Chapter 9 - The Locked Ward
The ambulance took Owen Bell to Grayhaven General with two patrol cars behind it and Detective Rao in the passenger seat. Lena watched the red lights disappear beyond the rain-streaked garage doors. Eli remained pressed against her chest, both fists closed in the fabric of her shirt.
“He tried to take me,” Eli whispered.
“He didn’t.”
“He almost did.”
“Almost is not the same as did.”
She wanted the distinction to comfort him. It did not comfort her.
Darius came down from the roof carrying the flashlight Lena had used to knock Owen unconscious. Its lens was cracked. “Police are searching the alley. Saye himself is on the way.”
Rao turned from the window. “How do you know?”
“Because three deputies just asked who owns this building, and none of them looked at the evidence.”
Rao’s expression tightened. “Move the drive, the beacon, and the card.”
“Where?” Lena asked.
“Somewhere no official can reach without a warrant.”
“They already have warrants.”
“Then somewhere they cannot find even with one.”
June Han stood beside the apartment stairs, pale and shivering. “I can take Eli to the hospital. They have a child protection unit.”
Eli’s arms tightened around Lena’s neck.
“No,” he said.
June looked at him, then at Lena. “I am not asking you to trust the system. I am asking you to let a doctor check him.”
That was the difference between June and the people who had failed them. She asked without pretending the answer was already hers.
At the hospital, Eli sat on an examination table while a pediatric nurse checked his wrists and the bruise beneath his cheekbone. Lena stayed within reach. Darius waited in the corridor. Rao disappeared toward the security desk with her badge turned backward in her hand.
Owen Bell occupied a guarded room on the fourth floor. He had survived the capsule, but his throat was raw from the emergency procedure and his hands were cuffed to the bed frame. A uniformed deputy stood outside the door.
“Who gave you the capsule?” Rao asked.
Owen stared at the ceiling.
“Who is above Saye?”
His eyes shifted toward the deputy.
The deputy frowned. “You have ten minutes.”
“Leave us,” Rao said.
“I have orders.”
“From whom?”
The deputy did not answer.
Owen made a sound that might have been a laugh. “See? They do not need to touch you. They just put the right person in the doorway.”
Rao pulled a chair close to the bed. “You said the deputy would let you live long enough to testify. Which deputy?”
“Not Saye.”
“Name him.”
Owen’s lips trembled. “The one who signs the protection orders.”
“That is not a name.”
“Adrian Vale.”
Rao went still.
Owen swallowed painfully. “County executive. Chair of the port authority. Controls the emergency contracts. Controls who gets appointed to the placement office. Judge Alvarez owes him her campaign debt.”
The door opened before Rao could respond. Chief Deputy Malcolm Saye entered with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
“Detective,” he said. “You should not question a medically unstable witness without counsel.”
“He is a suspect, not a witness.”
“That distinction will matter when your report is reviewed.”
Owen turned his face toward the wall.
Saye lowered his voice. “You trained under me. Do not mistake a difficult case for permission to destroy your career.”
Rao looked past him at the deputy in the doorway. “You brought your own witness protection.”
Saye’s smile faded. “I brought security.”
“Then why is he wearing a courthouse badge?”
The deputy touched the badge without thinking.
Saye stepped between them. “Go home, Anika.”
“I am not leaving the boy.”
“The boy is in county custody.”
“Not tonight.”
Rao walked out before Saye could order her removed. In the corridor, she found Lena standing with Eli’s coat over one arm.
“He is not safe in a county placement,” Rao said.
“I know.”
“Neither are you.”
Lena looked through the glass at Eli, who was watching the nurse wash blood from his scraped palms. “I am done letting danger decide what I do.”
Rao studied her. “Then decide this. We take the evidence outside the system and bring it back through people who cannot be bought.”
May you like
Lena thought of Nico, six years behind a locked door because she had believed evidence belonged to whoever wore a badge.
“Tell me where to start.”
