Chapter 14 - The Interview Room
"You're making a mistake," Lena said as they led Ivy away.
Rourke leaned close. "The mistake was waking up a patient who was already dead."
Cole marched Lena upstairs, through a side exit, and into an unmarked car. As soon as the doors shut, he slipped the cuffs off.
"I had to get you past those guards," he said. "Rourke didn't see the copies."
"He took Ivy."
"I know."
"And you expect me to thank you?"
"No. I expect you to help me put him on record."
At the county station, Cole walked her into an interview room. A small recorder was already running inside his jacket. Nia had arranged for its audio to be sent to a lawyer across the state line, beyond Rourke's reach.
Rourke entered carrying the stolen binder. "Tell me where the memory card is, Doctor."
"Before or after you explain why my signature is on twelve death certificates?"
"You signed what the system put in front of you."
"I wasn't even employed there on some of those dates."
"A jury doesn't care about scheduling mistakes. They care about a doctor caught stealing a corpse."
Lena leaned forward. "A corpse who asked me not to burn her?"
Rourke's expression changed. He'd made the mistake of underestimating how much she knew.
"Vale should have handled the girl himself," he muttered.
Cole shifted beside the wall. The recorder was still running.
"So you knew she was alive," Lena said.
"I know you're not going to like prison."
A phone rang. Rourke answered, listened, and looked straight at Cole.
"Search his jacket," he told the guard at the door.
Cole went still. Lena heard his recorder give a tiny electronic chirp. The guard grabbed him, and the jacket tore at the shoulder.
Rourke smashed the device under his heel. "Cute trick."
"Too late," Cole said. "It already sent."
Rourke took out his own phone and dialed.
"Pike?" he said. "Go to the clinic. Take the younger Reed girl. Leave the rest."
May you like
Lena's blood turned cold.
A second later her phone lit up with Nora's name. The call connected to a scream.
