by Mallory Kane
“We’re in a room.”
The ceiling was only about five feet high and the floor was unfinished plywood. Support beams had been placed every few feet.
“Yeah. This is what was left of the original basement room in which they built the bomb shelter.”
Rachel’s gaze kept coming back to the beam of the flashlight.
“How do you know all this—” She stopped.
He sent her a quick, guarded glance. “This is where Caleb and Misty came to be alone. Give me the phone.”
She dug it out and handed it to him. He traded it for the flashlight and keyed in a number.
Rachel shone the light around the room. Not ten feet from where they sat was a hospital blanket and a battery-operated lantern.
She scrambled over and grabbed the lantern. With trembling fingers, she flipped the switch at its base and sighed in relief when it came on. It gave off a soft, muted light. She turned off the high-powered flashlight and stuck it in the pocket of her backpack.
“Mitch.” Eric’s voice was tight.
Rachel fooled with the lantern. There was no way to give Eric privacy for the heartbreaking conversation he was about to have, but she wasn’t going to just sit and gawk at him.
“Yeah, we’re okay. Mitch? Tell me about Caleb.”
Rachel waited, but finally, after several seconds of silence, she had to look up.
Eric’s face was ghostly white in the lantern’s dim glow, his high cheekbones prominent above slight hollows, his mouth straight and grim.
“A…coma?” he muttered.
Rachel’s heart leaped. Caleb wasn’t dead? A lump rose in her throat and she had a sudden and inappropriate urge to laugh, the relief was so intense, so cleansing, she almost couldn’t bear it.
“When did it happen?” Eric turned away and bent over the phone.
Rachel felt the enormous effort of will he was exerting to keep from breaking down. If he’d been devastated before, when he’d thought Caleb was dead, she couldn’t even imagine the melee of emotions that must be swirling like a hurricane inside him now.
For herself, she was still trying to take in the fact that Eric really had known when Caleb’s consciousness had disappeared from within him. The doctor’s part of her brain thought briefly of what this case study could do for the understanding of communication between twins.
But her emotional side, the side that had been betrayed by the illness her mother could not control, wanted to pull back.
While the knowledge was stunning in a clinical sense, from her position as a woman who, in the past five days, had become much too emotionally attached to the man she was now watching, it was devastating.
Even if Eric were interested in her as anything more than his key to Metzger, she could never handle the emotional turmoil of being with a man whom a lot of people would call crazy if he told them about his connection with his brother.
“Sure,” Eric said, his voice harsh with iron-fisted control. “Here she is.”
He handed the phone to Rachel without a glance and retreated beyond the circle of light provided by the lantern.
“Rachel?”
“Hi, Mitch.”
“How are you holding up?” His kind yet authoritative voice was comforting.
“Okay. We’re close to something. I have the chemical formula for the injections Caleb has been getting. Is he really alive?”
“He’s slipped into a coma. The doctors don’t hold out much hope.”
“Get the formula to them. It should help them, if anything will. I didn’t find anything on how to treat withdrawal. Do you want to take it down or should I text message it to you?”
“Text it and I’ll send it on to Walter Reed.”
“I also have a list of names and ID numbers of the patients Dr. Metzger has been injecting, but there was a problem with one of the patients on the list, according to Metzger’s logs. I’m afraid that patient may be one of the people who died here.”
“You have the logbook?”
“I have the latest one. Not the one with the patient who died.”
“Can you get back in there? We need something linking Metzger solidly with one of the deaths. We haven’t been able to connect him directly with Dr. Green’s murder.”
“Oh, my God! I saw a folder with the word Green written on it. I thought they were the progress note forms. Everybody calls them green forms. What if it was information about Dr. Green?”
Rachel glanced over at Eric’s shadowy form. “I can get back in there and get the folder. But, Mitch, you’ve got to get Eric out of here. He’s been receiving injections daily and they’re beginning to affect him. Now there’s a missing patient alert and they’re searching for us. If they’ve followed procedure, the local police have been called in.”
“They haven’t. If the locals had been called to the Meadows for any reason, the FBI would have been notified. At around 8:00 a.m. I’ll send a couple of agents in under the guise of needing to question ‘Caleb’ and you to finish some reports. That should interrupt the search and create a diversion. Can you two get out of the building?”
“Yes. As soon as I get the logs and the folder. We can go out the rear door. Natasha knows where the door is. Also, Natasha knows about the secret lab. It was a bomb shelter in the sixties. The alcove on the east side is a hydraulic door. There’s a pressure point on the wall.”
“Do not go back into the lab. Forget the logs and folder. Your priority is to get yourself and Eric out safely. The information you’re sending may be enough for a warrant.”
“But Dr. Green’s—”
“That’s an order.”
“Yes, sir.” The cell phone beeped. “I’m getting a low battery tone.”
“Text that information right now. Then leave the phone on standby. You probably have about six or seven minutes left on it. When you’re out, call me at this number and we’ll extract you.”
Rachel programmed the text she’d saved and sent it to Mitch’s cell phone, then put the phone in her pocket.
Eric had come back over to sit beside her as she’d finished her conversation with Mitch. He looked as though he’d been shaken to his core, his face pale and drawn.
