Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE FIRE
Dr. Price had been killed before the fire.
Toxicology showed a lethal sedative dose.
The body was placed in Vane’s records room and dressed in Maris’s coat.
The altered dental chart was uploaded from a hospital terminal using Gideon’s employee credentials.
Someone was framing him for evidence tampering.
Hospital security footage showed a person in scrubs using his badge.
The face remained hidden beneath a mask.
Gideon’s badge had never left his wallet.
But the system logged a duplicate.
Vane’s network had access inside the hospital.
Detective Keene warned Gideon not to trust coworkers.
He hated the advice because the ER had been his second home.
Now every familiar face carried doubt.
Lumi stayed with him in a protected apartment arranged by child services.
She slept with the lights on.
She kept the backpack beneath her pillow.
One night, Gideon asked why she chose the worksheet.
“Ms. Parker told us to draw something we wanted to say but couldn’t.”
“What did you draw?”
Lumi retrieved a second folded page from the backpack lining.
It showed a house, a red bowl, a black camera, and a woman standing behind a door.
The woman was not Maris.
She had yellow hair and a blue hospital badge.
Gideon recognized her.
Samantha Cole, nursing supervisor at his hospital.
Samantha had worked the night Kayla Reed died.
She testified that the electronic medication record was accurate.
Gideon accused the system of being changed.
Samantha called him unstable.
He had not seen her outside work.
Yet Lumi had drawn her inside the house.
“When was she there?”
“Lots of times.”
“Did Maris know?”
“They talked downstairs.”
“What did they say?”
“I wasn’t supposed to listen.”
Lumi remembered one sentence.
“The nurse said Daddy should lose everything before he talks.”
Keene placed Samantha under surveillance.
Phone records showed regular contact with Vane.
Bank records showed unexplained deposits totaling one hundred eighty thousand dollars.
The hospital investigation reopened.
Kayla Reed had died after receiving ten times the intended dose of potassium chloride.
Gideon reported that the order had been manually changed.
Samantha claimed he entered the change.
Digital logs later showed someone used his credentials from a terminal across the hospital while he was treating another patient.
The records were sealed after settlement.
Vane knew a new federal hearing might expose them.
Samantha had a stronger motive than Maris.
Prison.
Gideon returned to the hospital under police escort to identify the terminal used to alter Maris’s dental chart.
Samantha greeted him near the nurses’ station.
Her smile was gentle.
“Gideon, I’m so sorry about your wife.”
He watched her eyes.
No grief.
Only measurement.
“She isn’t dead.”
The smile disappeared for half a second.
Then returned.
“I heard the identification was wrong.”
“You’ve been inside my house.”
Samantha looked toward the officers.
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“My daughter drew you.”
“Children confuse people.”
“Did Kayla confuse ten milligrams with one hundred?”
Samantha stepped closer.
“You should think about Lumi before you keep asking questions.”
There it was.
Not a confession.
A warning.
Gideon’s phone vibrated.
A live video appeared.
Lumi sitting inside the protected apartment.
A shadow moved behind her.
He ran.
Police reached the apartment in six minutes.
The door was open.
The assigned protection officer lay unconscious.
Lumi was gone.
Her backpack remained on the floor.
Inside was a new worksheet.
May you like
One sentence had been written across it:
DADDY TALKED, SO LUMI LEAVES.
