Chapter 5: What Richard Knew
Matthew made two calls from the corridor, both brief, both quiet.
Sarah watched him from her chair.
She had stopped pretending to look elsewhere.
She watched him the way she watched thunderstorms through the window — not afraid exactly, but very, very attentive.
When he came back the second time, a different man was with him.
He was younger than Matthew, in a gray suit, with a phone already in his hand and the look of someone who had been moving fast for a long time and had learned to do it without appearing to hurry.
"This is James," Matthew said to Sarah.
"He works for me.
He's going to sit with you while I speak to the doctor."
James crouched to her level immediately.
"Hi, Sarah.
I have a daughter about your age.
Her name's Lily.
She also has a doll collection."
Sarah assessed him.
"Does Lily have a handmade one?"
"She has one her grandmother made.
It has a button eye that doesn't match."
"Luna has a loose wrist," Sarah said, holding up the rag doll.
"Mommy keeps saying she'll fix it.
But I don't mind.
I like that she's a little wobbly."
James smiled.
It was a real smile.
"Wobbly things are tougher than they look."
Sarah decided he was acceptable.
She gave Matthew a small nod of permission.
Matthew walked to the far end of the corridor and pushed through a door marked STAFF ONLY.
The nurse at the station watched him go and said nothing.
His card was already in the system.
Inside, Dr.
Okafor was reviewing a chart.
She was a tall woman with close-cropped hair and the particular calm of someone who had delivered both good and terrible news enough times to know that how you said it mattered as much as what you said.
"She's stable," Dr.
Okafor said before Matthew could speak.
"The bleeding is controlled.
We'll know more in the next few hours, but I'm cautiously optimistic."
"Can she have visitors?"
"Tomorrow morning, if she continues to improve.
Not tonight."
"I need you to do something for me," Matthew said.
"I need Anne Miller's name removed from the public patient registry.
I need her listed under a different name until further notice.
And I need security notified that no one — no one — is to be given her room number or her status without my direct authorization."
Dr.
Okafor set down the chart.
"Mr.
Sullivan, that's an unusual request."
"I know."
"Is she in danger?"
"I don't know yet.
I'm not willing to wait until I do know."
She looked at him for a moment.
Then she picked up the phone on the wall.
"I'll need you to put that in writing and sign it."
"I'll sign whatever you need."
She made the call.
Matthew stood with his back against the wall and his eyes on the ceiling and his hands very still at his sides.
He had found Anne Miller.
After six years of not looking — because not looking had felt like the only punishment he could give himself — he had found her in the worst possible way.
And someone else had found her first.
He pushed back through the door into the corridor.
James was showing Sarah something on his phone — a photo of Lily, apparently, because Sarah was saying "her hair is like mine" with the authority of someone identifying a rare species.
Matthew sat down.
"Tell me what you told Richard," he said, low enough that only James could hear.
James put the phone away.
His voice dropped.
"Richard called the office this morning asking about your schedule.
Specifically asking whether you were going to Mercy General today."
"How did he know I was going to Mercy General?"
"He didn't, until he asked.
Your assistant confirmed it."
Matthew's jaw tightened.
"She shouldn't have done that."
"She didn't know.
Richard told her he needed to reach you urgently about the Harmon account."
"And what did he actually want?"
James was quiet for a half second.
"We pulled his search history on the company system.
He ran Anne Miller's name three days ago.
Her address.
Her employer.
Her daughter's school."
The corridor was the same as it had always been — humming lights, distant beeping, the smell of antiseptic and burned coffee.
Nothing had changed.
But Matthew felt the floor shift slightly under everything.
"He knew she was here," Matthew said.
"We think so."
"The man on the corner," Matthew said.
"Before the accident.
Sarah saw him."
James nodded slowly.
"We need to know if the accident was an accident."
Sarah had been quiet during this exchange, looking at Luna's wobbly wrist, apparently absorbed.
But she looked up now.
"It wasn't," she said simply.
Both men looked at her.
"The car didn't slow down," she said.
"Cars slow down when they see people.
This one didn't slow down.
It went faster."
Matthew looked at James.
James looked at Matthew.
"I need everything on Richard Hale," Matthew said.
May you like
"Everything.
Tonight."
