Chapter 5 - THE IV BAG
The hospital lab found a sedative inside the replacement IV bag.
Not enough to kill Daniel by itself.
Enough to deepen respiratory suppression in a six-year-old already struggling to breathe.
Combined with disconnected oxygen, it could have been catastrophic.
The bag had been prepared outside normal pharmacy workflow.
Fake label.
Real lot number.
Real patient name.
Again:
internal data.
Detective Aaron Bell expanded the investigation.
Hospital IT found unauthorized access to Daniel’s chart from a workstation in the executive administration wing.
User account:
Dr. Malcolm Reeves.
Daniel’s attending physician.
Reeves denied accessing the chart at that time.
His badge showed him in surgery on another floor.
Someone had his credentials.
Then the hospital’s security director found something worse.
A temporary vendor account had downloaded parts of the staff directory three days earlier.
The vendor:
Kane Risk Solutions.
Vincent’s private security company.
Everyone looked at Vincent.
He went completely still.
Gabriel said:
“Explain.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“We use hospital vendor access for executive protection coordination.”
“Who had the password?”
“My operations manager. Me. Two supervisors.”
Aaron asked:
“Names.”
Vincent gave them.
One stood out.
Thomas Kane.
Vincent’s younger brother.
Thirty-seven.
Former police officer.
Fired six years earlier.
Gabriel knew him.
Trusted him less.
Thomas had been trying to return to the family security business for months.
Vincent refused.
Too reckless.
Too angry.
Too much debt.
Elena looked at Gabriel.
“You thought it was your cousin.”
Gabriel answered:
“I still do.”
Aaron shook his head.
“Maybe stop deciding before the evidence does.”
Gabriel stared at him.
Then nodded.
May you like
He hated the detective.
Which usually meant the detective had said something useful.
