Chapter 13 - The Woman on the Rail

"Ivy."

Lena rushed to the bed. Ivy's eyes opened a fraction. She tried to speak, but the words came out slurred.

"Don't waste time on me," she managed. "Files. Cabinet C."

"I'm not leaving you here."

"Then do both."

Lena loosened the restraints and helped Ivy sit up. Behind the cabinet door she found a binder filled with drug orders, signed invoices, and transfer sheets. The entries linked Vale's private research program to a company called Northstar Clinical Solutions. Patients had been listed as dead, moved between facilities, and billed to insurers under false names.

Some transfers ended at a crematory on the river. Others ended with no destination at all.

"They wanted the records gone," Ivy whispered. "Vale said if anyone talks, nobody gets their families back."

Lena photographed every page on her phone. Cole's voice came through the earbud she'd borrowed from Nia.

"Security's on the way. I've got Daniel and two others who can walk. We can't move everyone."

"Lock the treatment-room doors open. Call Grant's clinic. Get ambulances outside the south ramp."

"The local dispatch is compromised."

"Then call the state emergency line. Call the fire department. Call anybody who still remembers their oath."

An alarm sounded. Red lights flashed down the hallway. Lena pulled Ivy to her feet and slung an arm around her waist.

At the stairwell, two guards stepped into view. Cole appeared behind them, his badge held high.

"Detective Cole," he barked. "I have a suspect in custody. Stand down."

The guards hesitated. Lena reached for him, confused. Cole caught her wrist and snapped one cuff shut.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Trust me."

"I already did."

Captain Rourke rounded the corner, a thickset man in a sheriff's jacket. His eyes found the binder under Lena's arm.

"Well," he said. "Looks like our missing murderer came home."

Cole closed the second cuff. "Dr. Brooks is under arrest."

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Lena stared at him. He didn't meet her eyes.

Then Rourke took the binder and ordered his officers to take Ivy back to the red room.