Chapter 10 - THE DOCTOR'S CLINIC
Claire stared at the two messages.
SAFE. DO NOT COME BACK.
THIS IS NOT BRENNAN.
Same number.
Same contact name.
Two completely different voices in eight words.
Mara took the phone.
"They cloned his number again."
Nora kept the boat moving along the shoreline.
"Which message is real?"
"Maybe neither."
Ethan looked behind them.
The boathouse was no longer visible.
His stomach hurt from fear and engine vibration.
"We need to call someone we know is not connected to Collins."
Claire looked at Nora.
"Who?"
Nora thought for several seconds.
"Federal authorities."
Mara nodded.
"This crosses financial fraud, kidnapping, forged death records, and interstate shell companies."
Rebecca held her injured side.
"Victor has contacts everywhere."
"Not everywhere," Mara said.
"That is what men like Victor tell people until someone outside their circle starts reading the paperwork."
They reached a public marina and abandoned the boat.
Nora rented a car using cash from an emergency envelope in her briefcase.
Mara removed the batteries from every phone except one prepaid device.
Lena's number finally called them twenty minutes later.
Mara answered without speaking.
A woman's voice said one sentence.
"Wet socks smell worse underground."
Ethan sat upright.
It was the verification phrase they had discussed at the clinic after opening the drive.
Only Lena, Brennan, Nora, Mara, Claire, Rebecca, and Ethan knew it.
Mara answered.
"Especially near bells."
Lena exhaled.
"Good."
"Are you safe?"
"For now."
"Brennan?"
A pause.
"Missing."
Claire closed her eyes.
"What happened?"
Lena said she and Brennan had stayed behind at the boathouse.
The attackers entered through the front.
One was Caleb Ross.
Lena recognized him from state records.
Brennan tackled Ross while Lena pursued the second man outside.
When she returned, both Brennan and Ross were gone.
There was blood near the dock.
No body.
No vehicle.
Brennan's phone was found broken beneath a chair.
"Someone is using his number remotely," Lena said.
Mara looked at Ethan's phone.
"We guessed that."
Lena continued.
"I also have news about Dana Mercer."
Claire leaned forward.
"Did you find her?"
"Her apartment was empty."
"But a neighbor saw her leave Friday night with Dr. Voss."
Rebecca looked at Claire.
Lena gave them an address.
Voss owned a private medical clinic outside town under the name Meridian Restorative Health.
Officially, it specialized in executive wellness and discreet recovery services.
Unofficially, Mara had investigated it years earlier after two wealthy patients died within days of signing revised estate documents.
No charges were filed.
Chief Collins's department handled both deaths.
"The clinic has been closed since Friday," Lena said.
"Closed for what?"
"Renovation."
Mara laughed bitterly.
"Of course."
Lena wanted them to wait for a state tactical team.
Claire refused.
"If Voss is destroying records, every hour matters."
"Claire, you were sedated and locked in a coffin yesterday."
"That is exactly why I am not giving the doctor who did it another hour."
Nora turned toward her.
"We are not breaking into a clinic."
Claire looked at Rebecca.
"Do you still have company credentials?"
Rebecca nodded slowly.
Parker Biomedical had supplied diagnostic equipment to Meridian.
Rebecca's communications role gave her access to the vendor portal and building delivery schedules.
Mara understood where Claire was going.
"We do not break in."
"We arrive as a service team."
Lena objected over the phone.
Strongly.
Nora objected in person.
Even Ethan thought it was reckless.
Then Rebecca opened the vendor system and found a scheduled maintenance visit for that afternoon.
It had been canceled less than an hour earlier.
The cancellation came from Meridian's administrator.
Dana Mercer.
"She is there," Claire said.
They compromised.
Lena would send two state investigators to meet them nearby.
Claire, Rebecca, and Mara would enter only if the building appeared occupied and only to preserve evidence until authorities arrived.
Nora and Ethan would remain outside.
Ethan agreed.
Then he did not do what he agreed to do.
Meridian Restorative Health sat behind iron gates on a wooded property that looked more like a resort than a clinic.
The main building had stone walls, tinted windows, and no visible patients.
