Chapter 5
Emily stared at Daniel as if he had spoken another language.
Maria felt almost the same.
“That’s impossible,” Emily said again.
Daniel held out his phone.
“That’s all Claire sent.”
“My father had a funeral.”
“I know.”
“I saw his body.”
Daniel said nothing.
Emily’s voice rose.
“I kissed his forehead!”
“I know.”
“Don’t keep saying you know!”
She grabbed the hospital cup and threw it.
It struck the wall.
Water exploded across the floor.
Daniel flinched.
Emily was crying now.
“My father is dead.”
Maria moved beside her.
“Emily.”
“No.”
She pulled away.
“You weren’t there.”
“No.”
“I saw him.”
“I believe you.”
“Then stop acting like this could be true.”
Maria waited.
Then quietly asked, “Was there an autopsy?”
Emily stopped.
Daniel answered.
“No.”
Maria looked at him.
“Why not?”
“Evelyn refused.”
Emily shook her head.
“My mother said he wanted no autopsy.”
“Was he cremated?” Maria asked.
“No.”
“Where is he buried?”
“Cross family cemetery.”
Maria looked at Daniel.
Daniel understood immediately.
“No.”
Emily looked between them.
“What?”
Maria hesitated.
“We may need to confirm who is in your father’s grave.”
Emily stared at her.
“You want to dig him up?”
“I want truth.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Daniel said, “Police can request an exhumation.”
“And wait how long?”
“We can’t dig up a grave ourselves.”
Maria gave him a look.
“I broke open your wife’s coffin today.”
Daniel had no response.
Emily suddenly laughed through her tears.
It sounded almost hysterical.
“My life is insane.”
Then she went silent.
A nurse entered after hearing the crash.
She checked Emily’s heart monitor.
Asked Daniel and Maria not to upset her.
When the nurse left, Emily looked at them.
“I need my mother.”
Daniel stiffened.
Maria noticed.
“You’re afraid of Evelyn.”
Daniel did not deny it.
Emily picked up her phone.
Her mother’s number went straight to voicemail.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Maria called from her phone.
Nothing.
Then Daniel tried.
On his phone, it rang once.
Someone answered.
No voice.
Daniel put it on speaker.
“Evelyn?”
Silence.
Then a sound.
Three soft knocks.
Emily sat upright.
“What was that?”
Daniel listened.
Three more knocks.
Emily’s eyes widened.
“That’s our signal.”
“What signal?” Maria asked.
“When I was a child.”
She leaned toward the phone.
“If I was hiding during storms, Mom knocked three times so I knew it was her.”
Daniel said, “Evelyn, can you talk?”
Three knocks.
“No,” Emily whispered.
Maria understood.
“She can hear us.”
Three knocks.
“She can’t speak.”
Again.
Three knocks.
Emily gripped the sheets.
“Mom, are you in danger?”
Three knocks.
Daniel looked at Maria.
Maria pointed to the phone.
“Ask yes or no.”
Emily nodded.
“Mom, one knock for yes. Two for no.”
One knock.
Emily’s face crumpled.
“Are you hurt?”
One knock.
“Is someone with you?”
One knock.
Maria’s chest tightened.
“Do you know where you are?” Emily asked.
Two knocks.
“Can you see anything?”
One knock.
“What?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Yes-or-no questions.”
Emily forced herself to think.
“Are you inside a building?”
One.
“A house?”
Two.
“An office?”
Two.
“Hospital?”
Silence.
Then one knock.
Daniel whispered, “Which hospital?”
Maria’s mind raced.
Cross Medical had three.
Emily asked, “Are you in one of ours?”
One knock.
“Downtown?”
Two.
“Riverside?”
One.
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
“I’m going.”
Maria blocked him.
“Not alone.”
“My mother-in-law is being held somewhere.”
“And whoever is holding her knows we’re listening.”
Suddenly a different voice came through the phone.
A man.
Calm.
