Chapter 16 - Northbridge Clinic
The abandoned clinic stood at the edge of an industrial district.
Its windows had been covered with metal panels.
The property officially had no electricity.
Thermal cameras showed heat in the basement.
Police entered before sunrise.
They found medical equipment, refrigerated medication, and three rooms fitted with locks on the outside.
One room contained Dad’s clothing.
Another contained Samuel’s computer.
The third contained a man.
He was not my father.
He was Dr. Anthony Pritchard, the specialist scheduled to perform Daniel’s final evaluation.
Pritchard had been reported missing two days earlier.
He had bruises around his wrists and a sedative in his bloodstream.
When he regained consciousness, he told us Elias had abducted him.
“I refused to sign the institutional order.”
“Why did Mom believe you would sign?” I asked.
“Because someone had been sending reports under my name.”
The evaluations were forged.
Elias and Keene planned to replace Pritchard at the final meeting with a man who resembled him.
Once Daniel was institutionalized, the false guardian order would transfer control of the trust.
Pritchard had discovered the plan and contacted Samuel.
Samuel tried to protect him by hiding him at the clinic.
Then Elias found them.
“Where is Samuel now?”
Pritchard shook his head.
“He said he had to finish what Richard started.”
“What about my father?”
The doctor looked confused.
“Richard Hale died.”
“We found evidence someone with his DNA used this inhaler.”
Pritchard examined the device.
Then he noticed a faint cut along the plastic mouthpiece.
“That isn’t an inhaler.”
He pulled the casing apart.
Inside was a small biological sample tube.
The DNA had been planted.
The inhaler was meant to make us believe Dad was alive.
“Why?” I asked.
Daniel answered through his tablet.
“To make us search wrong direction.”
Elias needed the police focused on finding Dad.
Meanwhile, Samuel was moving toward the real target.
Judge Keene had mentioned careers depending on silence.
The old Northbridge case involved more than stolen money.
It involved falsified clinical trials.
Patients had died.
Dad’s investigation could expose every doctor, attorney, and official who buried the records.
Samuel’s computer contained a countdown clock.
Twenty-three hours remained.
Beneath it was a message.
At zero, all Northbridge records will be released.
Detective Torres stared at the screen.
“Samuel built a dead-man switch.”
Daniel typed.
“Not release.”
“What do you mean?”
He pointed to the code.
“Delete.”
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Samuel was not planning to expose Northbridge.
He was planning to erase the evidence forever.
