Chapter 4 - The Dark Clinic
Emergency lights came on red.
Dana drew her weapon.
I moved between the door and Lily.
“Stay behind the bed.”
Lily stared at me.
“You carry a gun too?”
“Not anymore.”
“That sounded temporary.”
Footsteps moved down the hall.
Dana touched her earpiece.
“No response from exterior team.”
That was bad.
The door handle turned.
Dana aimed.
A nurse stumbled inside.
“Back entrance. Two men. They cut the generator.”
“Police?”
“No uniforms.”
The satellite phone vibrated.
UNKNOWN ACCESS ATTEMPT.
Someone was trying to locate the device.
Dana swore.
“We move.”
Outside, a second team loaded Lily into an armored SUV.
The SUV pulled away.
Five minutes later, the clinic team called.
The intruders had fled.
One left a phone behind.
No contacts.
No messages.
One photograph.
My truck at Richard’s estate.
Taken before I arrived.
They had been waiting for me.
Lily saw it.
“So this wasn’t just because I called.”
“No.”
Richard knew I would come.
Maybe wanted me to.
Dana looked at the photo metadata.
“Taken at 2:41 p.m.”
My daughter called me at 3:06.
Twenty-five minutes later.
Someone knew she would need me before she did.
Dana’s team took us to a safe property outside Albany.
At midnight, Lily finally slept.
I sat at the kitchen table with Dana.
“You think Richard married her because of me.”
Dana didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
Then the cloned phone recovered a deleted email from Richard.
Subject line:
WARD CONFIRMED. DAUGHTER IS THE ACCESS POINT.
Sent eighteen months before Richard proposed to Lily.
May you like
I read it twice.
My daughter’s marriage had started as an operation.
