Chapter 8 - Page 6
File 27 had been partially digitized.
Pages 1–5.
Then 7–42.
Page 6 missing.
Physical archive searched.
Gone.
Who removed it?
Audit log from seventeen years ago showed:
M. BENNETT accessed.
Then:
E. BENNETT accessed two days later.
Eleanor.
Claire looked at sister.
“You took it.”
Eleanor shook head.
“I saw it.”
“What was on it?”
“I don't remember everything.”
“Try.”
Page 6 listed one woman and infant.
Emergency transfer.
Hospital:
St. Vincent’s.
Same hospital where Margaret supposedly died years later.
Mother:
Laura Cole.
Infant:
Rachel Cole.
So Rachel’s case connected hospital.
Why remove page?
Eleanor said Margaret did.
When Eleanor later opened file, page already gone.
Then why audit showed Eleanor?
She accessed folder but not page itself.
Plausible.
Then Rachel’s biological mother Laura Cole had worked at St. Vincent’s.
Nurse.
Could she have been person who helped Margaret escape seventeen years later?
Investigators traced.
Laura died ten years ago.
Confirmed.
But personnel file showed she was on duty night Margaret “died.”
This was huge.
Rachel’s mother helped Margaret decades after Margaret signed Rachel’s guardianship.
Maybe they remained connected.
Then old nurse interview surfaced.
Laura admitted helping “a patient leave after record error” on night Margaret died.
Name omitted.
She feared licensing consequences.
That patient was likely Margaret.
So Margaret survived because woman whose child she once helped place aided her.
Why?
Debt?
Friendship?
Mutual secret?
Then Ethan remembered Mara saying:
“Laura saved me twice.”
Twice?
One could be hospital.
What was other?
Eleanor knew.
Laura had also warned Margaret about dangerous medication before admission.
Margaret took it anyway?
No.
Medication was administered in hospital.
Order entered under physician credentials.
Who?
Dr. Nathan Vale.
Eleanor stiffened.
Vale.
Her married surname was Vale after husband Gregory Vale.
Nathan Vale was Gregory’s father.
Eleanor’s father-in-law.
Dead twelve years.
Was this connected to Eleanor?
Claire stared.
“You married into family of doctor who signed Mom’s medication order.”
Eleanor whispered:
“I didn't know until after wedding.”
Did Margaret know?
May you like
“Yes.”
And that was why she refused to see Eleanor after disappearing.