“Very good, Emily.”
She froze.
“Who are you?”
The man ignored the question.
“You were always smarter than your husband.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
“What do you want?”
The man laughed.
“Oh, Daniel. Still making everything about yourself.”
Emily’s voice trembled.
“Let my mother go.”
“You should ask her what she did first.”
“What did she do?”
A pause.
“She buried your father.”
The call ended.
Emily immediately dialed back.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Daniel headed for the door.
“Riverside.”
Maria followed.
Emily ripped monitoring wires from her chest.
Daniel turned.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m coming.”
“You almost died.”
“That is my mother.”
A doctor tried stopping her.
Emily threatened to leave against medical advice.
Within ten minutes, she was dressed in clothes Maria found in a hospital donation cabinet.
Daniel protested the entire time.
Emily ignored him.
Police were still guarding the floor.
They could not simply leave through the main exit.
Maria knew the hospital better than either of them.
She had spent weeks there when Emily’s father had been ill years earlier.
“There’s a service elevator.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You’re suggesting we sneak out?”
“I’m suggesting we move before whoever has Evelyn moves her first.”
They took the service elevator.
A laundry exit led to an alley.
Daniel’s car was in the garage across the street.
They drove toward Riverside Cross Medical Center.
Rain began falling.
Emily sat in the passenger seat.
Maria sat behind them.
Nobody spoke for several minutes.
Then Emily asked, “Daniel, were you sleeping with Claire?”
His hands tightened around the wheel.
“Now?”
“Yes. Now.”
He looked at her.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
Daniel turned back to the road.
“For a while.”
Emily nodded slowly.
Maria looked out the window.
“This isn’t the time,” Daniel said.
“You made it the time when you lied to me.”
“I ended it.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“Before or after she started drugging me?”
Daniel slammed his palm against the steering wheel.
“She didn’t know!”
“You keep protecting her.”
“She found the truth!”
“She also helped destroy my mind.”
“She thought she was treating you.”
“And sleeping with my husband.”
Daniel said nothing.
Emily’s voice broke.
“Did you tell her I was unstable?”
“I told her you were struggling.”
“Did you tell her I imagined things?”
Daniel’s silence answered.
Emily looked out the window.
“You helped them.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You helped them make me doubt myself.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Emily’s voice became cold.
“Don’t use that word yet.”
They reached Riverside at 2:17 a.m.
The hospital looked almost empty.
Riverside had once been a busy surgical center.
Now only two floors remained open while renovations were supposedly underway.
Daniel parked near the rear entrance.
Maria noticed a security camera above the door.
Its light was off.
“Power?”
Daniel checked his phone.
“The building has power.”
“Then why is the camera dead?”
Nobody answered.
Emily used her family access card.
The door unlocked.
Inside, fluorescent lights flickered.
The hallway smelled like disinfectant and dust.
“Mom?” Emily called.
Daniel grabbed her arm.
“Don’t announce us.”
She pulled free.
“Don’t touch me.”
They moved toward the elevator.
It did not work.
A sign said OUT OF SERVICE.
Maria pointed toward the stairs.
“What floor?”
Emily thought about the phone.
“She didn’t know where she was.”
Daniel said, “Search each floor.”
First floor.
Empty patient rooms.
Locked pharmacy.
Renovation equipment.
No Evelyn.
Second floor.
Operating rooms.
Storage.
Dark hallways.
Maria noticed muddy footprints.
“Here.”
They followed them.
The footprints ended at a service door.
Daniel tried the handle.
Locked.
Emily used her card.
Red light.
“Access denied.”
Daniel stepped back and kicked the door.
Nothing.
Again.
The frame shook.
Maria found a fire extinguisher.
Together they smashed the electronic lock.
The door opened.
A narrow stairway descended.
Emily frowned.
“There’s no basement listed in this building.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Apparently there is.”
They descended.
The air grew colder.
At the bottom was another hallway.
These lights were on.
