Chapter 9 - THE FALSE PATIENT
The master override had been used at 2:13 a.m.
Security footage showed a woman entering the flagship center wearing a surgical mask and maintenance uniform.
She moved directly to Room 417.
She knew the building.
She knew the cabinet.
She knew what to take.
Naomi recognized her walk.
“Lauren Briggs.”
Lauren had been Claire’s administrative assistant.
After Claire died, Derek promoted her to director of executive operations.
Police searched Lauren’s office.
It was empty.
Her phone had been disconnected.
Her bank account showed a transfer of two hundred thousand dollars from one of Meridian’s shell companies.
Derek claimed he barely knew her.
Emails proved otherwise.
He had sent Lauren instructions throughout the night of Claire’s procedure.
Most were ordinary administrative messages.
One encrypted attachment remained unreadable.
Samantha asked Madison whether Claire had ever mentioned Lauren.
“She trusted her.”
“Enough to share passwords?”
“Probably.”
“That may be how Derek entered Claire’s files.”
Lauren’s vehicle was found at the airport.
Investigators initially believed she had fled.
Then a hospital in another county contacted Detective Grant.
A woman using a false name had arrived with chemical burns on her hands.
She claimed she had suffered a cleaning accident.
Her fingerprints identified her as Lauren.
Police placed her under guard.
Lauren refused to speak until Madison visited.
Samantha objected.
“She may be manipulating you.”
“She took the vial.”
“She may have destroyed it.”
“I still need to hear why.”
Madison entered Lauren’s hospital room with an officer nearby.
Lauren’s hands were heavily bandaged.
She looked smaller than Madison remembered.
“Derek said you would be dead before morning,” Lauren whispered.
Madison stopped.
“When?”
“The night you were injured.”
Lauren admitted Derek ordered her to remove the vial after his arrest.
He believed Naomi had preserved it.
Lauren entered Room 417 using Robert’s override code.
She attempted to destroy the sample with industrial chemicals at an abandoned warehouse.
The container broke.
Some liquid burned her hands.
“Is the sample gone?” Madison asked.
Lauren shook her head.
“I couldn’t do it.”
She had hidden the sealed vial inside a fireproof document box beneath a loose floor panel.
“Why save it?”
“Because your mother saved me once.”
Years earlier, Claire had helped Lauren leave an abusive marriage and kept her employed while she rebuilt her life.
Derek later discovered Lauren had falsified one expense form to hide her address from her ex-husband.
He used it to control her.
“He said he would have me charged with fraud and give my address to my ex.”
“So you helped him destroy my mother.”
Lauren began crying.
“I helped him hide what happened. I don’t know whether he chose the vial.”
“What was in the encrypted attachment?”
“An instruction to replace the medication cart.”
Madison’s breath caught.
Lauren had printed the message before Derek ordered all copies destroyed.
She kept it hidden inside a safety-deposit box.
The instruction read:
Use Meridian Lot 6 in Room 417. No substitutions. D.V.
Derek’s initials.
Claire’s room number.
The exact contaminated lot.
May you like
👉 Lauren had preserved the order Derek thought was gone—and it suggested Claire’s death was not merely the result of reckless fraud.
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