Chapter 10 - ABOVE THE CEILING
I climbed onto the toilet before anyone could stop me.
The ceiling opening was less than two feet wide.
Wires and ductwork crossed the darkness above it.
A narrow maintenance crawlspace ran between the bathroom walls and the mechanical chase behind the pediatric rooms.
“Leo!”
No answer.
Then a scraping sound.
Then his voice.
“Don’t!”
The security officer pulled me down.
“You can’t go in there.”
“He’s up there.”
“So is whoever took him.”
Bell arrived at a run with two officers.
“What happened?”
Rebecca was shaking.
“The lights flickered.”
“I looked at the door.”
“When I turned back, the bathroom was open.”
Bell looked at the ceiling.
“How does that connect?”
A maintenance supervisor arrived with building plans on a tablet.
The chase extended twenty feet behind four patient rooms, then opened into a service closet near the west stairwell.
Officers moved to both ends.
Bell grabbed my arm.
“You stay here.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You are not tactical.”
“I’m his doctor.”
“And you’re no help if Pierce puts a bullet in you.”
The words stopped me.
Not because I agreed.
Because she said Pierce.
Not someone.
Pierce.
Bell believed it was him.
A voice came over her radio.
“West stairwell clear.”
Another.
“Service closet locked from inside.”
Bell moved.
Two officers stacked beside the closet door.
A third called out.
“Nolan Pierce.”
No answer.
“Nolan, this is state police.”
“Open the door and show your hands.”
Silence.
Then Leo screamed again.
“Get off me!”
The officers forced the door.
It opened three inches and stopped against something.
One officer pushed harder.
A metal shelving unit scraped across the floor.
They entered.
The closet was empty.
The ceiling panel above it swung open.
Pierce had gone upward.
So had Leo.
The maintenance supervisor pointed to the plans.
“There’s a ladder to the roof access corridor.”
“Where?”
“North end.”
Officers ran.
Bell looked at me.
“Stay with Rebecca.”
This time I did.
Not because I wanted to.
Because Leo needed at least one adult to be where he expected when this ended.
If it ended.
I hated that thought.
Rebecca was crying silently now.
“I should have watched him.”
“You were watching him.”
“I looked away.”
“For two seconds.”
“That was enough.”
“No.”
I took her by both shoulders.
“That was enough for a trained deputy who had planned access to exploit a power interruption.”
“That is not the same as you failing him.”
She stared at me.
Then a gunshot cracked from above.
The sound was muffled by concrete and ductwork.
Rebecca made a sound I never want to hear again.
My body moved before thought.
I ran toward the stairwell.
Bell’s voice came over the radio somewhere ahead.
“Shots fired, roof access.”
“Officer not hit.”
“Repeat, officer not hit.”
I kept running.
The roof-access corridor was a narrow concrete passage above the fifth floor.
Rainwater blew through an open metal door at the far end.
Two officers crouched behind a utility cabinet.
Bell was closer to the door.
She saw me and swore.
“What part of stay downstairs was unclear?”
“Where’s Leo?”
“Roof.”
“Is he hit?”
“We don’t know.”
The word hit knocked the air out of me.
Bell leaned toward the doorway.
“Nolan!”
Rain roared outside.
“Nolan, listen to me.”
Pierce shouted back.
“Get Crowe here.”
Greg’s attorney.
Bell looked confused.
“What?”
“Get Daniel Crowe here.”
“Why?”
“He has the book.”
The red ledger.
Bell glanced at me.
That was not what we had expected.
Marissa said Pierce took the book.
Pierce claimed Crowe had it.
Was he lying?
Or had the ledger already changed hands?
“Let the boy come inside,” Bell called.
“He saw me.”
“He’s nine.”
“He remembers everything.”
The statement made my blood run cold.
Leo was not a hostage because Pierce wanted transportation.
He was a hostage because Pierce feared a witness.
Bell lowered her voice.
“Nolan, if you hurt him, there is no version of this where you walk away.”
“There already isn’t.”
“Then don’t make it worse.”
“You think this started with me?”
“Let Leo go and tell me.”
Pierce laughed once.
“You people always want the clean ending.”
“We don’t have one.”
“We haven’t had one for years.”
Bell looked toward an officer positioned near another roof access point.
He shook his head.
No clear line.
“Nolan, where is Erin?”
“You found her.”
“She says you held her.”
“I kept Greg from killing her.”
“By kidnapping her?”
“By cleaning up a family problem before she destroyed everybody.”
Bell’s jaw tightened.
“That sentence is going to sound terrible in court.”
“I’m not going to court.”
Leo shouted from outside.
“Stop talking like I’m not here!”
I closed my eyes.
Even terrified, the kid refused to disappear quietly.
