Chapter 5 - THE EMPTY ROOMThe federal vehicles reached North Valley shortly after two in the morning.
The facility stood behind iron gates surrounded by pine trees.
Only a small brass plaque identified the property.
There were no ambulances.
No marked medical vehicles.
No lights except those burning on the third floor.
The front gate had been left open.
Marcus did not like that.
Neither did Agent Ortiz.
“Stay in the vehicle,” Ortiz told Maya.
“No.”
“This may become an active crime scene.”
“My mother may be inside.”
Ortiz studied her for a moment.
“Remain behind us.”
The main doors opened without resistance.
A nurse stood in the lobby with both hands raised.
Her name badge read CAROL DANE.
“We were told to evacuate one patient,” she said.
“Who told you?” Ortiz asked.
“Dr. Keller.”
“Where is he?”
“He left fifteen minutes ago.”
“With the patient?”
Carol nodded.
“An older woman.”
“Sedated.”
“Long dark hair with gray at the temples.”
Maya’s heart began pounding.
“What was her name?”
“We knew her as Laura Gray.”
Marcus and Maya exchanged a look.
L.G.
“Where did they take her?”
“I don’t know.”
Ortiz ordered agents to search the building.
Maya followed Carol to the third floor.
Room 317 had been stripped almost completely bare.
The mattress was missing.
The cabinets stood open.
Medical files had been removed.
Only a glass of water remained on the windowsill.
Maya walked slowly into the room.
Scratches covered the wall beside the bed.
At first, they appeared random.
Then Marcus noticed that they formed letters.
A.
M.
E.
L.
I.
A.
The name had been carved repeatedly.
Hundreds of times.
Maya touched the letters.
Her mother had remembered her.
Even if the world had stolen her name.
Even if medication had clouded her mind.
Even if she had been told her daughter was dead.
She had remembered.
A folded piece of fabric rested beneath the radiator.
Maya pulled it free.
It was part of a yellow child’s coat.
The same color as the coat in Eleanor’s photograph.
Someone had preserved it for twenty-four years.
Maya held it against her chest.
“We will find her,” Marcus promised.
A faint sound came from beneath the bed frame.
Maya knelt.
A small digital recorder had been taped to the underside.
Its battery was nearly dead.
Ortiz pressed the play button.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman’s weak voice began speaking.
“My name is Dr. Leah Vaughn.”
Maya stopped breathing.
“If anyone finds this, Victoria Sterling knows what happened on County Road Nine.”
“The accident was not an accident.”
“Charles Sterling arranged the vehicles.”
“Victoria was there.”
A cough interrupted the recording.
“Gabriel was alive when they took him.”
Marcus gripped the bed frame.
Maya covered her mouth.
Her father had not died inside the wreckage.
The recording continued.
“They needed his access codes.”
“They needed his vote.”
“They kept me alive because they believed I knew where he hid the evidence.”
The woman’s voice became softer.
“My daughter escaped.”
“I saw her reach the trees.”
“Her name is Amelia.”
“Tell her I never stopped waiting.”
The recording ended.
Maya pressed the device against her heart.
For one moment, grief overwhelmed everything.
Then Ortiz’s radio crackled.
A black medical transport van had been spotted heading south.
Agents moved toward the stairwell.
Maya followed them.
A security alarm suddenly began screaming.
Smoke poured from the eastern hallway.
Someone had started a fire in the records room.
Marcus grabbed Maya’s arm.
“They are destroying evidence.”
The lights went out.
In the darkness, a man’s voice whispered from the end of the hall.
May you like
“You should have stayed an orphan.”
A gunshot shattered the window beside Maya’s head.
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