Chapter 4: The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
For several seconds, nobody in the sheriff's office spoke.
Maya stared at Captain Reeves, waiting for him to laugh, correct himself, or admit that someone had made a mistake.
He did none of those things.
Instead, he slowly placed the telephone receiver back in its cradle.
“Detective Brooks,” Reeves said, “I need you to come with me.””
Daniel didn't move.
“Not until you tell us where Nia Johnson is.””
“I've already explained that we're investigating her disappearance.””
“And I've already explained that I don't believe you.””
Reeves's jaw tightened.
“You're suspended from this investigation, Brooks. Hand over your badge.””
The words barely registered with Maya. She was still thinking about the name Elena Reyes.
Dead for twenty years.
Identified as her biological mother.
And somehow wearing Nia Johnson's face in footage recorded seventeen years ago.
Maya grabbed Daniel's sleeve.
“Tell me that's a mistake.””
Daniel looked at her, and the hesitation in his eyes frightened her more than anything Captain Reeves had said.
“I can't,” he admitted.
“Then find someone who can.””
Reeves extended his hand.
“Your badge, Detective.””
Daniel removed it from his belt but didn't surrender it.
“Captain, if that footage is authentic, we have a potential homicide, a falsified identity, and a missing woman. You don't get to bury this because it makes the department uncomfortable.””
Reeves leaned across the reception desk.
“Watch your mouth.””
“Or what? You'll suspend me twice?””
Two officers approached.
Maya stepped between them and Daniel.
“Don't touch him.””
One officer looked at Reeves.
The captain's expression hardened.
“Miss Johnson, this is police business.””
“My mother disappeared while in your custody. You have a dead woman's face on seventeen-year-old hospital footage, and you want to arrest the only detective who's trying to help me.””
“I'm not arresting anyone.””
“Then stop acting like you're afraid of what he'll find.””
Reeves stared at her.
For a moment, Maya thought he might order the officers to drag her out.
Instead, he turned toward a side corridor.
“Fine. You want answers? Come with me.””
Daniel caught Maya's wrist.
“Don't trust him.””
Maya looked at the silver key in her palm.
“I don't trust anyone.””
Then she followed the captain.
The security office was a cramped room filled with old monitors, tangled cables, and the smell of burnt coffee. A wall clock ticked above a filing cabinet. On one screen, a grainy image showed the rear entrance of St. Catherine's Medical Center.
Reeves shut the door.
He typed a password into the computer and opened a video file.
“Before you watch this,” he said, “understand that the footage was recovered from an archived hospital server. The original files were supposedly destroyed in a flood ten years ago.””
“Supposedly?”” Daniel asked.
Reeves ignored him.
The video began.
A hospital corridor appeared in black and white. A nurse pushed a cart past an empty waiting area. The timestamp read October 29, seventeen years earlier.
Maya leaned closer.
At 2:13 a.m., a woman entered the frame carrying a bundle wrapped in a white blanket.
She had dark hair pulled into a tight bun.
A narrow scar crossed her left cheek.
And she looked exactly like Nia.
The woman approached the nursery door and scanned an identification card.
The door opened.
She disappeared inside.
Seconds later, another woman entered the corridor.
This one wore a surgical mask and carried a clipboard. She glanced toward the security camera, then deliberately turned its lens toward the ceiling.
The screen went black.
Maya swallowed.
“Can you identify the second woman?””
“Not from this camera,” Reeves said.
Daniel pointed at the timestamp.
“Skip ahead.””
Reeves moved the footage forward.
At 2:41 a.m., the nursery door opened again.
The masked woman emerged carrying an infant.
She stopped beneath the camera, adjusted the blanket, and looked directly upward.
For a fraction of a second, her mask slipped.
Maya saw a mouth, a chin, and a small mole beneath the right side of the jaw.
Then the woman walked out of frame.
Reeves froze the image.
“Facial recognition matched the woman to Elena Reyes, a patient who died in 2006.””
Maya stared at the screen.
“How did she die?””
“According to the records, complications from a surgical procedure.””
“What procedure?””
Reeves hesitated.
Daniel turned toward him.
“Captain?””
“An autopsy was never performed.””
“Why?””
“Her death was certified by a hospital physician.””
“Who?””
Reeves clicked another file.
A name appeared.
*DR. VICTOR HALE.*
Daniel went very still.
Maya noticed immediately.
“You know him.””
Daniel didn't answer.
“Detective Brooks, you know him, don't you?””
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“He was the medical examiner who signed the report on Sarah Miller's death.””
Maya felt cold.
“Your partner?””
“Yes.””
“The woman who was investigating my birth?””
Daniel nodded.
“And the man who declared her death an accident was also the doctor who certified Elena Reyes's death.””
Reeves closed the video window.
“That's enough. This footage is classified pending verification.””