Pierce said something I could not hear.
Leo answered louder.
“You lied about my mom!”
“Leo,” Pierce snapped.
“You told everyone she left!”
“Be quiet.”
“You said I lie.”
“Leo, stop.”
“You’re the liar!”
Bell whispered to the officer nearest her.
“Keep him talking.”
Then she raised her voice.
“Nolan, Leo knows Erin is alive.”
Silence.
“He has no reason to protect your story anymore.”
Pierce shouted, “This is not my story.”
“Then whose is it?”
No answer.
Bell tried again.
“Greg’s?”
“No.”
“Crowe’s?”
Still nothing.
That silence mattered.
Bell heard it too.
“Why does Greg’s lawyer have the ledger?”
Pierce finally answered.
“Because Greg gave it to him before he surrendered.”
My mind raced backward.
Crowe had appeared at the hospital before Greg turned himself in.
He had demanded records.
He had known Greg would surrender.
He had been buying time.
Bell said, “You stole it from Marissa.”
“Yes.”
“And gave it to Greg?”
“No.”
“Then how did he get it?”
Pierce’s voice became bitter.
“He took it from my truck while I was moving Erin.”
“You’re blaming Greg.”
“I’m telling you he has been blaming me for everything since Wednesday.”
“Then help us prove it.”
A long pause.
Rain hammered the roof.
“Let the boy come inside.”
“I need the book.”
“We can work on that.”
“No.”
“Now.”
Leo’s voice came again, closer this time.
“I know where it is.”
Everyone froze.
Pierce said, “What?”
I whispered, “Leo, no.”
He could not hear me through the wall.
“I know where Mom put a copy.”
Pierce’s breathing became audible even through the rain.
“Where?”
“Let me go and I’ll tell you.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Leo was bargaining with an armed adult.
Nine years old.
Barefoot.
Hospital gown under a borrowed sweatshirt.
A drain still taped to his face.
Bell looked like she wanted to run through the door and pull him back with her hands.
She stayed still.
Pierce said, “You’re lying.”
Leo answered immediately.
“Greg says that when he’s scared.”
Silence.
Then Pierce said, “Walk toward the door.”
Bell raised one hand.
Every officer tensed.
A small bare foot appeared beyond the metal threshold.
Then Leo’s leg.
Then his shoulder.
Pierce stood behind him with one arm around his chest.
The gun was angled downward but close.
Leo’s face was soaked with rain.
His bandage had come loose on one side.
He looked at me.
His eyes widened.
I forced myself not to move.
Pierce saw me too.
“You.”
His expression changed.
“The doctor.”
I said nothing.
“You started this.”
“No.”
“Erin started it when she documented what was happening.”
Pierce’s mouth twitched.
“You think you understand.”
“I understand a child nearly died because adults kept choosing convenience.”
His face hardened.
“Careful.”
Leo shifted slightly.
Pierce tightened his arm.
Bell spoke immediately.
“Nolan, look at me.”
He did.
That was all Leo needed.
He dropped.
Not backward.
Straight down.
His knees hit the wet concrete.
Pierce’s arm slipped over his head.
Bell lunged.
An officer grabbed Leo and pulled him through the doorway.
Pierce raised the gun.
Three officers shouted at once.
He hesitated.
Bell had her weapon trained on him.
“Don’t.”
For one terrible second, I thought he would.
Then his shoulders collapsed.
The gun hit the roof.
He went to his knees.
Officers moved in.
I grabbed Leo.
He was shaking violently.
“Are you hurt?”
He shook his head.
“Did he hit you?”
“No.”
“Did the gun fire near you?”
“He shot the door.”
I checked him anyway.
Pulse racing.
No visible new injuries.
Bandage wet.
IV line pulled out.
Bare feet scraped.
Alive.
He was alive.
Rebecca reached us seconds later and wrapped him in a hospital blanket.
He buried himself against her.
Bell walked Pierce past us in handcuffs.
Leo lifted his head.
Pierce looked at him.
For the first time, the deputy had nothing to say.
Then Leo called out.
“I lied.”
Pierce stopped.
An officer pushed him forward.
Leo’s voice became stronger.
“I don’t know where the copy is.”
Pierce looked back over his shoulder.
Leo stared at him.
“Now you know what it feels like.”
Pierce was taken away.
I thought that would be the end of the immediate danger.
I was wrong.
At 2:11 a.m., Bell received a call from the jail.
Greg Mercer had been assaulted in holding after telling another detainee that he had information worth money.
He survived.
But during medical evaluation, officers found a folded business card hidden inside his sock.
Daniel Crowe’s card.
May you like
On the back, Greg had written six words.
IF I GO DOWN, OPEN FILE 6.
