Chapter 4 - Room 613
The man calling himself Nathan Halden was released from police custody before midnight.
Grace learned the news in an underground federal parking facility while Lieutenant Vance explained that the vial from the condo had vanished before reaching the laboratory.
The evidence container had been logged, transported, and signed into storage.
Then the digital record had changed.
The container now appeared never to have existed.
Ashcroft Meridian had influence inside the Chicago Police Department, the hospital system, and at least one federal agency. Vance claimed only four people in his investigative group could be trusted.
Grace believed perhaps two of them.
“Why was he released?” Elena asked.
“No verified substance. No injury. No independent witness to the act itself,” Vance replied. “The recording is powerful, but his attorney claims it shows him using a legal sleep aid on his own pillow as part of a private medical routine.”
“It was my pillow,” Grace said.
“He says the bedroom was recently rearranged.”
Grace almost laughed.
Nathan’s talent had always been explanation. He could place a reasonable sentence over an unreasonable fact until everyone became embarrassed for doubting him.
Vance opened a file on the table.
“The real Nathan is being held at an Ashcroft property outside Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The facility was once a rehabilitation hospital.”
“Room 613,” Grace said.
Vance nodded.
“We believe so.”
Daniel examined the photograph.
“Why keep him alive for six years?”
“Insurance. Identity subjects can fail. They can become unstable, remember the wrong things, or refuse instructions. The original person can be used to correct gaps.”
Grace imagined a man being questioned about his childhood, marriage, work, and private memories while someone else rehearsed his answers.
“Why has no one rescued him?” she asked.
“We lacked proof he was there. Until three days ago.”
“Who took the photograph?”
Vance hesitated.
“Evelyn Shaw.”
The missing doctor from the envelope.
Samuel Bell’s Winterglass.
“She is alive?” Grace asked.
“For now. She contacted me after years of silence. She said Ashcroft was preparing to move every remaining subject because Samuel Bell’s files had resurfaced.”
“The vault was empty.”
“The physical files were never in the vault,” Vance said. “Your father hid access credentials in pieces. The cassette was one. The envelope was another.”
Grace removed the photograph of Nathan and Evelyn from Elena’s coat pocket.
Vance studied the back.
“Did the envelope contain anything else?”
“No.”
It was the first direct lie Grace told him.
She had found a narrow strip of translucent material concealed inside the envelope seam. Tiny numbers were printed across it. She had slipped it into her sleeve before leaving the condo.
She did not know whether Vance was truly an investigator or simply a more convincing liar.
Daniel seemed to understand her caution.
“What do you need from Grace?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Vance said. “She needs to disappear until this is over.”
Grace looked at the photograph of the man behind the window.
“No.”
“Mrs. Halden, you are the central witness in an active conspiracy investigation. Your husband’s replacement attempted to expose you to an unknown substance. You are not going to Wisconsin.”
“He is my husband.”
“The man in the photograph may no longer be the man you remember.”
“Then I need to see that for myself.”
Vance closed the file.
“You will be placed in a protected location tonight.”
Grace stood.
“You just told me Ashcroft controls police records, hospitals, and federal systems. Where exactly would you place me?”
No one answered.
Daniel concealed a smile.
Elena leaned toward Grace.
“What is your plan?”
Grace did not have one.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
The number was blocked.
He answered cautiously.
A woman spoke.
“Put Grace on.”
Daniel activated the speaker.
“Who is this?”
“You already know.”
The voice sounded like the unknown caller from Nathan’s phone.
Grace felt a chill move through her.
“Evelyn Shaw?” she asked.
“Listen carefully. Vance has only part of the truth. Ashcroft is moving Nathan tonight. If you wait for authorization, he will disappear again.”
Vance reached for the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
A security alarm began ringing in the parking facility.
Red emergency lights flashed across the concrete walls.
Evelyn continued.
“Grace, the strip inside your envelope is a key. Take it to Room 613. Do not give it to Vance.”
Vance stared at Grace.
She kept her expression blank.
“What strip?” he demanded.
The line went silent for a moment.
Then Evelyn said, “Ask Vance what happened to his brother.”
Vance’s face drained of color.
The call ended.
A vehicle engine started somewhere above them.
Vance grabbed his coat.
“We have to move.”
Grace did not follow.
“What happened to your brother?”
Vance stopped at the exit.
The alarm continued to ring.
“My brother volunteered for an Ashcroft memory study twelve years ago,” he said. “Three months later, he walked into our mother’s house and called her by the wrong name.”
“Was he replaced?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is he now?”
Vance’s expression hardened.
“He is the director of the Lake Geneva facility.”
The emergency doors unlocked with a loud metallic click.
A black security vehicle entered the ramp.
Vance reached beneath his coat.
Daniel pulled Grace toward a side passage.
Elena followed.
As they ran, Grace heard Vance shout behind them.
“Get to Wisconsin. I’ll delay them.”
A gunshot struck the concrete ceiling.
Grace did not look back.
In the stairwell, she pulled the translucent strip from her sleeve.
Under the red emergency light, new writing became visible.
It was not a series of numbers.
It was an address followed by a time.
LAKE GENEVA. ROOM 613. 2:10 A.M.
May you like
Beneath it, in smaller letters, was a warning.
ONLY ONE NATHAN CAN LEAVE.
