Chapter 17 - The Garage
The video ended after four seconds of darkness.
Daniel replayed it.
Maria pointed at a painted column behind Jenna. “B-17.”
Daniel zoomed in. A logo was visible on the wall: WESTON MEDICAL CENTER.
The same hospital where Jonathan lay under guard.
Jenna had gone back.
They reached the parking garage with two federal agents. Level B was nearly empty.
“Jenna!” Daniel shouted.
No answer.
They found her phone beside parking space 17.
Blood streaked the concrete.
Maria heard a muffled cry from a maintenance room.
One agent opened the door.
Jenna was tied to a chair, alive, blood running from a cut above her eyebrow.
“The ledger,” Daniel said.
“Gone.”
“Who took it?”
Jenna looked toward the hospital elevators.
“Claire.”
Daniel stared. “She’s in jail.”
“She was,” Jenna said. “Someone arranged a medical transfer after she claimed she was having chest pain. She arrived here twenty minutes ago.”
Maria felt cold all over.
“They brought Claire to the same hospital as Jonathan?”
“Cole made the call before he ran,” one agent said after checking his radio. “Transfer order used his credentials.”
Jenna struggled against the rope. “Claire knows Jonathan can trade testimony for protection. She came to stop him.”
Daniel cut her free.
They ran for the elevator.
On the sixth floor, alarms began to sound.
A nurse shouted, “Security! Room 612!”
Daniel reached the room first.
Jonathan lay in bed, oxygen tube beneath his nose. Claire stood beside him in a stolen nurse’s jacket, holding a syringe against the IV line.
“Step away,” Daniel said.
Claire turned slowly.
“You really are hard to get rid of.”
Federal agents raised their weapons.
Claire smiled and held up the ledger.
“You shoot me, this drops into the sink.”
The sink was already filled with burning alcohol pads.
Maria moved toward Lily’s grandfather.
Claire pressed the syringe plunger halfway.
Jonathan gasped.
“Stop!” Daniel shouted.
Claire looked at him, tears suddenly shining in her eyes.
“All I wanted was a life no one could take from me.”
“You tried to take Lily’s.”
Her face hardened.
May you like
“And now I’m taking yours.”
She ripped a page from the ledger and held it over the flame.
