Dorothy arrived at St. Catherine’s forty-five minutes before her shift started. The parking lot was still mostly empty, just a few night shift workers heading to their cars, exhausted after twelve hours on their feet.
She clocked in at 6:15 AM, waving at the security guard who barely looked up from his crossword puzzle. Just another early nurse, dedicated to her job. Nothing suspicious about that.
The maternity ward was quiet. Rachel was finishing up her night shift paperwork at the nurse’s station, and Keisha was doing final rounds. Dorothy grabbed a cup of coffee from the break room and settled at one of the computers in the back office, the one with the broken door that never quite closed.
She had maybe twenty minutes before the day shift started arriving. Twenty minutes to do someth