Bright.
Clean.
New.
Maria stared.
“This isn’t renovation.”
Glass doors lined the corridor.
Behind one door stood medical equipment.
Behind another were hospital beds.
Straps were attached to them.
Emily stopped.
“What is this place?”
Daniel’s face turned pale.
He had seen something.
On the wall.
A small black logo.
A circle split by a white line.
Maria recognized it from the papers in the blue envelope.
It had been printed beside several account numbers.
Daniel whispered, “That’s where the money went.”
Suddenly they heard a woman crying.
“Emily!”
Emily ran.
“Mom!”
Daniel and Maria followed.
The voice came from a room near the end.
Emily opened it.
Evelyn Cross was tied to a chair.
Blood marked one side of her face.
Her silver hair was tangled.
But she was alive.
“Mom!”
Emily rushed to her.
Evelyn began sobbing.
“My baby.”
Maria untied her wrists.
Daniel watched the door.
Emily held her mother.
“Who did this?”
Evelyn looked past her at Daniel.
Her expression changed.
“You brought him?”
Emily pulled back.
“He helped find you.”
Evelyn’s eyes became hard.
“He is why all of this started.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“I didn’t kill Robert.”
“No.”
Evelyn gave a bitter laugh.
“You only gave them access.”
Emily stared.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
“You tell her.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Tell her about Blackridge.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Emily looked between them.
“What is Blackridge?”
Evelyn stood unsteadily.
“The people your husband owed money to.”
Daniel’s face drained.
Maria remembered his refusal to explain his debts.
Emily whispered, “Daniel?”
He said nothing.
Evelyn continued.
“He didn’t owe money because of gambling.”
“What did he owe it for?”
Daniel finally spoke.
“Investments.”
Evelyn laughed.
“Call it what it was.”
Daniel stared at the floor.
Emily’s voice sharpened.
“What?”
He looked at her.
“Blackridge financed an acquisition I tried to make before we married.”
“How much?”
“Thirty million.”
Emily stepped back.
“You owed criminals thirty million dollars?”
“I didn’t know who they were at first.”
“When did you know?”
“Later.”
“How much later?”
Daniel could not answer.
Evelyn said, “Before your wedding.”
Emily went completely still.
“You married me knowing?”
Daniel stepped toward her.
“Emily—”
“You married me because my family had money.”
“No.”
“You stole eight million from my father’s company.”
“I was trying to repay them.”
“You used me.”
“I loved you.”
“Don’t.”
A sound echoed through the corridor.
Metal hitting metal.
Evelyn’s head snapped toward the door.
“We have to leave.”
“Who took you?” Maria asked.
Evelyn looked terrified.
“Not who.”
Footsteps approached outside.
“Then what?” Emily demanded.
Evelyn grabbed her daughter’s face.
“What happened to you was part of a trial.”
Emily stared.
“What trial?”
“Memory suppression.”
Maria felt sick.
Evelyn continued.
“Your father discovered they were testing it on patients.”
“Who?”
“Blackridge.”
“That’s not a medical company.”
“No.”
Evelyn looked toward the door.
“It’s much worse.”
A figure appeared at the end of the hall.
White coat.
Gray hair.
Dr. Warren Cole.
Emily stopped.
He held a gun.
Maria whispered, “The missing doctor.”
Dr. Cole raised the weapon.
“Evelyn.”
Evelyn stepped in front of Emily.
“Warren.”
“You should have kept quiet.”
“You should have killed me when you had the chance.”
He smiled sadly.
“I still can.”
Then another voice came from behind him.
“No.”
Dr. Cole froze.
Slowly, he turned.
An older man stepped from the shadows.
Emily gasped.
Her knees nearly collapsed.
Maria had seen his photograph hundreds of times.
In hallways.
Magazines.
Family portraits.
Robert Cross.
Emily’s dead father.
Alive.
He looked at his daughter.
May you like
Tears filled his eyes.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
