Chapter 13 - A DOOR OPENED AT MIDNIGHT
The order to preserve Wren Haven's records reached the facility before the investigators did.
That was the problem with official channels when someone inside knew which doors to open for a powerful client.
A night supervisor tried to transfer several residents to an unknown vehicle shortly after midnight.
A nurse named Elise Grant refused to sign the transportation forms because no responsible physician had authorized them.
She called a patient advocate, then emergency services, and finally the investigators whose number Miriam had given her.
Her refusal bought enough time for authorities to arrive.
I wasn't allowed on the entry team, and the restriction was sensible.
My shoulder was healing, and this was a rescue operation, not a performance staged for my peace of mind.
Walter and I sat in an operations room while the agents provided brief updates.
At one in the morning they found a locked records room.
At one thirty they identified fourteen patients whose real names differed from their files.
At two they discovered a man in a wheelchair who flinched at the name Samuel Price but answered to Peter.
Walter closed his eyes when he heard it.
Nobody allowed him to rush in.
The medical team first had to determine whether his son was safe to move and capable of consenting to contact.
Those were small acts of dignity denied to Peter for far too long.
At dawn, a doctor told Walter that his son had survived serious trauma and years of coercion.
His memory was uneven, but he could identify his father from a recent photograph.
“He asked whether you still wear the brown cardigan,” the doctor said.
Walter let out a broken laugh.
I turned away because I wanted the reunion to belong to them.
Then Peter was wheeled into a quiet room.
Walter took one uncertain step and stopped.
“Peter?”
The man in the wheelchair lifted his head.
“Dad, I tried.”
Walter dropped to his knees beside him.
“You never had to prove anything to me,” he whispered.
The two held one another while every person in the hall looked somewhere else.
For a moment I thought the worst had passed.
Then a nurse approached Vega with a chart taken from Peter's room.
On the back someone had taped a list of drug administrations and a handwritten warning.
Do not let him testify.
His memory is returning.
May you like
The handwriting matched Richard Vale's personal assistant.
And when investigators tried to contact the assistant, they discovered she had boarded a flight that morning under a false name.
