Chapter 4 - THE FOUR MISSING MINUTES

Khloe watched Marcus walk toward her room.

Her eyes remained fixed on the watch.

It was a limited-edition piece engraved with their wedding date.

Only one existed.

Marcus noticed her expression before he reached the door.

“What happened?”

Adrian stepped into the hallway.

“Where were you at two thirteen this morning?”

Marcus frowned.

“In the surveillance room.”

“Can anyone confirm that?”

“Detective Ortiz.”

“She left to question Isabella at two ten.”

Marcus looked through the glass at Khloe.

“What are you accusing me of?”

Adrian held up the image from the security footage.

The masked figure’s face was blurred.

The silver watch was clear.

Marcus stared at it.

“That is my watch.”

“Yes.”

“I did not enter Khloe’s room.”

“The camera shows someone wearing it.”

Marcus looked down at his wrist.

He removed the watch and handed it to Adrian.

“Check the serial number.”

Adrian did.

The number matched the authenticity card Khloe had stored at home.

Khloe pressed the intercom button beside her bed.

“How long were you alone in the surveillance room?”

Marcus looked toward the speaker.

“Less than five minutes.”

“Did anyone enter?”

“No.”

“Did you fall asleep?”

“No.”

“Did you remove the watch?”

“No.”

Khloe’s eyes hardened.

“Then either the camera is lying or you are.”

Marcus entered the room.

The nurse objected.

Khloe told her to let him pass.

Marcus stopped several feet from the bed.

“I did not touch your intravenous line.”

“You gave Isabella the key to the suite.”

“Yes.”

“You concealed altered medical records.”

“Yes.”

“You signed blank documents and handed them to Gideon.”

“Yes.”

“And now I am supposed to believe the one thing you deny.”

“Yes.”

The answer was so direct that Khloe lost her prepared response.

Marcus continued.

“You should question everything I say.”

“But?”

“But I did not enter this room at two thirteen.”

Adrian examined the watch beneath the light.

“There is adhesive near the clasp.”

Marcus stepped closer.

The inside of the metal band carried a thin transparent film.

Adrian pulled it free with tweezers.

A small square of artificial skin came away from the clasp.

“What is that?” Khloe asked.

“Fingerprint membrane,” Marcus said.

Adrian looked at him.

“How do you know?”

“Thorne Meridian manufactures biometric security systems.”

Marcus held out his hand.

“Someone copied my fingerprint and used the watch to pass the maternity-floor scanner.”

Khloe looked toward the door.

“Who had access to your watch?”

Marcus thought for several seconds.

“Isabella touched it in the suite.”

“Anyone else?”

“My mother hugged me at the gala.”

Adrian placed the watch in an evidence bag.

“Gideon shook your hand.”

Marcus nodded.

“And Elaine helped remove your coat,” Khloe said.

Everyone became quiet.

Elaine Parker had brought Khloe’s second phone to security.

She had also been the person who directed Khloe to the private suite.

Khloe hated how quickly suspicion spread once trust disappeared.

Every helpful act became another possible disguise.

Detective Ortiz returned with news about Isabella.

“She has been transferred to county custody.”

“Did she confess?” Khloe asked.

“She admitted to the shove.”

“And the kick?”

“She claims she lost control.”

“She walked toward me first.”

“I saw the video.”

Ortiz’s expression remained unreadable.

“She also claims Helena instructed her to obtain your signature.”

“Did she identify the competency waiver?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“She says she never saw the document.”

Marcus looked at the detective.

“Did Isabella know about the hospital order?”

“She says she knew Helena wanted Mrs. Thorne frightened.”

“Do you believe her?”

“I believe she is telling the smallest truth she thinks might save her.”

Ortiz held up another folder.

“We also found something in Isabella’s purse.”

She placed a photograph on Khloe’s table.

Daniel stood outside a one-story building surrounded by pine trees.

The image had been printed recently.

A handwritten number appeared on the back.

Adrian recognized the area code.

“Vermont.”

Marcus picked up the photograph.

“There is a sign reflected in the window.”

Ortiz enlarged the image on her tablet.

The reversed letters formed part of a name.

CEDAR HOLLOW RECOVERY CENTER.

Marcus called his head of security.

Adrian stopped him.

“No Thorne employees.”

“They can reach Vermont faster.”

“So can Helena.”

Marcus lowered the phone.

Detective Ortiz contacted local law enforcement instead.

Cedar Hollow existed.

It was a private neurological facility outside Montpelier.

Its patient list was confidential.

The director refused to confirm whether Daniel had ever been treated there.

Ortiz obtained an emergency court order.

By the time officers entered the building, the room shown in the photograph had been emptied.

The bed was gone.

The medical equipment was gone.

The patient records had been removed.

Only one object remained.

A black chess piece rested on the windowsill.

A knight.

Daniel and Marcus had played chess together as children.

Daniel always chose the black pieces.

Marcus would recognize the message.

Someone had moved Daniel again.

Back at St. Catherine’s, Adrian ordered the four-minute security gap reconstructed from backup servers.

The main recording had been deleted.

The hospital’s internal emergency system had captured a lower-resolution duplicate.

At 2:13 a.m., the masked figure entered Khloe’s room.

The person moved directly toward the intravenous stand.