“You can't classify evidence because it scares you,” Maya said.
Reeves pointed at the door.
“Get out.””
Daniel grabbed Maya's hand.
They were halfway into the corridor when Reeves called after them.
“One more thing, Brooks.””
Daniel stopped.
“Your partner's case file was never destroyed.””
Daniel turned slowly.
“Where is it?””
Reeves smiled without warmth.
“Room 417.””
Maya's fingers tightened around the key.
The captain saw it.
His eyes dropped to her hand.
For the first time since she had met him, Captain Reeves looked genuinely afraid.
“Where did you get that?””
“Vanessa gave it to me.””
Reeves stepped toward her.
“Give it to me.””
“No.””
“Miss Johnson, that key is evidence.””
“Then put it in an evidence bag and write down exactly where you found it.””
His expression changed.
“You're a clever girl.””
“I'm a girl whose mother was tied up in a school storage room. I'm not interested in making your job easier.””
Daniel pulled Maya away before Reeves could respond.
They didn't stop until they reached the parking lot.
Rain had begun to fall, turning the asphalt into a mirror of red and blue lights.
Daniel unlocked his car.
“Get in.””
Maya climbed into the passenger seat.
He started the engine but didn't pull away.
“There's something I need to tell you,” he said.
“Another thing?””
“Yes.””
She stared at him.
“Go ahead. Apparently, tonight is the night everyone finally remembers how to talk.””
Daniel looked down at his hands.
“When Sarah was investigating Elena Reyes's death, she told me she had found evidence that Elena might not have died at all.””
Maya's heart began pounding.
“What?””
“She believed the hospital had used a death certificate to give Elena a new identity. Sarah thought Elena had been moved somewhere under witness protection, or that someone had deliberately erased her existence.””
“Why would anyone do that?””
“Because Elena had information about what happened in that nursery.””
Maya looked at the photograph on her phone.
Two babies.
Two women.
One dead mother.
One missing mother.
And a hospital that had spent seventeen years telling the wrong story.
“Could Elena be my mother?”” Maya whispered.
Daniel looked at her.
“Biologically? Possibly. But we need DNA evidence.””
“What about Nia?””
“I don't know whether she's your biological mother, your adoptive mother, or something else entirely.””
Maya flinched.
“She's my mother.””
Daniel nodded immediately.
“Yes. She is.””
The simple agreement nearly broke her.
Maya turned toward the rain-streaked window and pressed her knuckles against her mouth.
She remembered Nia braiding her hair before school. Nia sitting beside her bed after nightmares. Nia saving the last piece of chocolate cake because Maya liked the corner with the extra frosting.
Whatever the paperwork said, Nia had raised her.
Nia had loved her.
And someone had hurt her.
Maya wiped her eyes.
“Take me to Room 417.””
Daniel shook his head.
“It's too dangerous.””
“Then tell me where it is.””
“An abandoned records annex beneath St. Catherine's. The building has been closed for renovations since last winter.””
“Vanessa gave me the key because she wants me to find something.””
“Or because she wants you to walk into a trap.””
Maya looked at him.
“Then we make sure she doesn't get what she wants.””
Daniel studied her for a long moment.
Finally, he reached into the glove compartment and took out a small black device.
“It's a portable signal jammer.””
“Why do you have that?””
“Because Sarah gave it to me the week before she died.””
He placed it in Maya's hand.
“She said that if I ever found the truth, I should assume someone was listening.””
Maya turned the device over.
A strip of white tape had been wrapped around its back.
Written on the tape were four words.
*TRUST THE SECOND BABY.*
Maya looked up.
“What does that mean?””
Daniel's phone rang.
He answered without taking his eyes off her.
“Brooks.””
A woman's voice came through the speaker.
Maya recognized it instantly.
Nia.
“Daniel, don't take Maya to the annex.””
He gripped the phone.
“Nia? Where are you?””
“There's no time. Listen carefully. The key Vanessa gave you doesn't open Room 417.””
Maya leaned toward the phone.
“Mom! Where are you?””
A ragged breath.
“Baby, I'm sorry.””
“I'm coming to get you.””
“No. You need to stay away from St. Catherine's.””
“Why?””
Nia's voice dropped to a whisper.
“Because Elena is already there.””
A crash sounded through the phone.
Nia gasped.
Someone shouted in the background.
Then a man's voice spoke, calm and unmistakably close to her.
“Thank you, Mrs. Johnson. That's exactly what we needed her to hear.””
The call ended.
Daniel stared at the dead screen.
Maya looked at the key.
Then at the message on the signal jammer.
*TRUST THE SECOND BABY.*
May you like
Outside, thunder rolled across the city.
And somewhere beneath an abandoned hospital, a woman who had been dead for twenty years was waiting for Maya Johnson.
