fear on her face.
"I didn't come here to rip her out of your arms," she said quietly.
Grace looked at her.
"You don't know what you'll want when the test comes back."
"No," Jenna admitted. "I don't."
The honesty hurt more than a promise would have.
Alexander entered with his phone in hand.
"Security found something."
He placed a tablet on the desk.
Footage from the front gate showed a black sedan parked across the street for nearly four hours the previous night.
The license plate was unreadable.
At 2:13 a.m., after Jenna had entered the house, a man stepped out, walked to the gate, and photographed the property.
"Who is that?" Grace asked.
"We don't know."
Dana's phone rang.
She answered, listened, and stood up.
"The court granted our request. Saint Matthew's has to preserve every electronic record connected to Jenna's admission and Emma's birth."
Alexander exhaled. "Good."
Dana did not smile.
"No. We have a problem."
She turned her laptop around.
An email from the hospital's attorney had arrived three minutes earlier.
Due to an unexpected systems failure, archival records from the maternity wing covering the week of Emma's birth had been permanently corrupted.
Alexander stared at the screen.
"That's convenient."
Jenna's hands started shaking again.
Then Grace's phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
It contained a photograph taken through the nursery window that morning.
Emma was visible in Grace's arms.
May you like
Under the photo were six words:
STOP DIGGING, OR SHE DISAPPEARS AGAIN.
