Chapter 5 - THE PATIENT WHO VANISHED
By four in the morning, the emergency department was full of police officers, hospital administrators, military investigators, and people speaking into radios as if volume could untangle what had happened.
Abigail sat on the edge of an empty treatment bed while a physician cleaned the shallow cut on Caleb's forearm.
He had refused pain medication.
She had expected that.
He had also tried to claim the cut did not need stitches.
She had expected that too.
"Three stitches," the physician said.
Caleb looked at Abigail.
"One."
"Three," Abigail said.
"Two."
"Three."
The physician smiled despite himself.
"I work for her tonight."
Caleb sighed.
"Apparently everybody does."
Across the room, Ethan and Mason sat apart under police supervision.
Ethan stared at the floor.
Mason had already asked three times whether Lucas Bell was alive.
No one had given him an answer.
That bothered Abigail more with each passing minute.
A hospital administrator named Linda Cho entered with a tablet in her hand.
Her expression was tight.
"Abigail, I need to speak with you privately."
Caleb looked up.
"You can speak in front of him."
Linda hesitated.
"This is about patient records."
"He knows about Lucas."
"That doesn't mean I can disclose protected information."
Abigail stood.
"Then tell me what you can."
Linda glanced toward the doorway.
"Lucas Bell's chart is missing from the active system."
Abigail stared at her.
"Missing how?"
"Not deleted exactly."
"What does that mean?"
"His encounter exists in the audit log, but the clinical record is no longer visible to normal users."
Caleb stopped arguing about stitches.
"Can somebody do that?"
Linda looked uncomfortable.
"Not without elevated access."
"Who has elevated access?"
"Information systems, compliance, some administrators, and certain federal interfaces used for military patient transfers."
Abigail felt cold despite the warm room.
"Check the transfer log."
Linda nodded.
"I did."
"And?"
"It says Lucas was transferred at 0610 three weeks ago."
"To Portsmouth?"
"That's what the original note said."
"Original?"
Linda swiped the tablet.
"The destination field was changed six hours later."
"To where?"
"Blank."
Caleb's eyes hardened.
"Who changed it?"
"The user credential belongs to someone in federal liaison services."
"Name?"
Linda hesitated again.
Abigail stepped closer.
"Linda."
"Marcus Hale."
The room went silent.
Caleb lowered his stitched arm.
"A commander had access to hospital transfer records?"
"Through the military care coordination portal."
"Can you print the audit log?"
Linda shook her head.
"Not until legal approves it."
"Can you preserve it?"
"I already did."
Abigail exhaled.
"Thank you."
Linda gave her a grim smile.
"After tonight, I started preserving everything."
A man in a dark suit appeared behind her.
"That was wise."
He introduced himself as Special Agent Aaron Ruiz from NCIS.
His badge was real.
Caleb checked it twice anyway.
Ruiz noticed.
"You don't trust easily."
Caleb looked at the ruined emergency department.
"Tonight hasn't rewarded trust."
Ruiz nodded.
"Fair."
He turned to Abigail.
"I need your statement."
"You can have it."
"And then I need you both to go home."
Caleb laughed quietly.
"No."
Ruiz's face remained neutral.
"That wasn't a suggestion."
"Our house was photographed tonight by somebody connected to this."
Caleb showed him the message.
Ruiz read it.
His expression changed.
"When did you receive this?"
"During the blackout."
"Did you respond?"
"No."
Ruiz turned to one of the officers.
"Get digital forensics on this number."
Then he looked back at Caleb.
"You still need to leave the hospital."
"Why?"
"Because if someone is threatening your residence, I want you somewhere controlled."
Abigail crossed her arms.
"Where?"
"A secure location."
"Whose secure location?"
Ruiz almost smiled.
"Mine."
Caleb studied him.
"I know an Aaron Ruiz."
Ruiz raised an eyebrow.
"Do you?"
"Afghanistan, 2014."
Ruiz's face shifted.
"You were with Task Group Redline."
"For four months."
"Then I know you too."
Abigail looked between them.
"Is that good?"
Ruiz answered first.
"Depends who you ask."
Caleb finally relaxed half an inch.
It was the most trust Abigail had seen him give anyone all night.
Ruiz took them into a small consultation room.
He closed the door.
"I need to tell you something before Commander Hale gets here."
Abigail's stomach tightened.
"He already was here."
Ruiz stared at her.
"What?"
Caleb described the encounter in the loading dock.
Ruiz swore under his breath.
"He was not supposed to be notified."
"Who notified him?" Abigail asked.
"That's what I intend to find out."
Ruiz opened a thin folder.
"Lucas Bell never arrived at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center."
Abigail had expected the answer.
It still felt like someone had punched her.
"Then where did he go?"
"Officially, nobody knows."
"Unofficially?"
Ruiz looked at Caleb.
"There is a private training property outside Suffolk called Redwater Annex."
Caleb's expression changed.
"I know Redwater."
"You shouldn't."
"I trained there once."
"How long ago?"
"Thirteen years."
Ruiz nodded slowly.
"It was supposedly decommissioned eight years ago."
"Supposedly?"
"Satellite utility records show power usage every month."
Abigail leaned forward.
"You think Lucas is there?"
Ruiz closed the folder.
"I think Warren and Hale have used Redwater for unauthorized training exercises."
"Hazing," Abigail said.
"Possibly."
"Lucas was tied to a chair beside a pool."
Ruiz looked surprised.
"How do you know that?"
Caleb described the photographs.
Ruiz stood immediately.
"Where are they?"
"Hospital security has them."
They hurried back to the nurses' station.
Raymond Shaw was no longer there.
Abigail looked around.
"Where's Officer Shaw?"
Another guard frowned.
"He left ten minutes ago."
Caleb went still.
"Left where?"
"Said police wanted him downstairs."
Ruiz pulled out his phone.
"Nobody from my team requested him."
Abigail's chest tightened.
"He had the evidence."
The guard pointed toward a locked drawer beneath the desk.
"No, he put the sleeve in there first."
Abigail exhaled.
The guard unlocked the drawer.
Inside was the black sleeve.
Ruiz put on gloves and removed it.
The false statement was there.
The photographs were not.
Caleb looked at the guard.
"Where are the pictures?"
"They were inside."
Ruiz turned toward the security cameras.
"Pull the footage."
The guard typed rapidly.
Then stopped.
"The cameras went offline during the blackout."
"Before or after Shaw handled the evidence?"
The guard checked the log.
His face fell.
"Thirty seconds before."
Caleb stared toward the entrance.
"Find Shaw."
Ruiz was already calling his team.
Abigail's phone buzzed.
She flinched.
A new message had arrived from an unknown number.
It contained one photograph.
Lucas Bell sat in a dim concrete room.
His face was bruised.
A newspaper lay across his knees.
The date was today.
Under the image was a sentence.
May you like
SIGN THE RETRACTION BY NOON OR HE DISAPPEARS FOR REAL.
