Chapter 5 - JUNIPER’S LAST CHRISTMAS
Lena Mercer had not been an insurance analyst three years earlier.
She had been a hospital billing coordinator.
Her office was two floors beneath Juniper’s oncology ward.
“I saw her sometimes,” Lena whispered.
Gideon sat beside the bed.
“Juniper?”
“She used to escape.”
Despite himself, he almost smiled.
“She called it exploring.”
“She came into my office looking for a vending machine.”
“That sounds like her.”
“She told me hospital pudding violated human rights.”
Gideon laughed.
The sound broke halfway out.
Lena smiled weakly.
“I had Norah’s picture on my desk. Juniper asked about her. They were almost the same age.”
“Why were you there when she died?”
Lena’s expression darkened.
“I was working late.”
She remembered the night clearly.
Rebecca Hall leaving Juniper’s room.
A medication tray.
An argument near the service elevator.
Lena had heard Rebecca tell someone:
I did what you asked. Now leave my family alone.
Minutes later, Juniper coded.
“I didn’t understand what I heard until later.”
“You never told police?”
“I did.”
“What?”
“I gave a statement.”
Gideon stared.
“No statement existed.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because two days later a detective came to my apartment.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Hargrove.”
Shaw knew the name.
Former Chicago homicide detective.
Now head of security for Malcolm Vale.
Lena had been threatened.
Not dramatically.
No gun.
No beating.
Something worse.
Hargrove showed her photographs of Norah leaving preschool.
“He told me I had misunderstood what I heard.”
Gideon’s jaw tightened.
“So you changed your statement.”
“I was a single mother.”
“You protected your daughter.”
“I protected myself too.”
“You don’t owe me an apology.”
“I do.”
“No.”
Lena looked at him.
“If I had spoken—”
“My daughter was already dead.”
“But someone else might—”
“Stop.”
His voice was gentle.
“I have spent three years inventing ways I could have saved Juniper. I will not let you inherit that disease.”
Lena cried silently.
Something shifted between them.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Recognition.
Two parents who understood what fear could make people do.
“Why investigate now?”
Lena explained.
Six months earlier, Meridian promoted her.
She gained access to old claims.
Juniper’s appeared.
Then others.
Children.
Cancer patients.
Elderly patients.
People whose expensive treatments were denied while corresponding funds vanished.
She began copying records.
“Then I found Rebecca.”
“Where?”
“She contacted me.”
Rebecca had been hiding.
She wanted immunity.
She admitted administering the digoxin.
But claimed she had been coerced.
“By Malcolm?”
Lena shook her head.
“She never gave me the name.”
“Then why the photograph?”
“She was meeting Malcolm.”
“Could he have been helping her?”
“Yes.”
That possibility surprised Gideon.
Adrian had assumed guilt from an image.
So had Gideon.
Lena continued.
“Rebecca told me the person behind everything was called the Benefactor.”
“Who is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“She did?”
“Yes.”
“And Rebecca?”
“Missing.”
Gideon stood.
“We find her.”
Lena grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because they know about Norah now.”
As if summoned by the words, Gideon’s phone rang.
Marcus.
“Sir, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“Someone tried to enter Norah’s hospital room.”
Gideon’s blood froze.
“Who?”
“Man wearing hospital maintenance clothing.”
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
Gideon ran.
Norah was safe.
She had hidden beneath the bed when the stranger entered.
Marcus’s guard had returned seconds later.
Gideon found her trembling inside a closet.
She launched herself at him.
He caught her.
“He found me.”
“Who?”
“The shiny-shoe man.”
“You saw him?”
She nodded.
“Was it Adrian?”
“No.”
“Malcolm?”
“I don’t know Malcolm.”
Gideon showed her a photograph.
Norah shook her head.
Then Shaw showed her Hargrove.
Another no.
Norah whispered:
“He has a funny finger.”
“What?”
“Two fingers are stuck together.”
Syndactyly.
A physical characteristic.
Shaw searched known associates.
Nothing immediate.
Norah suddenly looked toward the door.
A physician stood there.
Dr. Samuel Whitaker.
Head of pediatric oncology.
The same doctor who had treated Juniper.
Norah screamed.
“HIM!”
Everyone turned.
Whitaker froze.
Norah buried her face in Gideon’s chest.
“The shiny-shoe man!”
Whitaker ran.
Marcus tackled him before he reached the elevator.
The doctor fought with surprising desperation.
Shaw handcuffed him.
Gideon stared at Whitaker’s right hand.
Two fingers partially fused.
Something inside him shattered.
“You treated my daughter.”
Whitaker looked away.
“You told me there was nothing else we could do.”
Silence.
“You held my hand while she died.”
Whitaker finally whispered:
“I’m sorry.”
Gideon hit the wall beside his head.
“WHO IS THE BENEFACTOR?”
Whitaker flinched.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“They’ll kill my son.”
“Who?”
Whitaker looked toward Norah.
Then at Gideon.
“You still don’t understand.”
His face twisted with terror.
“The Benefactor isn’t trying to kill the girl.”
Gideon went still.
Whitaker continued.
“He’s trying to get her back.”
“Back?”
May you like
The doctor looked toward Lena’s hospital room.
“Ask Lena who Norah’s father really was.”
