Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Trunk
Claire took two steps away from the open trunk before her knees gave out.
Brandon caught her under the arms.
She clawed at his shirt as if trying to push him away, but he tightened his grip and dragged her toward the driver’s side.
Detective Cole reached them first.
“Let her go!”
Brandon released Claire and raised his hands.
“She needs help.”
Claire collapsed against the car.
Blood covered the front of her pale blouse, but I could not see where it came from. Her face was gray, and a bruise darkened one side of her jaw.
Cole knelt beside her.
“Claire, can you hear me?”
Her eyes moved toward the hospital doors.
Toward me.
“Ruth.”
I pressed both palms against the locked glass.
The electronic mechanism would not release.
Dr. Carter picked up the security phone, but the line was dead.
The second nurse checked the wall panel.
“Someone triggered a system lockdown from an administrative terminal.”
“Can we override it?” I asked.
“Not from here.”
Outside, Claire lifted one trembling hand.
Her lips moved.
I could not hear her through the glass.
Detective Cole leaned closer.
Claire whispered something into his ear.
He looked toward Brandon.
Brandon took a step backward.
Cole reached for his cuffs.
Brandon swung first.
His fist struck the detective’s shoulder, and he ran between two parked ambulances.
The uniformed officer chased him.
Cole stayed with Claire.
Dr. Carter struck the emergency release near the door. A warning light flashed, but the lock remained engaged.
“Noah needs surgery,” she said. “We can’t wait for the system.”
A surgical team had already been called, but the lockdown was trapping staff in separate sections of the hospital.
I looked down the corridor.
A red fire alarm box was mounted near the supply room.
“Will the doors release during a fire?”
“They should.”
I pulled the alarm.
A harsh bell filled the pediatric wing.
Sprinklers did not activate, but the magnetic locks disengaged.
I pushed through the glass doors and ran to Claire.
Her hand closed around my sleeve.
“Emily didn’t leave.”
“I know.”
“She found the room.”
“What room?”
Claire coughed and turned her face away.
Blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.
Cole called for a stretcher.
“The room under the garage,” Claire whispered.
My mind returned to Noah’s words.
The little door under Daddy’s floor.
“What was down there?”
“Videos.”
“What kind of videos?”
She looked toward the direction Brandon had run.
“He recorded everything.”
“Where is Emily?”
Claire’s grip tightened.
“I helped her hide.”
“Where?”
Before she could answer, a nurse reached us with a stretcher.
Claire shook her head frantically.
“No hospital records.”
“You’re bleeding,” I said.
“He has people here.”
“Who?”
Her eyes moved toward Dr. Carter.
Not accusingly.
Fearfully.
Then Claire whispered, “The woman with the red badge.”
Every hospital employee wore an identification badge, but administrative supervisors had red access cards that could control restricted doors.
The lockdown had been activated through an administrative terminal.
Someone inside the hospital was helping Brandon.
Claire was taken toward trauma care.
Detective Cole followed while issuing orders into his radio. Officers searched the parking lot and surrounding streets, but Brandon had vanished between the ambulances.
I wanted to chase him.
Instead, Dr. Carter caught my hand.
“Ruth, Noah is getting worse.”
I ran back to imaging.
Noah lay beneath a warm blanket, his face nearly colorless. The monitor showed a rapid heart rate.
Dr. Carter displayed the scan.
“There is blood collecting near his spleen. We need to operate.”
“How did this happen?”
“The pattern could come from repeated blunt force, a fall, compression, several causes. I can’t tell you who did it.”
Brandon’s voice echoed in my head.
Keep your hands off, or I’ll break your fingers.
Noah opened his eyes.
“Grandma?”
“I’m here.”
“Did Aunt Claire get out?”
“Yes.”
His face crumpled with relief.
“She said Mommy was alive.”
I leaned closer.
“When did she tell you?”
“Last night.”
“Claire saw you last night?”
He nodded faintly.
“She came through the little room.”
That meant Claire had entered Brandon’s house through a hidden space connected to the garage.
“Did she see your bruises?”
Noah’s eyes filled.
“She said she was sorry.”
“For what?”
Before he answered, a woman wearing dark administrative scrubs entered the imaging room.
A red badge hung from her collar.
She smiled at Dr. Carter.
“I’m here to authorize the surgical transfer.”
Dr. Carter’s expression tightened.
“I didn’t request an administrator.”
The woman reached for Noah’s bed.
He recoiled so violently that his monitor alarmed.
“That’s her,” he whispered.
The woman’s hand froze.
Noah stared at the red badge.
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“She was in the basement with Daddy.”
📖 Discover who the red-badged administrator was—and why Noah remembered her standing beside Emily in Brandon’s hidden room in CHAPTER 6. 👇
