Chapter 29: The Poisoned Witness

For one terrible second, no one understood what they were seeing. Then Catherine fell from the chair. Leah hit the glass with both palms. "Open the door!" Detectives rushed in. ADA Alvarez shouted for medical. Richard lunged for the handle and Ethan caught him before he could break procedure and become another problem. Catherine writhed on the floor, lips blue, one hand clawing at her throat. "Poison," Ethan said. His voice had gone dead flat. Leah turned on him. "How?" "Water." The paper cup lay beside Catherine, rolling in a small circle. Inside the interview room, a detective began CPR. Another yelled that the hallway cameras were down. Of course they were. Martha did not need to be in the room. Martha was a system. Leah's body moved before thought caught up. She ran into the hallway, past officers, past the vending machines, past a janitor pushing a gray cart toward the exit. The janitor was too calm. "Stop!" Leah shouted. He ran. She chased him through a stairwell and into the underground parking level. He was faster, but grief made her reckless. She caught his jacket at the exit gate. He spun and struck her across the mouth. Leah tasted blood. Then Megan came out of nowhere and hit him with a tire iron. The man dropped. Megan stood over him, breathing hard. "I followed the ambulance because none of you make good choices." Leah almost cried. There was no time. They searched the man's pockets. Burner phone. Cash. A hospital access card. A folded photograph of Catherine taken that morning. On the back was one instruction. No witness reaches the vault. Ethan arrived with two officers. His eyes went from Leah's bleeding lip to the unconscious man. "Is Catherine alive?" Leah asked. "Barely." Richard came behind him, destroyed. "They are taking her to Bellevue." Leah held up the photograph. "Martha ordered this because Catherine named the vault." Alvarez joined them, face grim. "Then we move tonight." "No warrant?" Ethan asked. "Attempted murder of a protected witness gives me enough emergency basis to secure evidence before destruction." Richard straightened. For once, fear did not win. "I can open the front gate." Leah wiped blood from her mouth. "And I can open the vault." Her phone buzzed. Unknown: If you enter Thorne House tonight, you will learn why Martha kept you alive.