Chapter 16 - THE CLUE IN MY OWN NOTES
For days, I believed the recording was the final proof.
Then I remembered something.
My notebook.
I asked Captain Torres to return a copy of every page collected from the elevator.
She sent scans.
I read them in order.
Hour three.
Hour four.
Hour five.
Then hour six.
My handwriting had deteriorated.
But one page caught my attention.
VALERIE - HR 82.
RESPIRATIONS RAPID BUT REGULAR.
SKIN WARM.
LIKELY PANIC.
NO SIGNS ACUTE CARDIAC EVENT.
I stared at it.
I had assessed Valerie.
Of course I had.
Nurse instincts.
Even trapped.
Even afraid.
I had checked her pulse.
Asked about chest pain.
Watched her breathing.
I had documented that she appeared medically stable.
Then I remembered Alex kneeling briefly near the doors before lifting her.
He had looked down.
At the notebook.
The camera might have caught it.
Captain Torres reviewed the footage.
Thirty minutes later, she called.
“He saw the page.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
“Can you prove that?”
“He picked it up.”
I closed my eyes.
“What?”
“The footage shows Lieutenant Davis lifting your notebook from the floor.”
“How long?”
“Four seconds.”
“And then?”
“He put it down and went to Ms. Mercer.”
So Alex had not only ignored command triage.
He had ignored my clinical assessment.
The assessment of a former ER nurse.
His wife.
The mother of his unborn child.
Valerie had no evidence of an acute cardiac event.
He knew.
And he carried her out anyway.
The department terminated him the next morning.
Conduct unbecoming.
Failure to follow command.
Dishonesty during investigation.
Reckless deviation from rescue protocol.
His attorney announced an appeal.
Mine served divorce papers at the same time.
The Oak Park property contract collapsed.
Our frozen money remained under court control.
Mark was cleared of leaking the evidence after store surveillance from a second camera showed Alex’s truck near the convenience store.
He returned to duty.
I thought that would be the turning point.
I was wrong.
Because Valerie disappeared.
She missed her attorney interview.
Her phone went dead.
Her apartment was empty.
Then police found her car near Lake Michigan.
Inside were her purse.
Her phone.
And an envelope.
May you like
On the front, written in black ink, were two words.
FOR LUCY.
