Chapter 2 - The Original Log
Naomi Price entered the Sutton foyer carrying a grocery bag against her chest like it contained something alive.
She looked exhausted.
Her hair was tied back. Her hospital badge was gone.
Corinne stood at the bottom of the stairs.
"You should not be here," she said.
Naomi stopped.
"Neither should you."
Leah came down slowly, one hand on the rail.
"Naomi, what happened?"
"They changed my schedule. Then they put me on administrative leave. Yesterday somebody went through my locker."
Corinne folded her arms.
"Arbor Crown has procedures for handling protected information."
Naomi laughed once.
"There she is. The procedure lady."
"Be careful."
"I was careful for eighteen months. A woman still got put in an ambulance because a donor's daughter wanted a private room."
The front door opened.
Elliott Sutton walked in, carrying a leather briefcase and the expression of a man who had just realized three people were arguing in his home before nine in the morning.
"What is going on?"
Leah looked at him.
"Corinne came here to make me sign a retraction."
His face hardened.
"She did what?"
Corinne lifted her chin.
"I came to resolve a legal issue before it damaged your family further."
"You were told to speak to Leah's attorney."
"Elliott--"
"Leave."
Corinne blinked.
"You do not understand the exposure."
"Leave my house."
Corinne gathered the papers with slow precision.
At the door, she looked at Naomi.
"If you removed hospital records, this gets very serious."
Naomi stared back.
"It was already serious. That's why you needed me quiet."
Inside was a battered red binder.
"This is the overnight transfer book," she said. "We were supposed to destroy paper logs after scanning. I kept this one."
"Why?"
"Because the electronic record changed."
She opened to a yellow tab.
Alicia Moreno. 2:18 a.m. High-risk observation. Room 12 requested.
Then, written in blue ink:
HOLD - DONOR ACCESS.
Beside it were initials.
C.B.
Leah looked at Corinne's abandoned fountain pen on the entry table.
"Corinne Blake?"
Naomi shook her head.
"Maybe. But that is not why I came."
She turned two more pages.
A printed policy had been stapled inside the binder.
SUTTON FOUNDATION GUARANTEED ACCESS PROTOCOL.
Elliott stopped breathing.
At the bottom was an approval signature.
Edward Sutton.
His father.
Elliott whispered, "He died before this transfer."
May you like
Naomi nodded.
"Then somebody kept using his name after he was dead."
