Chapter 14 - The Exit Beneath the Morgue
Megan pushed the wheelchair through imaging as alarms sounded behind us.
Detective Chen walked ahead, badge visible, telling staff we were transporting an unstable patient for emergency evaluation.
It worked until we reached the service elevator.
The doors opened.
Two uniformed officers stood inside.
Chen did not hesitate.
“Captain ordered us to secure the west wing,” one said.
“He changed the order,” Chen replied. “Radiology first.”
The officers stepped out.
We entered.
Chen pressed the basement button.
As the doors closed, one officer glanced at my face beneath the blanket. Recognition flickered.
He reached for the doors.
Too late.
The elevator descended.
“What’s in the basement?” I asked.
“Morgue access, supply tunnels, ambulance loading.”
Megan’s phone vibrated.
A message from Samuel’s number.
I AM ALIVE. DO NOT TRUST MEGAN.
I showed her.
She stared at it.
“That isn’t Samuel.”
“How do you know?”
“He never types in capitals.”
Chen asked, “Who has his phone?”
“Robert.”
The message had one purpose: divide us.
It almost worked.
I looked at Megan. “Where is Samuel?”
“Alive when I left him.”
“Where?”
“The Vale Development garage.”
“You left him there?”
“I had to choose between bringing him and retrieving the ledger.”
“You chose paper.”
“I chose the names of every person who might still be killed.”
My anger surged, but the elevator stopped before I could answer.
Basement.
Cold fluorescent lights buzzed above concrete walls. We moved through the morgue corridor toward ambulance loading.
At the final door, Chen raised a hand.
Voices outside.
Julian’s.
“You’re sure she’ll come through here?”
Robert answered.
“She has Chen. Chen always uses the basement route.”
They knew her methods.
Chen switched off her phone.
“We’re trapped.”
Megan opened the blue ledger and tore out three pages.
“What are you doing?”
“Creating choices.”
She gave one page to Chen, one to me, and kept one.
“If they catch us, they won’t know who has the important section.”
“What section did you give me?”
“Don’t look yet.”
Footsteps approached from behind.
Officers had entered the basement.
We moved into the body-storage room.
Rows of stainless drawers lined the walls. Chen found a narrow maintenance hatch behind a refrigeration unit.
“One at a time.”
Megan crawled through first.
I followed, clutching the ledger page inside my blouse. Chen entered last and pulled the hatch closed.
We crawled through darkness toward the loading dock.
Voices echoed behind us.
Julian opened the storage-room door.
“Clara,” he called. “You need to hear what your uncle told me about your mother.”
I kept moving.
“He said she begged him to protect you.”
The duct narrowed.
My shoulder brushed metal, sending a wave of pain through me.
“He said the only way to protect you was to keep you ignorant.”
Megan stopped ahead.
“Don’t listen.”
Julian’s voice came closer.
“He also said your grandmother wasn’t protecting you from us.”
We reached a grate overlooking the loading dock.
A black SUV waited outside with its engine running.
Rachel sat in the driver’s seat.
Free.
Alive.
She looked directly at the grate as though she knew we were there.
Megan whispered, “She was in custody.”
Chen’s face tightened. “Robert must have released her.”
Rachel stepped out and opened the rear passenger door.
Samuel was inside, hands untied.
He climbed out without assistance.
No blood on his collar.
No sign of weakness.
He looked toward the building and checked his watch.
Megan went pale.
“Samuel told me he was being held.”
Chen studied them.
“They’re waiting for us.”
The footsteps behind us stopped.
My phone, which I had forgotten to silence, began ringing.
Samuel’s name filled the screen.
I answered.
His voice was calm.
“Clara, come outside. We finally have enough evidence to end Julian.”
Through the grate, I watched Samuel hold a second phone to his ear.
May you like
In his other hand was the missing real recorder.
📖 Learn why Samuel possessed the recorder he claimed had been stolen—and what trap awaited Clara outside in CHAPTER 15. 👇
