CHAPTER 14 â The Doctor Who Wasn't There to Heal
The room disappeared around me.
I didn't hear the investors shouting.
I didn't hear the board members arguing.
I didn't hear Elias calling my name.
All I heard were seven words.
"Someone dressed as a doctor entered your wife's room."
I was already running.
The elevator couldn't move fast enough.
Thirty...
Twenty-nine...
Twenty-eight...
Every floor felt like another lifetime.
Detective Bennett spoke rapidly into her radio.
"All units. Possible attempted homicide at St. Andrew's Medical Center."
"Lock down every entrance."
"No one leaves the building."
The FBI agents sprinted behind us.
Thomas Whitmore remained in the boardroom with federal officers, protecting the evidence.
Elias stood frozen, still clutching my father's letter.
For the first time in his life...
He looked completely lost.
The drive to the hospital took twelve minutes.
It felt like twelve years.
Every red light was ignored.
Police escorts cleared intersections ahead of us.
I gripped the dashboard so tightly my knuckles turned white.
Please...
Please let me be in time.
The emergency entrance was chaos.
Police officers filled the lobby.
Nurses rushed patients into secure rooms.
Security guards locked every elevator.
The hospital had become a fortress.
Detective Bennett flashed her badge.
"Fourth floor."
"Now."
The elevator doors opened.
Three officers stood outside Emily's room.
One lay unconscious on the floor.
Blood trickled from a cut above his temple.
Another officer knelt beside him.
"He was hit from behind."
"Where's Emily?"
The officer looked toward the room.
"She's inside."
My heart stopped.
I pushed the door open.
Emily's hospital bed...
Was empty.
The blankets had been thrown aside.
Her IV line dangled from the bed.
The heart monitor had been ripped from the wall.
"No..."
I whispered.
"No..."
Noah's bassinet was still there.
Empty.
For one terrifying second...
I couldn't breathe.
Then I heard it.
A cry.
Weak.
From the bathroom.
I ran.
Emily sat on the floor.
Still wearing her hospital gown.
Holding Noah against her chest.
She had locked herself inside.
The bathroom door had splintered where someone had tried to force it open.
When she saw me...
She collapsed into my arms.
"It's okay."
"I've got you."
She couldn't stop shaking.
"He..."
She gasped for air.
"He wasn't a doctor."
Detective Bennett entered moments later.
"Emily."
"Can you tell us what happened?"
Emily nodded weakly.
"About fifteen minutes ago..."
"A man came in wearing a white coat."
"He had a hospital ID."
"He said Dr. Harris ordered another blood test."
"What happened next?"
"I knew something was wrong."
"Why?"
Emily looked down at Noah.
"He called me..."
"...Mrs. Blackwood."
The room fell silent.
"My name has never been Blackwood."
She continued.
"I asked him where Dr. Harris was."
"He smiled."
"What did he say?"
"'You won't need him where you're going.'"
My blood ran cold.
Emily tightened her arms around Noah.
"He reached for my baby."
"I screamed."
"He locked the room."
"What then?"
"I grabbed the metal IV pole."
"You hit him?"
She nodded.
"He stumbled."
"I ran into the bathroom."
"Locked the door."
"He kept trying to break it down."
Then...
She looked directly at me.
"I thought..."
"...I was going to lose Noah."
The forensic team immediately processed the room.
The fake doctor's badge had been dropped near the bed.
The ID wasn't just counterfeit.
It belonged to a real physician.
Dr. Kevin Morales.
Who had reported his identification missing...
Three days earlier.
Security footage revealed the suspect entering through the employee parking garage.
Baseball cap.
Medical mask.
White lab coat.
He moved confidently.
Like someone familiar with hospitals.
He never looked at a map.
Never hesitated.
He knew exactly where Emily's room was.
The surveillance team tracked him floor by floor.
He avoided every security camera by turning his face at just the right angle.
Professional.
Deliberate.
Then...
One frame caught him entering the stairwell.
The camera inside the stairwell captured his profile.
Only for half a second.
The image was enhanced.
Everyone stared at the monitor.
Detective Bennett whispered,
"No..."
I looked closer.
The face wasn't Victor Kane.
It wasn't Ryan.
It wasn't Elias.
It was someone else entirely.
Someone older.
Someone I recognized instantly.
"Impossible."
I stepped closer.
"He died."
Thomas Whitmore, who had just arrived with FBI agents, looked at the screen.
His face turned pale.
"No..."
He whispered.
"It can't be."
The man in the photograph...
Was Charles Donovan.
My father's former business partner.
The man whose funeral I had attended...
Five years earlier.
Detective Bennett frowned.
"He's dead?"
"So everyone believed."
Thomas nodded slowly.
"He disappeared after a boating accident."
"No body was ever recovered."
Silence.
"He staged his death."
Just then, another FBI analyst entered carrying freshly decrypted emails recovered from Victor Kane's laptop.
"There are thousands."
She stopped at one message.
Sent...
Two days before the hospital attack.
From:
C.Donovan@...
To:
Margaret Carter
Subject:
Final Removal
The email contained only one sentence.
If the wife survives, take the child instead.
The timestamp...
Was yesterday.
Charles Donovan...
Was alive.
Emily looked at me with terrified eyes.
"Daniel..."
"Who is Charles Donovan?"
Before I could answer...
Thomas Whitmore did.
"He wasn't just Richard's business partner."
"He was..."
Thomas's voice faltered.
"...the only man your father ever truly feared."
The room became silent.
Thomas stared at the enhanced photograph.
Then slowly whispered words that made every investigator stop writing.
"Richard didn't die because of the money."
He looked directly at me.
"He died because..."
"...he discovered who Charles Donovan really worked for."
Before anyone could ask another question, Detective Bennett's phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then slowly lowered it.
Her expression had completely changed.
"What is it?"
I asked.
She looked at me.
"The DNA report from the fake doctor's coffee cup just came back."
"And?"
She swallowed.
"It matches..."
She paused.
"...someone already in FBI custody."
I frowned.
"Who?"
Bennett's voice was barely above a whisper.
"Elias Blackwood."
The room fell silent.
If Elias had been in federal custody during the attack...
May you like
Then someone else...
Shared his DNA.