“I’m so glad Caleb isn’t dead.” She tried to sound up-beat, but Eric didn’t seem relieved.
He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at her narrowly. “You’re still spooked because of my connection with him, aren’t you?”
“Mitch is sending two agents to the Meadows, who will ask to question us about some details of the kidnapping. He wants us to use the diversion to get out through the rear door. Once we do, we’re to call him and he’ll have us extracted immediately.”
“We can’t leave yet. I heard you tell him that we don’t have the log of the patient who died, or the information about Dr. Green.”
“Mitch ordered us not to go back in there. He said it was too dangerous.”
Eric sent her a stony look. “He ordered you, not me.”
“Mitch is your boss. You know that order was for you.”
“I am not leaving here until I have enough evidence to put Metzger away for the rest of his life.”
“Mitch said what we have is enough for a search warrant.”
“You’re the one who said I know my boss. I’m sure what he said was it ‘might be’ enough.”
Rachel’s face grew hot. “It’s the same thing. We’ve got the formula that proves Metzger is conducting illegal experiments, and the logs that show how often the patients received injections and what their reactions were.”
“Right. That might get his medical license suspended.” The sarcasm in his voice cut like a knife. “It’s because of him that I lost my brother.” Eric’s face distorted in the lantern’s glow. “You can’t know what that means.”
Rachel wanted to cry for Eric, but she knew that wasn’t what he needed. He was reacting from emotion, from fear, and he needed logic.
“I can never know what you and your brother shared.
I may never understand it. But I do know what it’s like to be alone.” She placed her fingers on her temples. “All of us are alone, in here. If you have really had a connection with Caleb all these years, then you have been incredibly fortunate. The rest of us have no idea what it’s like. We have always existed alone.”
“Are you saying I should just give up?”
“No, not at all. I’m saying you have to get out of here alive. There are more people that need your help. You can’t just sacrifice yourself for your brother.”
“I’m not doing this just for Caleb.”
“Are you sure, Eric? Are you sure you’re not trying to make up to Caleb because he was sick and you weren’t?”
He wouldn’t look at her. “I’m after Metzger. He killed people. We can’t let him kill anyone else. The proof that he’s a murderer is in that room, and I’m going to get it.”
Chapter Thirteen
Metzger entered the office in his secret lab through the rear door of the service elevator, followed by Thomas.
The elevator’s rear door was only activated by a key and Metzger and Thomas had the only keys. As far as the rest of the hospital staff knew, the elevator’s rear doors hadn’t worked in years.
As soon as he stepped into his office and turned on all the lights, he knew his fears were grounded in reality.
“They’ve been here.” He pointed at the boxes he’d been packing. His neatly stacked papers were disturbed and the shipping labels had been moved.
“They must have gotten in through the hydraulic door in the alcove,” Thomas said. He stepped around the boxes and out into the lab.
Metzger quickly glanced through one of the boxes. His most recent logbook was gone. He cursed. If that information got into the wrong hands, he’d be ruined.
“I found this,” Thomas said, coming back to stand at the office door.
Metzger looked up. “A syringe?”
Thomas held up a vial. “And an opened vial of lorazepam. It appears Dr. Harper was trying to sedate him.”
“He must be reacting to the injections—showing some aberrant behavior. They may have one of my logbooks. We have to stop them.”
“They won’t get far. I have two men hidden, watching the rear exit door, and two at the loading dock entrance. They haven’t left the hospital, or we’d know.” Thomas craned his neck to look upward. “I’m betting they’re somewhere in the crawl space, or in one of the closed-off rooms down here. Once they try to leave the building, we’ll have them.”
Metzger collapsed into his desk chair. “I can’t understand how the twin brother managed to get in here to impersonate Caleb.”
“Maybe Caleb did go into respiratory arrest and die. Isn’t that what happens to the patients if they don’t get their regular dose?”
“But why would one of the most prestigious hospitals in the country play along? How did the brother get the FBI to cooperate? It doesn’t make sense.” He slammed his fist on the desk. “That idiot Patel. If he’d told me that Caleb had any family other than his grandmother, I’d never have used him for the experiments. It’s so much easier to use patients with no family, no ties. Although Caleb did make the perfect subject.”
He shook his head. This setback was devastating. He’d looked forward to continuing his experimentation on Caleb. In his own private lab in Germany, he’d have been free to increase the dose of the chemicals and to observe the effects without having to hide any adverse reactions.
“Luckily, I’ve already transferred the computer files to Germany. Get out there, Thomas, and find those two. Pull one of the orderlies to help you search. We don’t have much time. If Caleb’s brother is in contact with the FBI, then he will have alerted them that he’s trying to escape. I’ll gather up the chemical and destroy it, so there’s no trace of it left anywhere. And, Thomas…”
The nurse stopped at the office door.
“Where are we in weaning the other three patients?”
“I’ve diluted their doses three times. Two more dilutions over the next week should be enough to avoid respiratory depression.”
“What about the vials?”
“I never leave the real drug on the ward. The vials up there are fenpiprazole.”
