Chapter 5 - WHAT GRANT HID IN THEIR HOUSE
Emma read her own name again.
Then she looked at Grant.
“What did you do?”
“Emma—”
“Why am I on their list?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always know something five minutes after telling me you don’t.”
Grant closed his eyes.
That was answer enough.
Nolan watched him carefully.
“Tell her.”
Grant looked at Emma.
“About six weeks ago, I made a copy of part of the audit.”
“Where?”
“At home.”
Emma laughed in disbelief.
“You brought this into our house?”
“I couldn’t leave it on company equipment.”
“So you brought it to me.”
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
“In your grandmother’s sewing box.”
Emma actually stepped backward.
The cedar sewing box had belonged to the grandmother who raised her.
Grant knew nobody touched it.
Not even him.
“You used my things to hide evidence without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“Is it still there?”
“No.”
Emma’s anger stopped.
Grant’s face told her the rest.
“Someone took it.”
“Two weeks ago.”
“That was the night you said the back door had been left open.”
“Yes.”
“And you made me think I had forgotten to lock it.”
Grant said nothing.
Nolan’s voice was quiet.
“They knew the copy was in your house.”
Grant nodded.
“They probably assumed Emma had seen it.”
Emma thought about every strange moment from the last two weeks.
A car parked too long across from the house.
Grant insisting she stop using their shared credit card.
His sudden demand that she tell nobody where she was staying after their worst argument.
At the time it had felt controlling.
Now it felt worse.
Because fear had been there too.
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that like it repairs anything.”
“It doesn’t.”
A light on the hallway monitor changed.
Nolan looked up.
“Someone just entered pathology.”
Grant checked the clock.
“Celia.”
“How do you know?”
“She finishes rounds at five and signs morgue transfers before morning shift.”
Nolan moved toward the door.
Emma stopped him.
“You’re barely conscious.”
“I need answers.”
“So do I.”
Grant stood.
“Celia may be the only reason he’s alive.”
Nolan turned.
“She signed my cremation order.”
“And gave me the EKG.”
“Those facts don’t fit together.”
“No,” Emma said. “Which means we ask her.”
They entered the service corridor.
Celia Marsh appeared thirty seconds later.
She wore a white coat over navy scrubs.
She stopped when she saw them.
Her eyes went first to Nolan.
For one brief moment, relief crossed her face.
Then terror.
“You opened the coffin.”
Emma almost laughed.
“That’s what concerns you?”
Celia approached Nolan.
“I need to examine you.”
He stepped away.
“You already did.”
“Nolan—”
“You declared me dead.”
Celia’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
Emma had expected denial.
The admission was worse.
“Why?”
Celia removed her glasses.
“Because Evelyn Shaw gave me two choices.”
Grant said, “Don’t.”
Celia looked at him.
“He deserves the whole thing.”
“So does my wife.”
Celia’s eyes moved to Emma.
“I made terrible decisions before tonight. But I did not agree to kill him.”
Nolan’s voice was cold.
“You put something into my IV.”
“A sedative.”
“You nearly killed me.”
“I gave you less than Evelyn ordered.”
Silence.
Celia continued.
“She wanted you unconscious until after an emergency board meeting. The plan was to announce you were medically incapable of continuing as chief executive.”
“What changed?”
“You woke up.”
Nolan stared.
Celia’s voice dropped.
“Evelyn panicked.”
“And you signed my death certificate.”
“She already had access to the electronic record. Your status had been changed. Grant had signed the corporate release.”
“So you went along with it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
For the first time, Celia looked older than Emma expected.
“North River is drowning.”
She looked toward the ceiling, as if she could see every patient above them.
“Two years ago we nearly closed three departments. Reeves Sentinel offered an integration package that saved us millions. Then patients started dying after a cardiac study we had expanded too quickly.”
Nolan’s face tightened.
“What study?”
Celia looked at him.
“The one your software helped us hide.”
Nolan said nothing.
Celia continued.
“The emergency reconciliation function allowed administrators to change timestamps after outages. At first we used it legitimately. Then hospital executives used it to hide treatment delays.”
“And you?”
Grant asked.
Celia’s voice broke slightly.
“I changed records too.”
Emma felt sick.
“How many?”
“More than I can justify.”
Nolan stared at her.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Seventeen files were flagged by your engineer. But the system was used on far more than seventeen.”
“How many?”
Celia swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
Nolan leaned against the wall.
Celia reached into her pocket and handed Grant a small locker key.
“Cardiac records room. Locker twelve. I kept original monitor strips because I knew someday somebody would need them.”
Grant took the key.
They moved together through the corridor.
Locker twelve opened easily.
Inside was nothing.
Except Grant’s Reeves Sentinel identification badge.
And a printed audit sheet clipped behind it.
USER RESPONSIBLE FOR MANUAL CORRECTION:
GRANT WHITAKER.
Emma turned toward her husband.
Grant’s face collapsed.
Celia whispered, “Grant…”
Emma held up one hand.
“No.”
Her eyes never left him.
“Tell me what you changed.”
Grant looked at Nolan.
Then Emma.
His voice was barely audible.
“One record.”
“Whose?”
“Thomas Bell.”
Nolan suddenly straightened.
“My security engineer?”
Grant nodded.
“The one who discovered the system backdoor.”
Emma saw something she had not yet seen in Nolan.
Grief.
Grant forced himself to continue.
May you like
“Thomas Bell died at North River four months ago.”
Nolan whispered, “You altered the record of the man who tried to warn me.”
