Chapter 6 - The Key Beneath the Battery
Federal agents wanted Emma to surrender the brass key.
She refused until they allowed her to photograph it from every angle and place it inside a tamper proof evidence bag herself.
Gareth knew about the key less than ten minutes after it was discovered.
Only seven people had been inside the room.
Emma.
Lydia.
Rachel.
Dr. Shaw.
Two federal agents.
And a nurse.
Someone had contacted him.
The hospital locked down the intensive care floor.
Every staff member’s phone was collected. Security logs showed the nurse had not communicated with anyone outside the hospital.
One federal agent had made a call to his supervisor.
The other had stepped into the bathroom.
Dr. Shaw had remained beside Lydia.
Rachel had no phone.
Emma looked at the ceiling camera.
“He can hear us.”
A hospital technician inspected the room.
Behind the wall mounted television, he found a tiny wireless transmitter.
It had been installed less than an hour earlier.
The device used hospital maintenance frequencies.
Gareth still had an accomplice inside the building.
The twins were moved to a windowless trauma room under guard.
Emma hated the lack of exits, but Dr. Shaw remained with them.
Rachel sat in the corner with her hands folded.
“What is inside storage unit 117?” Emma asked.
“I do not know.”
“Dad told you about it.”
“He said it contained protection for both of you.”
“Why did he trust you after you helped Gareth?”
Rachel looked toward Lydia.
“He did not trust me. He believed guilt might eventually make me useful.”
Federal agents obtained a warrant and opened the storage unit without taking the twins from the hospital.
Inside were children’s drawings, family photographs, copies of Daniel’s investigation, and a large red case.
The red case required the brass key.
When agents opened it, they found no money.
There were eighteen patient files from Cedar Ridge.
Each belonged to a person officially declared dead, mentally incompetent, or missing.
Several had owned companies or large inheritances.
Gareth’s family had used the facility to remove people from legal control of their own assets.
Daniel’s file contained medical reports documenting a traumatic brain injury and memory loss.
Another document named Gareth as temporary guardian.
Cole had witnessed it.
The final page transferred Daniel’s voting rights in the Reed Family Trust to Gareth if Daniel remained incapacitated for five years.
The deadline was midnight.
Gareth did not need only the twins declared incompetent.
He needed Daniel legally incapable for a few more hours.
After midnight, Gareth could combine Daniel’s rights with Rachel’s temporary authority and seize the entire trust.
“He will not kill Dad before midnight,” Lydia whispered.
Emma understood.
“He needs him alive but unable to speak.”
Dr. Shaw looked at the clock.
Nine thirty.
Federal agents prepared a tactical team to return to Cedar Ridge.
Emma studied the patient files.
Hannah Price’s name appeared as the nurse assigned to Daniel.
Beside one medication entry, she had written a series of numbers.
Dr. Shaw recognized them as blood pressure readings.
Emma did not.
“They are too high,” Amelia said. “A patient with these readings would have been transferred.”
Lydia looked closer.
“The last digits repeat.”
The final numbers formed coordinates.
The location was not Cedar Ridge.
It was an abandoned summer camp fifteen miles north of the facility.
Gareth’s message was a trap.
He expected police to go to Cedar Ridge while he kept Daniel elsewhere.
Federal agents redirected one team toward the camp.
Before they could leave, the hospital lights went out.
Backup generators should have activated instantly.
They did not.
Emergency lights flickered red.
A scream came from the hallway.
The armed guard outside the twins’ room fell against the door.
A needle protruded from his neck.
Dr. Shaw locked the entrance.
Lydia’s heart monitor stopped transmitting.
The air vent above her bed opened.
A masked man dropped into the room.
Emma threw the metal IV stand at him.
He caught it and shoved her against the wall.
Rachel rushed forward.
The intruder struck her.
Dr. Shaw reached for the alarm, but a second man entered through the unlocked service panel.
They did not move toward Emma.
They went directly to Lydia.
“Take the brunette,” one ordered.
Emma grabbed her sister’s hand.
The man pulled harder.
Lydia cried out.
Their fingers separated.
The intruders carried Lydia into the dark hallway.
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When the lights returned, only her torn blue sleeve remained in Emma’s hand.
Continue to the next part: Gareth abducts Lydia because the twins’ matching signatures are required to unlock the final Reed Family Trust.
