Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE UNIFORM
The fake nurse made it to the loading dock before Marco caught her.
Her name was Tessa Vane, and she wasn't a nurse.
She worked for a private event staffing company hired two days earlier through a shell corporation.
She refused to say who paid her.
The police took the pills, the cup, and the medication bag.
Vincent wanted Isabella moved immediately.
Emma wanted to go home.
"You've done enough," Vincent told her. "I'll have a car take you."
Emma shook her head. "I can get myself home."
"You lost your job because you protected my mother."
"I lost my job because my manager is a coward."
"Then let me fix it."
"I don't want a reward."
Vincent looked at her for a long second.
"Good. Because I wasn't offering one. I was offering protection."
That landed differently.
Emma's phone buzzed.
Sophie had sent a photo from their apartment.
Their front door was open.
The lock had been smashed.
Emma ran.
Vincent and Marco followed.
When they reached the small apartment in Bridgeport, drawers had been emptied, cushions ripped, and her father's medical files scattered across the floor.
Sophie was safe with a neighbor.
Nothing expensive had been taken.
Emma walked into her father's bedroom.
The wooden box where he kept old work papers was missing.
"They weren't looking for money," Marco said.
Emma stared at the empty shelf.
"My dad used to work maintenance at the Bellmore Hotel."
Vincent turned.
"The same hotel as tonight's gala?"
"For seventeen years. Until his accident last spring."
She remembered something he had said after waking from surgery.
Don't trust the elevator logs.
At the time, she thought medication had made him confused.
Now she wasn't so sure.
Her phone rang again.
May you like
It was the hospital.
"Miss Carter," a nurse said, breathless, "your father is missing from his room."
