Chapter 8 - THE HOSPITAL FIRE
Elena pushed the memory card into the lining of her coat.
Smoke thickened outside Noah’s room.
The fire alarm continued to scream.
A man wearing hospital scrubs entered through the side door.
His surgical mask covered most of his face.
He held a syringe.
Elena stepped between him and Noah.
“What are you doing?”
The man lunged.
Elena knocked a metal tray into his path.
Instruments crashed across the floor.
Noah reached for the emergency button.
The stranger grabbed Elena’s coat.
The fabric tore.
The memory card fell near the bed.
The stranger saw it.
He released Elena and bent down.
Noah swung his water pitcher.
It struck the man’s shoulder.
Elena kicked the memory card beneath a cabinet.
Detective Mason burst into the room with two officers.
The stranger ran toward the window.
Mason tackled him before he could escape.
The mask slipped from his face.
Elena recognized him.
It was Marcus Bell.
The jewelry dealer.
Marcus struggled against the officers.
“You do not understand.”
“They will kill my daughter.”
Mason pulled him upright.
“Who will?”
Marcus looked at Elena.
Then he saw the memory card beneath the cabinet.
His fear became panic.
“Destroy it.”
“You cannot let her watch it.”
Mason recovered the card.
Firefighters discovered there was no fire.
Someone had activated the alarm and released smoke canisters inside two hallways.
Marcus had used the confusion to enter the hospital.
During questioning, he admitted selling pieces from the Hartley collection.
He insisted he had acted under threat.
“Victoria contacted me first.”
“She brought me the jewelry.”
Elena stood behind the observation glass with Mason.
“Did she give you the vault key?”
Marcus nodded.
“But the instructions came from someone else.”
“Who?”
Marcus refused to say.
Mason placed a photograph of Adrian on the table.
Marcus stared at it.
Then he looked away.
Elena felt sick.
Mason inserted Noah’s memory card into an isolated computer.
The recording showed the hallway outside the vault at 2:10 in the morning.
Victoria entered first.
She used the gold key.
Three minutes later, Adrian appeared.
Elena stopped breathing.
Adrian looked directly at the camera.
He reached toward the control panel.
The screen went black.
Mason paused the recording.
“That confirms your husband disabled the camera.”
Elena could not speak.
The video continued after the system restarted.
Victoria left the vault carrying a jewelry case.
Adrian followed with the sealed envelope.
Before disappearing from view, he opened it.
May you like
He read the first page.
Then he smiled.
