Chapter 5 - The Woman Called Anna Bell
St. Agnes stood two hours outside Chicago.
The hospital looked more like an abandoned college than a medical facility.
Gray stone buildings surrounded a frozen courtyard.
Most windows were dark.
A sign near the entrance claimed the property was undergoing renovation.
No construction equipment was visible.
Claire held Catherine’s letter inside her coat.
Sophie remained at Adrian’s secure home with Eleanor and a private nurse.
Claire had argued against leaving her.
Sophie had placed both hands on Claire’s face.
“Find Grandma.”
Claire promised she would.
Now she stood beside Adrian beneath a cold morning rain.
“This place is owned by the Ashford Foundation,” he said.
“Of course it is.”
“I did not know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it remains true.”
Claire looked toward the locked entrance.
“Not knowing has protected your family very well.”
Adrian absorbed the accusation.
Luca opened the front doors using an emergency corporate access code.
A receptionist sat behind an empty desk.
She looked startled to see them.
“We are closed to visitors.”
Adrian placed his identification on the counter.
“Not anymore.”
The woman stared at his name.
Her hands began to shake.
Claire noticed.
“We are looking for Anna Bell.”
“No patient by that name is here.”
“You answered too quickly.”
The receptionist reached for her phone.
Luca unplugged it.
Adrian looked toward the security cameras.
“Where are the patient records?”
“You need a court order.”
“I own the company that funds this building.”
“The foundation owns it.”
“My mother controls the foundation.”
Claire stepped forward.
“And my mother may be locked inside it.”
The receptionist looked at her face.
Recognition appeared.
She stepped backward.
“You should leave.”
“Where is Catherine Bennett?”
“I do not know that name.”
“Where is Anna Bell?”
The woman pressed a button beneath the desk.
Steel doors closed at both ends of the hallway.
An alarm began ringing.
Orderlies appeared from a side corridor.
They did not wear hospital badges.
They carried batons.
Luca moved in front of Claire.
Adrian raised one hand.
“Think carefully.”
The largest orderly swung first.
Luca blocked the baton and drove him into the wall.
Adrian pulled Claire toward a side door.
Another orderly grabbed her coat.
Claire turned and struck him with a metal clipboard.
He released her.
They ran through the medical wing.
Patient rooms stood empty.
Beds had been stripped.
Medication cabinets remained full.
“This is not a hospital,” Claire said.
“It was.”
“When?”
Adrian opened a chart cabinet.
Patient files had been removed.
Luca joined them.
“Security is calling local police.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Let me guess.”
“Detective Pierce will arrive first.”
A woman stepped from a laundry room.
She wore a physician’s coat.
Her dark hair was streaked with gray.
“Anna Bell is gone.”
Claire stopped.
“Who are you?”
“Dr. Elise Hart.”
“Did you treat her?”
“For eleven years.”
“Was she Catherine Bennett?”
Elise looked toward the cameras.
“Not here.”
She led them through the laundry room.
A service elevator descended beneath the hospital.
The basement smelled of bleach.
Elise unlocked a pharmacy storage room.
Photographs covered one wall.
Catherine appeared in most of them.
Older.
Thin.
Alive.
Claire touched the nearest image.
Her mother sat beside a small garden.
A scar crossed her temple.
“She is alive.”
Elise nodded.
“Or she was twelve hours ago.”
“What happened?”
“Victoria’s security team moved her.”
“Where?”
“I do not know.”
Claire’s voice broke.
“You treated my mother for eleven years and never called me?”
“I did not know who you were.”
“She talked about me.”
“She talked about a little girl named Claire.”
“She believed you were still twelve.”
Claire looked away.
Elise continued.
“Catherine suffered severe trauma.”
“She lost years of memory.”
“Some days, she remembered the fire.”
“Some days, she believed it had not happened yet.”
“Did Victoria visit?”
“Every month.”
“What did she do?”
“She asked Catherine the same questions.”
“What questions?”
“Where did Thomas hide the ledger?”
“Did Claire remember the ballroom?”
“Was the child born with the mark?”
Adrian looked toward Claire.
“The ballroom?”
Claire shook her head.
“I had never been inside the Blackwood before the gala.”
Elise opened a locked refrigerator.
She removed a blood sample.
“I collected this from Catherine yesterday.”
“It will prove who she is.”
Claire took the vial.
“What is the mark?”
Elise hesitated.
“Catherine believed the crescent was not a birthmark.”
“She said Victoria placed it on her when they were children.”
“Why?”
“To identify which twin was which.”
The room became silent.
Claire stared at her.
“Twin?”
Elise nodded.
“Catherine had a twin sister.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“My father had only one sister.”
“That is what the family records say.”
Elise removed an old patient photograph.
Two little girls stood beside Eleanor.
They looked almost identical.
One smiled.
One stared coldly at the camera.
On the back were two names.
Catherine and Victoria.
Claire looked at Adrian.
“Victoria is my mother’s twin.”
Adrian stared at the photograph.
“My mother was adopted by the Ashfords.”
Elise shook her head.
“No.”
“Victoria was born an Ashford.”
“Catherine was erased.”
Footsteps echoed above them.
Luca checked his weapon.
“Police.”
Elise gave Claire a small flash drive.
“Catherine recorded something before they took her.”
“Do not play it here.”
The basement door burst open.
Detective Pierce entered with six officers.
He aimed his weapon at Claire.
“Put the blood sample down.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“This is private property.”
Pierce smiled.
“Not anymore.”
He held up a warrant.
“Claire Bennett is under arrest for kidnapping a vulnerable patient.”
Claire laughed in disbelief.
“My mother was kidnapped.”
Pierce looked toward Elise.
“Dr. Hart will confirm that you threatened staff.”
Elise stared at him.
“No.”
Pierce’s smile disappeared.
Elise stepped beside Claire.
“Victoria Ashford moved Catherine without medical approval.”
“She has kept her drugged for years.”
Pierce raised his weapon toward Elise.
“You should reconsider.”
Adrian moved between them.
“Lower it.”
Pierce’s finger tightened.
Then the hospital lights went out.
A woman screamed upstairs.
Smoke began pouring through the ventilation system.
Elise looked toward the ceiling.
“They are burning the records.”
Claire clutched the blood sample.
Pierce stepped backward.
For the first time, he looked frightened.
A voice came through his radio.
“Detective, the patient transport van has been found.”
Pierce pressed the radio.
“Where?”
“Behind the east building.”
“Two guards are dead.”
“The patient is missing.”
Claire’s heart stopped.
The officer continued.
“There is a message written inside the van.”
Pierce looked at Claire.
“What message?”
The radio crackled.
May you like
BRING SOPHIE BENNETT TO THE ASHFORD ESTATE.
OR CATHERINE DIES BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
