Chapter 12 - The Unseen Witness
The small infirmary room above the carriage house was hidden behind a false bookcase that had served as an Underground Railroad sanctuary a century and a half earlier. Inside, a small cast-iron stove kept the room pleasantly warm.
Mia was quickly bundled into a thick flannel nightgown and placed in a feather bed, where a bowl of chicken broth and a warm roll occupied her attention. Nora sat on a wooden stool while Sister Beatrice skillfully cleaned the lacerations on her face and re-wrapped her cracked ribs with fresh, tight elastic bandages.
Sitting across from them at a narrow writing desk was a middle-aged woman with sharp, observant dark eyes, wearing an immaculate grey tweed suit.
“This is Sarah Lin,” Beatrice said quietly. “She is a senior special prosecutor with the Department of Justice’s Environmental and Healthcare Fraud Division. She drove in from Washington three hours ago.”
Lin leaned forward, her expression professional but not unsympathetic. “Mrs. Vance thinks she has this county locked down because she pays off the local district attorney, Dr. Ross. What she doesn't know is that the federal grand jury in Philadelphia has been looking into Vance Pharmaceuticals' offshore shell companies for eight months. We had the smoke. Your father’s data is the fire.”
Nora reached into her damp coat and pulled out the flash drive and the leather-bound notebook she had kept dry against her chest. She set them on the desk between them.
“This is everything,” Nora said. “The original toxicity reports. The internal memos signed by Victoria Vance authorizing the alteration of the Phase III trial data. And the communication logs where they discussed my father’s refusal to sign off.”
Lin turned the pages slowly, her jaw tightening as she read the clinical notations detailing the preventable suffering of dozens of patients. “This is murder, Dr. Ross. Not negligence. Depraved indifference and corporate conspiracy.”
“Can you protect Mia?” Nora asked, her voice cracking. “That’s all I care about. Victoria won’t stop until we’re silenced.”
May you like
Sarah Lin looked up from the documents, meeting Nora’s eyes directly. “Mrs. Vance is arriving in Clearfield right now. Her team traced your credit card transaction at that bait shop. She believes she’s coming here to serve a custody pickup and bury a rogue employee. She doesn’t know I brought twelve federal marshals with me. They’re staged at the county barracks right now.”
Lin stood up, sliding the journal into her briefcase. “You won’t have to run another step, Nora. We are going to end this tonight.”