Miriam Cole appeared behind the figure twenty seconds later.

She grabbed the person’s arm.

They struggled.

The masked figure struck Miriam and fled through the bathroom.

Miriam removed the medication bag and replaced it with saline.

Then footsteps sounded in the hallway.

Miriam looked frightened.

She took the dangerous bag with her and escaped through a service door.

Adrian paused the video.

“She was protecting Khloe.”

Marcus looked toward Khloe.

“The note was right.”

“Then where is Miriam?” Khloe asked.

Ortiz’s phone rang.

She listened briefly.

“We found her car.”

“Where?”

“Hospital parking garage.”

“Was she inside?”

“No.”

The driver’s door was open.

Miriam’s phone lay on the pavement.

A line of blood marked the concrete beside it.

Ortiz ordered a search of the garage.

Security discovered Miriam behind a locked utility door on the lowest level.

She was unconscious but alive.

Her wrists had been bound.

An ambulance team brought her to the emergency department.

When Miriam regained consciousness, she asked for Adrian.

She refused to speak while any Thorne employee was present.

Marcus stayed outside.

Khloe insisted on listening through a secure video connection.

Miriam’s face was bruised.

Her voice was weak.

“I did not know what Northstar was when they contacted me.”

“What did they ask you to do?” Adrian said.

“Watch Mrs. Thorne.”

“For whom?”

“They said the family needed medical updates.”

“Which family member?”

“They never gave a name.”

“How were you paid?”

“Through a nursing scholarship fund.”

“Why did you keep cooperating?”

“My daughter has leukemia.”

Miriam began crying.

“They promised to cover her treatment.”

Khloe’s anger softened but did not disappear.

“Did you alter my records?” she asked through the monitor.

Miriam looked at the screen.

“No.”

“Did you report my appointments?”

“Yes.”

“Did you send photographs?”

“Yes.”

“Did you know Isabella had them?”

“No.”

“Who entered my room?”

“I could not see the face.”

“The person wore Marcus’s watch.”

Miriam closed her eyes.

“I saw the hands.”

“What about them?”

“The left thumb was scarred.”

Marcus looked at Adrian.

Gideon Cross had a pale burn scar across his left thumb.

He had received it during a sailing accident in college.

Miriam continued.

“He carried a hospital access badge.”

“Whose?”

“Thomas Bell’s.”

The missing administrator.

“Did he speak?” Ortiz asked.

“One sentence.”

“What did he say?”

Miriam looked toward the doorway, terrified.

“He said Helena wanted the baby removed before noon.”

Marcus’s face went white.

Khloe felt the child move beneath her hands.

It was a small, unmistakable kick.

She looked down.

Her son was alive.

Someone had already decided he should not be.

Ortiz asked Miriam about the competency waiver.

Miriam nodded.

“I saw it in Thomas Bell’s office.”

“Who prepared it?”

“A lawyer from Thorne Meridian.”

“Gideon?”

“No.”

“Who?”

Miriam struggled to remember.

“A woman.”

“What was her name?”

“She signed the folder with initials.”

“Which initials?”

“E.P.”

Elaine Parker.

The event coordinator.

The woman who had sent Khloe to the suite.

The woman who had found Khloe’s second phone.

The woman who had touched Marcus’s coat and possibly his watch.

Adrian immediately ordered Elaine detained.

Security searched the hospital.

Elaine was no longer inside.

She had left twenty minutes earlier through the ambulance entrance.

Her apartment was empty.

Her bank accounts had been closed.

Her employment file contained a false address.

The real Elaine Parker had died four years earlier in Ohio.

The woman from the gala had stolen her identity.

Marcus stared at the personnel photograph.

“Who is she?”

Ortiz ran the image through federal databases.

The search returned no direct match.

Facial-recognition software produced one possible result.

A photograph from seventeen years earlier appeared on the screen.

Two teenage girls stood outside a private school in Connecticut.

One was Isabella Rossi.

The other was identified as Emilia Price.

Emilia had disappeared at age nineteen.

She was presumed dead after her car was found near the Atlantic coast.

Khloe studied the photograph.

The girl’s eyes were unmistakable.

Elaine Parker was Emilia Price.

Isabella’s former best friend.

The detective opened the missing-person report.

Emilia had last been seen leaving a party at the Thorne family estate.

The party had taken place on the same night Daniel Thorne crashed his car.

Marcus read the date twice.

“That is impossible.”

Adrian looked at him.

“What?”

“Daniel’s crash was not an isolated accident.”

Marcus turned the report around.

A witness statement had been attached.

The witness claimed Emilia entered Daniel’s car shortly before midnight.

Khloe stared at the page.

“Was she in the crash?”

“No passenger was reported.”

“Then where did she go?”

Marcus looked toward the photograph of Daniel.

“Maybe Daniel was not the only person my family erased that night.”

A message arrived on Khloe’s black phone.

It contained a video file.

Emilia appeared in a dark room.

Her face was close to the camera.

“Khloe, I am sorry.”

She looked behind her before continuing.

“Isabella was never the real threat.”

The video shook.

A door opened somewhere nearby.

Emilia whispered one final sentence.

“Your uncle knows where Daniel was taken.”

The screen went black.

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Khloe turned toward Adrian.

Before he could answer, the fetal monitor alarm began screaming.