Rebecca used a vendor access code.
The gate opened.
Nora parked near the service entrance.
Claire turned to Ethan.
"Stay with Nora."
"I will."
"Promise me."
Ethan hesitated.
"I promise I will not go inside unless something goes wrong."
Claire stared at him.
"That is not the promise I asked for."
"It is the promise I can make."
She almost argued.
Then she hugged him.
"Fine."
Claire, Rebecca, and Mara entered through the service door wearing borrowed maintenance jackets from a supply van Lena had arranged.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Nora watched the building.
"I hate this."
Ethan did too.
At minute twelve, a black sedan entered the gate.
Dr. Adrian Voss stepped out.
Ethan recognized him from the funeral footage.
A second man exited the passenger side.
Victor Sloane.
Nora grabbed the prepaid phone.
"We call Lena now."
Ethan stared at the building.
"Mom does not know they are there."
Nora dialed.
No signal.
She looked at the screen.
"They are jamming phones."
Ethan opened the car door.
Nora caught his arm.
"Absolutely not."
"I promised if something went wrong."
"Something going wrong does not make you a police officer."
"It makes my mom trapped in there with the man who put her in a coffin."
Nora hesitated.
That was enough.
Ethan slipped free and ran toward the service entrance.
Nora followed, whispering furious words behind him.
The door had locked.
Ethan tried the vendor code.
It failed.
Then he noticed a delivery chute beside the loading dock.
It was narrow but large enough for a twelve-year-old.
Nora stared at it.
"Do not even think about it."
Ethan was already thinking about it.
Inside the clinic, the chute opened into a laundry room.
Ethan dropped onto a pile of towels.
Nora could not fit behind him.
She hissed through the opening.
"Find your mother and come straight back."
Ethan moved into the corridor.
The clinic was too quiet.
Doors lined both sides.
Most were empty.
One room contained medical monitors.
Another contained locked cabinets.
Then Ethan heard voices below him through a stairwell.
Victor Sloane was speaking.
"The boy was supposed to take the medication."
Ethan froze.
Voss answered.
"Mercer says he palmed it."
"Then she should have watched him swallow."
"He is twelve, Victor."
"He is a voting block with legs."
Ethan felt nausea rise in his throat.
Victor continued.
"Claire was the difficult part."
"The boy only needed to remain confused until the guardianship order was final."
Voss sounded nervous.
"This has gone too far."
Victor laughed softly.
"You certified a living woman dead."
"Do not develop a conscience after signing your name."
Ethan pulled out Mara's spare recorder and pressed the button.
He crept down three steps.
Through the railing he saw Victor and Voss in a lower hallway.
Dana Mercer stood beside them.
She looked frightened.
"Richard is unstable," Dana said.
Victor answered.
"Richard is disposable."
Ethan's pulse hammered.
There it was.
The word.
Disposable.
Victor had used Richard.
Maybe Richard did not even understand the entire plan.
Voss lowered his voice.
"What about Brennan?"
Victor smiled.
"By tonight, Detective Brennan will confess to helping Claire stage the coffin incident."
Dana stared at him.
"He will never confess."
"Everyone confesses when you write the statement for them."
Ethan heard a muffled sound behind a closed door.
Victor looked toward it.
"See?"
"He is already learning."
Ethan's blood turned cold.
Brennan was inside that room.
Then another door opened at the far end of the hall.
Claire stepped out.
Victor Sloane smiled at her.
"There you are."
Nora waited beside the delivery chute after Ethan vanished into it.
Every second made her more furious with herself.
She had spent her career telling clients not to improvise during crises.
Now a twelve-year-old had crawled into a medical facility while she stood outside without a signal.
She searched the loading area and found a hardwired emergency call box hidden behind a storage cabinet.
The line still worked.
Nora reached a county dispatcher, then demanded transfer to the state command center instead of local police.
She repeated Lena Ortiz's name until someone listened.
That call was the reason state units were already moving before Ethan reached the lower hallway.
He had entered alone.
But, without knowing it, he had not entered without help.
May you like
Ethan realized the maintenance plan had never fooled them.
They had been waiting for Claire.
