Chapter 4 - The Man Inside St. Catherine
Backup generators kicked in.
Gabriel moved me behind him.
“I can stand by myself.”
“I know.”
“Then move.”
“No.”
Marco entered.
“Someone accessed the restricted elevator.”
“Who?”
“Hospital credentials.”
My stomach sank.
“Vale.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“You’re sure?”
“No.”
I stepped toward the door.
“But I know how he thinks.”
We moved through the dim corridor.
A figure appeared near the nurses’ station.
Dr. Richard Vale.
Older now.
Gray hair.
Same calm smile.
“Elena.”
I stopped.
“Richard.”
He looked at Gabriel.
“Interesting company.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Vale returned his attention to me.
“You should leave.”
“You told me that three years ago.”
“And you should have listened.”
My hands curled.
“You destroyed my career.”
“No.”
Vale smiled.
“I protected the hospital.”
“By protecting Julian Cross?”
His smile vanished.
“Be careful.”
“Why? You’ll take my license twice?”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Vale noticed.
“You think Moretti can save you?”
“I don’t need him to.”
Vale stepped closer.
“You always were stubborn.”
“And you always talked too much.”
That stopped him.
Because my phone was recording.
Vale saw it.
His expression hardened.
Then alarms erupted.
Sprinklers activated across the floor.
Chaos followed.
Vale disappeared into the stairwell.
Gabriel grabbed my arm.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“He knows where the records are.”
We followed.
Down two floors.
Then another.
Vale entered the hospital archive.
I knew exactly where he was going.
The forensic storage wing.
We found him beside an old evidence cabinet.
He was holding a box.
My case number was printed on it.
My breath caught.
“Put it down.”
Vale turned.
“You have no idea what this box is worth.”
“To me?”
I stepped closer.
“Everything.”
“To Cross, it’s worth millions.”
Gabriel appeared behind me.
“Then Cross made a bad investment.”
Vale looked toward the second exit.
Marco blocked it.
For the first time, Richard Vale looked afraid.
I took the box.
Inside were original photographs.
Chain-of-custody forms.
My handwritten notes.
And the sealed laboratory record.
My hands shook.
Gabriel noticed.
“You okay?”
I nodded.
“No.”
Then I looked at Vale.
“But I will be.”
Police arrived minutes later.
This time, Gabriel didn’t stop them.
Detectives took Vale into custody after reviewing the documents and recording.
As they walked him away, Vale looked back.
“You think this fixes everything?”
I answered quietly.
“No.”
I held the box against my chest.
“But it starts.”
Outside, dawn was breaking over New Orleans.
Gabriel stood beside me.
“You have enough now.”
“For what?”
“To clear your name.”
I looked at him.
“You risked your organization for this.”
“I risked nothing.”
“Your men almost died.”
His expression darkened.
“That was Cross.”
“Why were you really investigating him?”
Gabriel was silent.
Then he said,
“My younger sister was Claire Dalton.”
I froze.
The nineteen-year-old girl whose case destroyed my career.
Claire.
Gabriel’s sister.
“She changed her last name after our mother remarried,” he said. “I kept my distance because my life made hers dangerous.”
“Where is she?”
“Seattle.”
“Is she okay?”
“She survived.”
He looked at me.
“But she never forgot the nurse who believed her when everyone else wanted silence.”
My eyes burned.
Gabriel continued.
“She asked me to find you.”
“Why?”
His answer was simple.
May you like
“So she could say thank you.”
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