Chapter 10 - The Archive Room
The underground archive held seven years of concealed medical records.
False death certificates.
Patient transfers.
Security logs.
Payments.
Everything Thomas needed erased.
Police evacuated the lower levels.
Bomb technicians entered through the west tunnel.
Ethan remained upstairs with Amelia and Lily.
He hated waiting.
But Lily sat in his lap.
Her arms around his neck.
That mattered more.
Twenty-seven minutes later, Sarah returned.
“They have Thomas.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Explosives?”
“Disarmed.”
Ethan exhaled.
Sarah sat across from him.
“He was carrying a remote detonator.”
“Anything else?”
“Victor’s private ledger.”
Amelia looked up.
“What ledger?”
A handwritten notebook documenting payments made after the hospital fire.
Doctors.
Security officers.
Hospital administrators.
Nora.
Thomas.
Victor.
Even a city fire inspector.
Money had purchased silence piece by piece.
The ledger also contained a line Ethan did not expect.
CLAIRE MASON - $0.
The nurse who saved Lily had refused payment.
“What happened to her?” Ethan asked.
Sarah turned a page.
“Missing.”
Amelia’s expression changed.
“She helped me.”
“When?”
“After the fire.”
Claire had secretly visited Amelia before Victor moved her.
She told Amelia Lily survived.
She promised to contact Ethan.
Then she disappeared.
Ethan stared at the ledger.
Victor wrote:
C.M. PROBLEM RESOLVED BY T.V.
Thomas Vale.
Ethan felt cold.
“Is she dead?”
Sarah could not answer.
“Not necessarily.”
The ledger showed payments to a relocation service.
A false identity company.
Maybe Thomas had forced her into hiding.
Maybe Claire had escaped.
Either way, the investigation expanded.
Then Sarah turned to another page.
A payment made seven years ago.
DR. SAMUEL HAYES - $150,000.
Everyone looked at Samuel.
He went white.
“That isn’t possible.”
Ethan stood.
“Samuel.”
“I never took money.”
“You were my doctor.”
“You certified Amelia and Lily dead.”
Samuel froze.
Ethan had forgotten that detail.
After the hospital fire, Samuel had not worked at the maternity hospital.
But he reviewed medical reports on Ethan’s behalf.
He had confirmed the records.
Samuel sat down slowly.
“The payment…”
Sarah’s voice hardened.
“Explain it.”
Samuel stared at the ledger.
Then whispered:
“My wife.”
Ethan frowned.
Samuel’s wife, Rachel, had died six years earlier.
“What about her?”
“She handled our finances.”
“She told me she inherited money from her aunt.”
Sarah checked her notes.
“How much?”
Samuel closed his eyes.
“About one hundred fifty thousand.”
Silence.
Ethan stared at his oldest friend.
Samuel looked devastated.
“I swear to you, Ethan.”
“I didn’t know.”
Then Sarah’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She listened.
Then looked at Ethan.
“We found Claire Mason.”
“Where?”
Sarah hesitated.
May you like
“At Samuel Hayes’s lake house.”
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