Chapter 9 - Room 614
South Boston Mercy Hospital was operating on emergency power.
The storm had flooded two streets and overwhelmed the emergency department. Nurses rushed between beds. Security cameras flickered on and off.
Perfect conditions for a murder.
Lucas entered through the staff garage using the stolen badge.
Emma remained close to him, hidden beneath his black coat.
“Room 614,” she whispered.
They took the service stairs.
On the sixth floor, Lucas saw an empty wheelchair blocking the hallway.
A nurse lay unconscious behind the station.
He lifted Emma and ran.
Room 614 stood open.
A man in a white coat leaned over the bed, pressing a syringe into an IV line.
Lucas crossed the room and drove him into the wall.
The syringe shattered on the floor.
The man reached beneath his coat.
Lucas slammed his wrist against the bedrail until a pistol dropped.
Emma ran to the bed.
“Mommy!”
Evelyn lay pale beneath the hospital blanket, an oxygen tube beneath her nose and a thick bandage around her side.
Her eyes opened slowly.
For several seconds, she stared at Emma.
Then at Lucas.
Tears filled her eyes.
“You found him,” she whispered.
Emma climbed carefully beside her.
Lucas stood frozen.
Evelyn looked older than the woman in the photograph.
There were lines around her eyes.
A scar near her temple.
Evidence of a life spent hiding.
But she was alive.
Lucas approached the bed.
“Why didn’t you trust me?”
Evelyn’s expression folded with pain.
“I trusted you.”
“Then why six years?”
“I didn’t trust the men around you.”
Lucas looked at the assassin unconscious on the floor.
“You were right.”
Evelyn touched Emma’s hair.
“They raided our apartment this morning. I got Emma out through the fire escape. I stayed behind so they would follow me.”
“You were shot.”
“I’ve had worse dates with you.”
Despite everything, Lucas almost smiled.
Then Evelyn’s monitor began alarming.
Her breathing changed.
A nurse rushed in, saw the syringe on the floor, and shouted for help.
Doctors flooded the room.
Lucas pulled Emma back as Evelyn was surrounded.
Before the doors closed, Evelyn reached toward him.
“The résumé,” she gasped. “The first letters.”
Then the medical team pushed Lucas and Emma into the hallway.
Lucas unfolded the damp paper.
The résumé was filled with blurred cleaning jobs and false addresses.
But the first letter of every line formed a message.
H A R O L D I S N O T A L O N E.
Lucas stared at the final initials.
M.D.
May you like
Margaret Doyle.
👉 Evelyn’s coded warning claimed Harold had a partner—and the initials pointed directly to the woman Lucas had just left guarding him.
