The hospital locked down the entire fourth floor.
Every visitor was questioned.
Every staff member was checked.
The unidentified nurse was taken away under guard, but she refused to give a name. She had no hospital records, no identification, and no explanation for how she had entered the ward.
None of that mattered as much as the missing memory card.
I searched my coat again.
Nothing.
Mercer searched the evidence bag.
Nothing.
Claire searched the satchel she had been carrying.
Nothing.
Reyes looked at all of us.
“Who touched the evidence after we left the tunnel?”
I answered immediately.
“Me.”
“Who else?”
“Mercer.”
He nodded.
“Claire.”
Claire raised her hands.
“Reyes.”
“I never touched the card.”
Grant was standing near the door.
Everyone turned toward him.
He stared back.
“I didn't take it.”
Mercer moved toward him.
“Where were you when Amanda left the tunnel?”
“With Lily.”
Claire nodded.
“He stayed with the child.”
Grant looked at Lily.
She was sitting beside Tyler.
Quiet.
Watching us.
I crouched in front of her.
“Lily.”
She looked at me.
“Do you know where the black card went?”
Her eyes dropped to the stuffed rabbit.
“The other one.”
I frowned.
“What other one?”
“The rabbit.”
Claire's face changed.
“Where is it?”
Lily shook her head.
“He has it.”
“Who?”
She whispered one word.
“Daddy.”
I looked at Claire.
“You said Evan had the evidence.”
“I thought he did.”
“Then why did we find the card in the cabinet?”
Claire's expression hardened.
“Because someone put a copy there.”
Mercer looked at Reyes.
“Then the real card was never in the tunnel.”
The room went silent.
I remembered Evan's face.
His urgency.
His insistence that we leave.
His knowledge of the hidden passage.
He had wanted us to find the cabinet.
But why?
Reyes suddenly looked toward the window.
“He needed us to believe the evidence was there.”
Mercer understood.
“So we would leave the real evidence unguarded.”
I looked at Lily.
“Where is the real rabbit?”
She pointed toward the hospital hallway.
“Someone took it.”
“Who?”
She hesitated.
Then said, “The man who talks like Tyler.”
My blood went cold.
“The man who called me?”
She nodded.
“Where did he take it?”
“To the room with no windows.”
Mercer immediately stood.
“Basement.”
Reyes nodded.
“The old records room.”
We moved.
This time, Tyler refused to stay behind.
“I can walk.”
“No,” I said.
“I can use the wheelchair.”
“You just nearly got drugged.”
“And you're walking into a basement after being threatened.”
He looked at me.
“I’m coming.”
I couldn't argue.
We took a wheelchair.
The elevator carried us downward.
The basement smelled of bleach and concrete.
The records corridor was dark.
Reyes used his flashlight.
“Room with no windows,” Mercer said.
We passed storage rooms.
Laundry.
Mechanical equipment.
Then we found it.
A door without a window.
The lock had been broken.
Inside, shelves filled the walls.
Old patient records.
Discarded equipment.
And a small stuffed rabbit sitting on a metal chair.
Lily gasped.
“That's mine.”
She ran toward it.
Claire caught her.
“Wait.”
Mercer inspected the room.
No one.
The rabbit was untouched.
I noticed something beneath it.
A folded piece of paper.
I picked it up.
Daniel's handwriting.
Again.
If Lily is ever separated from Claire, bring her to Amanda.
Not Tyler.
Amanda.
Tyler stared at the page.
“Why me?”
Claire looked at him.
“Because Daniel believed you were being watched.”
“But why would he trust Amanda?”
“Because nobody knew she was part of the plan.”
I looked at the rabbit.
There was a seam along its back.
I opened it.
Inside was another memory card.
The real one.
Mercer stared.
“How did Daniel know?”
“He didn't,” Claire said.
“Then who put it there?”
A voice answered from the doorway.
“I did.”
We turned.
Evan stood there.
Alive.
His clothes were wet.
There was blood on his sleeve.
Tyler stared.
“You're alive.”
Evan smiled faintly.
“Barely.”
Reyes stepped forward.
“Where were you?”
“Making sure Harris couldn't follow us.”
“Did you take the card?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Evan looked at me.
“Your uncle.”
“David?”
He nodded.
“But Tyler said the man in the photograph wasn't David.”
“It wasn't.”
“Then where is David?”
Evan's expression darkened.
“Dead.”
The word landed heavily.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“How?”
“Someone shot him before we reached the house.”
Mercer stared.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Then how do you know he was involved?”
Evan reached into his coat.
He removed a photograph.
David stood beside Harris.
On the back was a handwritten payment record.
Three names.
Two amounts.
One date.
Six years ago.
The date Lily disappeared.
I looked at the figures.
“What are these?”
“Payments.”
“To whom?”
Evan pointed.
The first name was Harris.
The second was someone I didn't recognize.
The third was blank.
“Why is the third name missing?”
“Because the person who received it is still alive.”
Reyes looked at him.
“Who?”
Evan shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Tyler stared at the photograph.
“Then we're still missing the person behind everything.”
Evan nodded.
“Exactly.”
Claire took the photograph.
Her eyes stopped on the blank line.
“I've seen this before.”
“Where?”
“In Frank's notebook.”
Mercer immediately looked at her.
“Show me.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because Frank didn't write a name.”
“What did he write?”
A single word.
“Family.”
I felt cold.
“Again?”
Claire nodded.
“Frank believed the person was connected to the family.”
Tyler looked at me.
“My family.”
“Yes.”
“But David is dead.”
“And Harris is exposed.”
Mercer looked at the payment sheet.
“That leaves one person.”
I stared at the blank line.
Then I remembered something.
At Tyler's birthday party years ago, David had arrived late.
He had apologized.
He said he had been helping someone at the station.
I had never questioned it.
But Tyler had.
He had asked, “Who were you helping?”
David had laughed.
“Your captain.”
Reyes went still.
“Which captain?”
Tyler looked at him.
“Not you.”
Everyone stared.
Tyler closed his eyes.
“Captain Lewis.”
I felt my stomach turn.
“Who is Captain Lewis?”
Reyes answered.
“Retired.”
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“Where is he now?”
Reyes looked at Mercer.
Mercer was already checking his phone.
Then his face changed.
“Dead.”
“Another dead end?”
“No.”
He turned the screen toward us.
“His death was ruled natural.”
Claire whispered, “It wasn't.”
Mercer looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because Frank told me.”
She swallowed.
“He said Lewis was afraid.”
“Afraid of whom?”
Claire looked at me.
“The same person who has been afraid of Amanda.”
I didn't understand.
“Why would anyone be afraid of me?”
Claire shook her head.
“Not you.”
She pointed toward the memory card.
“What you have.”
I stared at the tiny black card.
All these years, everyone had been chasing evidence.
But the evidence had never been the real threat.
The real threat was that the evidence could reveal who had been paying whom.
And Daniel had trusted me with it.
Not because I knew the truth.
Because I was the one person they would never suspect.
Then Tyler's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A man's voice said:
“Tell Amanda to open the second file.”
Tyler looked at me.
The call ended.
Mercer checked the memory card.
“There's a second file.”
I stared at it.
“What does it contain?”
He inserted the card into a reader.
The screen displayed one filename.
AMANDA_FINAL.
Click here to continue reading: PART 23: The Final File
I Arrived With Balloons and Cake, Expecting My Husband to Laugh—Instead His Entire Crew Went Silent When They Saw Me
Part 22 of 40
