# CHAPTER 12 — THE DOCTOR’S CASE
Bruno removed Dr. Reed’s weapon and searched his medical case.
Inside were emergency medications, syringes, bandages, and sealed vials.
One vial had no label.
Alejandro held it toward the light.
“What is this?”
“A heart medication,” Reed said.
“Then why remove the label?”
“I didn’t.”
Bruno found a false panel beneath the case lining.
Inside lay a second Moretti crest ring.
Lucia’s ring was still inside her purse.
Nico wore his at all times.
Alejandro stared at Reed.
“You had the ring used in the footage.”
“Someone planted it.”
“That excuse has become popular tonight.”
Reed looked toward Emma.
“If I wanted you dead, I could have allowed the reaction to continue. I treated you.”
“After Emma had already saved me.”
“I brought her replacement medication.”
“Medication she needed because evidence was coated with allergen.”
Reed’s face changed.
He looked toward the four unopened EpiPens.
“Do not use the remaining injectors.”
Mara grabbed Emma and stepped back.
“Why?”
“The pharmacy packaging was intact when I collected them, but my case was unattended for four minutes at the helicopter terminal.”
Bruno opened one injector.
The clear viewing window appeared cloudy.
Reed took it carefully.
“This is not epinephrine.”
“What is it?” Alejandro asked.
“I won’t know without testing.”
Mara’s voice broke.
“You gave one to my daughter.”
Reed examined Emma’s pulse.
“The injector I used came from my jacket, not the case.”
Alejandro watched him.
“Convenient.”
A guard entered the corridor.
“Police are approaching.”
Bruno looked at Alejandro.
“No one called them.”
Through the station windows, blue lights appeared.
Too many vehicles.
At least twelve.
Gabriel checked the city dispatch network.
“There is no official call logged at Grand Central.”
The officers entering the terminal were not police.
Moretti guards closed the corridor doors.
Gunfire struck the outer wall.
Passengers screamed in the main concourse.
Bruno pushed Mara and Emma behind a concrete column.
“We need another exit.”
Dr. Reed pointed toward an old service tunnel.
“That passage connects to the lower tracks.”
“How do you know?” Bruno asked.
Reed hesitated.
“I treated Salvatore here years ago.”
Alejandro pressed a gun into Reed’s back.
“You walk first.”
They entered the tunnel.
The lights flickered.
Halfway down the passage, Emma stopped.
“What is it?” Mara whispered.
Emma pointed toward the floor.
A pink ribbon lay beside the tracks.
It matched the ribbon from Kiara’s box.
Fresh footprints continued into the darkness.
Small footprints.
A child had passed through the tunnel recently.
Alejandro moved faster.
The passage ended at an abandoned platform.
A train waited there with its doors open.
No schedule displayed its arrival.
No operator sat inside.
On the first seat was another photograph of Kiara.
This one had been taken inside the Moretti mansion that afternoon.
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Behind the girl stood a grandfather clock from the sealed eastern wing.
Kiara had been inside Alejandro’s house while he was dying upstairs.