“Brilliant as usual, Thomas. Perhaps the patients won’t become too ill. In any case we’ll be on our way before their symptoms become obvious.
“Get Baldwyn and Harper in here.” Metzger pointed with his fountain pen for emphasis. “Any way you can. We’ll lock them in and seal off the room. By the time anyone can get to them, we’ll be long gone.”
ERIC HELPED RACHEL down from the break wall. Their clothes were coated with dust, and she had spiderwebs in her hair. He reached over and brushed a sticky web from the side of her face.
“Eric, please, don’t make me leave without you. What am I supposed to tell Mitch?”
“He’ll understand.”
“Understand why you disobeyed him?”
He looked down, brushing at his jeans. “Mitch knows firsthand that sometimes you have to do what you know is right, even if it seems wrong at the time.”
Rachel glared at him. “That sounds like rationalization to me. You know we have enough proof, especially if we have Caleb’s testimony with it, to stop Metzger, to put him in prison. You’re mounting a personal vendetta. Assuaging your own guilt.”
“Don’t psychoanalyze me. It’s none of your business, anyway, what I do or why I’m doing it. You’ll be safe, as soon as I get you out of here.”
“Don’t even presume to tell me what is my business and what’s not. Caleb became my business when he kidnapped me. And you became my business when…when you brought me back in here.”
“That’s right. I brought you into this. And now I’ve decided it’s no longer safe for you.”
He took her arm and started up the corridor toward the door at the north entrance of the basement. The lights were very dim, and as they walked toward the back of the basement, the anemic bulbs became farther and farther apart.
“And I’ll tell you another flaw in your logic,” he whispered fiercely, his voice echoing through her com unit. “We don’t have Caleb’s testimony, because he’s in a coma. And unless your colleagues can pull off a miracle with that formula you sent them, I need to get a vial of Metzger’s prepared drug to give him, or he may never wake up.” He paused. “He may not anyway.”
“Then I’ll go in with you.”
“The hell you will. You’re leaving this building now. Wait for the agents to pick you up. I’ll be fine.” He set his jaw. “I can handle Metzger.”
“Maybe,” she responded. “In a fair fight. But you’ve got who knows what kinds of drugs in your system. And what about Thomas? There could be others. You don’t know how many people Metzger has protecting him.”
“I’ll manage.”
Eric stopped, pulling Rachel against him. They were at the end of the corridor that opened into the mudroom where the small door was located. “Here we are. As soon as you’re safely across the lawn and hidden in the underbrush, call Mitch, and I’ll head back to the lab. Tell him to bring that search warrant, and hurry.”
“I don’t like this. You’re doing this for the wrong reasons. You’re needlessly risking your life.”
He touched her cheek and wiped away a smudge of dirt. He tried not to think about the look on her face, tried not to listen to his empathic sense that told him it was more than just professional concern that glistened in her eyes.
She might have feelings for him. Lord knew how much he cared for her. But she saw him as damaged, like her mother, like his brother. Her feelings were nothing more than attachment to a patient. And she would never allow herself to feel more, not for someone like him. She’d told him that from the beginning.
But he couldn’t resist a last indulgent moment. The next time they saw each other, it would be as professional colleagues, testifying about the case.
“You’ve got dust in your lashes and spiderwebs in your hair, Dr.
Harper. Have I told you you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen?”
She shook her head and her lip trembled.
He bent and kissed that luscious lip, sucking on it gently, opening his mouth as her tongue hesitantly nudged his lips. Then, for one desperate instant, he deepened the kiss before he raised his head.
“I can’t stand to leave you,” she whispered, her voice humming in his ear.
“I know,” he whispered back. “I feel you here.” He touched his chest, over his heart. “Thank you, Rachel.”
“For what?” She lifted her brilliant blue gaze to his.
Her eyes widened and she gasped. “No!”
Too late, Eric felt the presence behind him.
He whirled. Pain exploded on the side of his head and he went down.
Rachel watched in horror as Eric collapsed. She recognized the two orderlies who stood over him, one with a piece of wood in his hand.
Her heart pounding in her ears, Rachel, with a huge effort, tried to speak crisply and authoritatively.
“That wasn’t necessary,” she snapped, hoping the orderlies didn’t hear the faint shakiness in her voice. “I had the situation under control.” She put her hand in her pocket and palmed her cell phone.
The smaller orderly snickered. “Yeah, looked like you did. Hey, Bob—” he elbowed the other orderly “—isn’t that called ‘fraternizing with a patient’?”
Bob frowned. “Come on, Dr. Harper. You been hiding out with Baldwyn. We got orders to bring you to Dr. Metzger.”
Rachel stepped back, afraid to take her eyes off the orderly for even an instant to check on Eric, who was still on the floor. He must be unconscious. How badly was he hurt?
“Don’t come near me,” she warned Bob.
Bob tossed the stick aside and stepped over Eric’s body. He towered over her as he grabbed at her arm. She jerked backward.
Suddenly Bob was no longer looming over her. He thudded to the ground with a breathy grunt.
Eric had knocked his legs out from under him.
Bob rolled and came back to his feet as the smaller orderly braced himself.
