The Shadow Script

Chapter 18: Inventory of lies

Audrey gripped the handrail as the elevator descended, forcing her breathing to slow down. Running now would be an admission of guilt. If she disappeared into the night with a bulging pocket, Khalid would have Vance security hunt her down before she even reached the parking lot. To stay alive, she had to keep playing the dedicated, traumatized nurse.

​She needed to hide the evidence first. Stopping by the staff locker room on the lower floor, she swiftly transferred the heavy velvet box and the stolen medical chart from her scrubs into the deep, dark interior of her personal backpack, locking it tight. Taking a deep breath to smooth over her features, she turned around and headed straight back up to the wreckage of the minor admissions wing.

The smell of ozone and burnt gunpowder still clung to Dr. Khalid’s office, but the smoke had mostly cleared, leaving the moonlit ruin fully exposed. Papers were scattered like dead leaves across the floor, and the heavy mahogany desk sat open, its locked drawer splintered and empty.

​Dr. Khalid was standing by the shattered window, his back to her, a shard of glass crunching beneath his polished shoe as he shifted his weight.

​"You returned," he said without turning around. His voice was entirely smooth, devoid of the frantic energy that gripped the rest of the hospital. "Most people would have taken the trauma exemption and gone home, Audrey."

​"I wanted to make sure the inventory was accounted for, Dr. Khalid," Audrey said, stepping into the room and keeping her distance. She deliberately let her voice sound a little hollow, playing into the shock. "Security needs to know exactly what the intruder took."

​Khalid turned around slowly. The harsh light from the corridor caught the sharp angle of his jaw. He walked over to the splintered desk, his fingers tracing the broken wood of the drawer she had violated just moments prior.

​"Yes. The intruder," Khalid murmured, his dark eyes snapping up to lock onto hers. "He was remarkably specific in what he targeted. He didn’t touch the high-grade narcotics in the dispensary down the hall. He came straight here. Almost as if he knew exactly what was hidden in the false bottom of this drawer."

​He took a step toward her, his tall silhouette blocking out the light from the hallway, trapping her in the shadows of the ruined office.

​"Tell me, Audrey," he whispered, his tone dropping into that terrifyingly intimate register. "When you found that iron key on the carpet... did you happen to notice if the velvet casing I keep in this drawer was still here? Or did our mysterious guest manage to steal my life's work right out from under us?"

​The trap was laid. If she claimed the stalker took it, Khalid would know she was lying because she had been the one digging in the desk when the flashbang went off. But if she admitted she saw it, she would have to explain where it was now.

​Audrey didn't flinch. She let her gaze wander to the broken drawer, then back to his face, channeling every bit of her professional training into a mask of pure confusion. "The drawer was already broken when I crawled in here to escape the gunfire, Doctor. There was smoke everywhere. I only grabbed the key because it hit my hand when he ran."

​Khalid stared at her, the silence stretching so long that the distant wail of police sirens outside seemed to grow deafening. He was evaluating her, parsing the steady cadence of her voice against his own deep paranoia.

​Before he could push her further, Julian Cross appeared at the broken doorway, his expression grim. "Khalid. The police detail wants a word about the security bypass. Now."

​Khalid didn't take his eyes off Audrey for a long, agonizing second. Then, the clinical mask slipped back into place. "Excusable, Mr. Cross. I’ll be right there." He looked back at Audrey, his smile thin and bloodless. "You are dismissed for the night, Nurse Audrey. Go home. Get some rest. We will conclude our... inventory... first thing in the morning."

​She survived the interrogation, but the reprieve is temporary. Audrey is finally walking out to her car with the stolen chart and the toxic vials in her bag. But remember the stalker's final promise: I'll see you at home.