Chapter 8 - THE ROOMMATE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Noah stopped breathing thirty seconds later.
The medics restored his pulse in the corridor while smoke rolled across the ceiling behind them.
They intubated him and rushed him to a federal medical facility in Springfield.
Lily was placed in a guarded ambulance with Rachel.
I tried to climb inside.
AUSA Nand stopped me.
“You are still a person of interest in Hale’s death.”
“My daughter was just kidnapped from a hospital.”
“And you just entered a university laboratory where a federal crime scene exploded.”
“I rescued two witnesses.”
“I know.”
Her voice softened by one degree.
“That is why you are standing here instead of lying facedown in cuffs.”
She handed me a disposable phone.
“Call only the numbers already saved.”
There were three.
Rachel.
Nand.
Mara Ruiz.
“Ruiz is released?” I asked.
“Internal Affairs changed its priorities after the laboratory feed reached my office.”
“Where is she?”
“Looking for the van that took Lily.”
“She was already found.”
“Ruiz is looking for where it went before the laboratory.”
Nand stepped closer.
“Someone held your daughter between the hospital and Calder Hall.”
“That location may contain evidence Evelyn Whitaker did not have time to remove.”
Firefighters carried Connor Whitaker from the rear side of the building twenty minutes later.
He was unconscious but alive.
Evelyn had left him behind.
That fact frightened me more than if she had rescued him.
It meant her nephew was no longer valuable.
Vale’s body was not found.
Neither was Evelyn’s.
The underground garage cameras had stopped recording at 5:12 a.m.
The same minute the fire alarm system was disabled.
By sunrise, Bradley University issued a statement describing the laboratory explosion as an isolated criminal event caused by an unstable former military contractor.
My name was not printed.
My photograph was.
Evelyn Whitaker appeared on television from an undisclosed location.
She wore a navy suit and no raincoat.
She expressed concern for the injured students.
She praised first responders.
She promised complete cooperation.
She never mentioned that she had stood inside the laboratory and watched Lily struggle to breathe.
People believe a calm liar because truth usually arrives covered in blood.
Ruiz called at 8:17 a.m.
“We found the transport van.”
“Where?”
“An underground parking structure near the old St. Agnes clinic.”
“Any sign of where they held Lily?”
“Blood on a restraint.”
“Medical packaging.”
“And a Bradley parking tag registered to Tessa Moore.”
Lily’s roommate.
The girl in the photograph with the silver nose ring.
“Where is Tessa now?”
“Her phone last connected near a motel off Interstate 74.”
“I am going.”
“I knew you would say that.”
“I am sending the address to your disposable phone.”
“Nand told me to call only saved numbers.”
“She did not say you could not receive texts.”
The motel sat beside a truck stop twenty miles east of Peoria.
Ruiz waited in an unmarked car beneath a dead security light.
Her badge had been returned, but she wore it inside her jacket.
A purple bruise marked her wrist where an officer had removed her weapon.
“You look terrible,” she said when I got in.
“You look employed again.”
“Temporarily.”
She handed me a photograph taken from a traffic camera.
Tessa Moore sat in the passenger seat of the medical van.
She wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and looked directly at the camera.
There was no visible weapon near her.
“Was she helping them?” I asked.
“That is what we need to determine.”
Room 118 was registered under a false name.
Ruiz knocked once.
No answer.
She knocked again and identified herself.
A lamp turned off inside.
Someone moved near the window.
Ruiz stepped aside.
I kicked the door beside the lock.
The frame split.
Tessa stood in the center of the room holding a revolver with both hands.
She was twenty, thin, and terrified.
The barrel pointed at my chest.
Ruiz raised her pistol.
“Put it down.”
Tessa’s hands shook.
“You cannot take me back.”
“No one is taking you anywhere until you lower the gun.”
“They said Daniel would kill me.”
I kept my hands visible.
“Lily is alive.”
Tessa’s face collapsed.
“She is?”
“Yes.”
“She was in surgery when they took her.”
“I tried to stop them.”
“Then lower the gun and tell us how.”
Tessa looked at Ruiz.
Then at me.
The revolver dropped to the carpet.
She began crying before it landed.
Ruiz secured the weapon.
I closed the broken door as much as possible.
Tessa sat on the edge of the bed with her arms wrapped around herself.
There was dried blood on the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
“Whose blood?” I asked.
“Noah’s.”
“What happened?”
“They came to our apartment after Lily left for Calder Hall.”
“Who?”
“Officer Hale and two Sentinel men.”
“Hale was alive then?”
“Yes.”
“He kept saying this was not supposed to happen.”
“What was not supposed to happen?”
“Connor hurting Lily.”
Tessa swallowed.
“Hale said they were only supposed to take her phone and scare her.”
“Who gave that order?” Ruiz asked.
“President Whitaker.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“What did Hale do at the apartment?”
“He searched Lily’s room.”
“Noah arrived while they were there.”
“He tried to record them.”
“One of the Sentinel men hit him with a camera tripod.”
Tessa looked at the blood on her sleeve.
“I tried to stop the bleeding.”
“Why were you in the van?” I asked.
“They made me come.”
“Why?”
“Because they thought Lily gave me the real drive.”
“Did she?”
Tessa’s silence answered.
Ruiz closed the curtains.
“Where is it?”
“I do not have it.”
“Who does?”
Tessa looked at me.
“Lily gave it to Professor Elias Ward.”
I knew the name.
Ward taught investigative journalism.
Lily had mentioned him during every phone call for six months.
He praised her work.
He recommended her for the campus newspaper.
He told her truth required courage.
“Where is Ward?”
“He disappeared yesterday afternoon.”
“Before Lily was attacked?”
Tessa nodded.
“He sent her a message saying he had proof about Ava Sinclair.”
“He told her to meet behind Calder Hall at eleven forty-five.”
The meeting was a trap.
“Did Ward send the message?” Ruiz asked.
“I do not know.”
“Lily thought so.”
Tessa reached into her pocket and removed a small key.
A strip of red tape circled the head.
“She told me to keep this if anything happened.”
“What does it open?”
“A locker at the Peoria bus terminal.”
“Number?”
“Three seventeen.”
Ruiz took the key in an evidence bag.
A vehicle door slammed outside.
Tessa stood too quickly.
“They found me.”
I moved to the window.
Two black SUVs had stopped beneath the motel sign.
Men in tactical clothing stepped out.
No marked police cars followed.
Ruiz called Nand.
The phone showed no signal.
A jammer.
The motel’s exterior lights went dark.
Then every door on the first floor opened at once.
Guests were dragged into the parking lot by men wearing jackets marked FEDERAL POLICE.
There was no federal agency by that name.
Ruiz checked the bathroom window.
Painted shut.
I lifted the mattress and shoved it against the main door.
Tessa backed toward the corner.
“They will kill me.”
“Not today,” I said.
A voice boomed through the hallway.
“Daniel Mercer, send Tessa Moore outside.”
I recognized the voice.
Mark Ellis.
Tessa heard it too.
Her face went white.
“That is him,” she whispered.
“Who?”
“The man Lily trusted most.”
May you like
She pointed toward the door.
“The man who gave Connor our location.”
