The detective said she tried to call Vivien multiple times after she went missing.All my calls were going straight to voicemail. If that were true, they’d have shown up among the missed calls on Vivien’s phone—but they hadn’t. What else had she lied about? Had she taken Vivien’s laptop when she’d visited the stoner house? Had she been running defense all along—trying to shut everything down—Vivien, Lana and Griffin, Darnell?
Lana started opening drawers and cupboards, finding stationery and hospital admin. When she yanked open the bottom desk drawer, something flew out and skidded across the carpet. A necklace.Vivien’snecklace. She picked it up. So Vivien came here with the binder, possibly to see Walter, but he wasn’t here. And then what? A clammy numbness spread down Lana’s arms. There had to be multiple ways a doctor could make someone vanish, in a hospital.
Or maybe not. She snatched up the patient list again. That homeless patient in the palliative care ward…You have a John Doe in here?Griffin had asked the nurse. But all it said on the door was “Unknown.” She found the entry on the spreadsheet. Not a John Doe—a Jane Doe. And the admission date? The day Vivien drove in with the binder.
Again, Lana went to call Griffin and remembered she had no phone. She couldn’t even use the landline—she didn’t have his number. She couldn’t exactly call the cops. But she could check out the Jane Doe. She had to know.
As she left the office, several people were walking along the corridor outside, but no one she recognized, and none paid her any attention. First, she needed her phone. She ran up several flights of stairs to the intensive care ward. The doctor was at the end of the corridor, outside Darnell’s room, talking intently to that nurse—Ophelia. Wasshein on it too? Lana backed up toward the stairs—and bumped into someone. She turned, gasping. It was the pap in the orange cap, camera slung around his neck. She shoved him through the door into the stairwell.
“Do you know where Griffin is?” she said.
“Uh.”
“Please, I need your help.”
“Uh.”
“Griffin—do you know where he is? It’s urgent. Do you have access to that website that tracks him?”
The guy contemplated her for a few seconds, then checked his phone. “He’s a few blocks away.”
“When he gets here, I need you to give him a message.”
“You need me to what?”
“Tell him ‘Room 341.’”
The guy raised his palms. “I dunno what this is about, but he ain’t gonna listen to me.”
“Just try, please. It’s important.”
His eyes narrowed. “If I do, will you give me an exclusive?”
“If you do, it’ll be the biggest story of your life. Room 341—tell him. And give me your cap.” She snatched it from his head.
“What’s in Room 341?” he called as she ran off.
Lana took a deep breath before she stepped onto the palliative care floor, her hair stuffed into the cap. A couple of nurses in blue uniforms sat at the nurse’s station, looking over paperwork. She walked past, the cap pulled low, checking the room numbers. Room 341 was one of the first. She pushed open the door. As it swished shut behind her, the warmth drained from her face.
Vivien.
Lana ran to the bed, unable to breathe. Like Darnell, Vivien was unconscious, with a tube down her throat, and was attached to multiple monitors. No obvious injuries. Lana grabbed her hand. So cold. But her chest rose and fell.
She’d been here all along? Lana had called all the main hospitals in the entire state to check if there was a Jane Doe matching Vivien’s description, but hadn’t thought for a second that Vivien might behere, in a hospital to the stars.
A man’s voice murmured in the corridor—the doctor, coming Lana’s way. Seconds later, the door opened and he strode in, followed by Ophelia. She pulled the door closed and drew a curtain across, blocking the little window. Lana released Vivien’s hand.
It wasn’t Darnell they were trying to trap. It was her.
Chapter 24
Griffin
When Griffin arrived in Darnell’s room, having run the pap gauntlet outside the hospital, the nurse from palliative care was there—but no Lana.
“I’ve just finished up,” the nurse said. “I’ll leave you in peace.”
“My friend was in here earlier, sitting with Darnell. Do you know where she went?”
