Chapter 5
Maya's POV: "Hospital Guard"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Marcus's heart monitor was going crazy. I jumped up from my chair and ran to his bed.
"Marcus! Marcus, wake up!"
His eyes flew open, wild with fear. He was sweating and shaking.
"Maya?" he whispered. "Where am I?"
"You're in the hospital," I said, putting my hand on his arm to calm him down. "You're safe. Harrison can't hurt you anymore."
Marcus tried to sit up but winced from the pain in his shoulder. "Sarah... is Sarah okay?"
"She's fine. She's at the police station dealing with Harrison." I helped him lie back down. "You need to rest."
"I can't rest," Marcus said. "There's too much you don't know about Harrison. Too much Sarah doesn't know."
I pulled my chair closer to his bed. "Tell me."
Marcus closed his eyes. "When I was researching the people Harrison wanted me to kill, I found something strange."
"What kind of strange?"
"All of them had one thing in common besides being witnesses," Marcus said. "They all had family members who worked for the police."
My heart started beating faster. "Police families?"
"Harrison wasn't just killing witnesses," Marcus whispered. "He was targeting police families especially. Like he had some kind of hate for cops."
I thought about Sarah and how heartbroken she looked when Harrison told her about her family. "Marcus, Harrison told Sarah that he killed her family too."
Marcus's eyes went wide. "What?" "He said he killed Sarah's parents and little sister fifteen years ago. Made it look like a car crash."
Marcus grabbed my hand with his good arm. "Maya, if Harrison has been killing police families for twenty years, Sarah might not be safe."
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it," Marcus said. "Harrison is in jail now, but what if he has partners? What if there are other people who help him kill cop families?"
I felt cold all over. "You think someone might try to hurt Sarah?"
"Or you," Marcus said softly. "You're Sarah's best friend. You helped catch Harrison. If he has partners, they might come after you too."
I stood up and walked to the window. The hospital parking lot looked normal, but now everything felt dangerous.
"I need to call Sarah," I said, grabbing for my phone.
"Wait," Marcus said. "Don't use your phone."
"Why not?"
"If Harrison has been doing this for twenty years, he has to have people helping him. Police officers, judges, maybe even hospital workers." Marcus looked scared. "They might be listening to our phone calls."
I felt sick. "You think there are corrupt cops helping Harrison?"
"How else could he make car crashes look real? How else could he make entire families disappear without anyone investigating?"
Marcus was right. Harrison couldn't have done all this alone.
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"We need to warn Sarah, but we have to be careful about how we do it."
That's when I heard footsteps in the hallway. Someone was walking toward Marcus's room.
I grabbed the baseball bat I'd brought from Elena's room. "Get ready," I whispered to Marcus.
The footsteps stopped right outside our door.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Come in," I said, holding the bat behind my back.
A young nurse walked in with a smile. "Hi! I'm here to check on Mr. Stone."
I relaxed a little, but kept the bat close. "He's doing okay."
The nurse walked over to Marcus's bed and started checking his wounds. "The doctor wants to make sure there's no infection."
But something felt wrong. The nurse kept looking at me instead of focusing on Marcus. And her hands were shaking.
"Are you new here?" I asked.
"Yes," she said quickly. "Just started this week."
I watched her carefully. She was checking Marcus's IV bag, but she seemed nervous about something.
"What's your name?" I asked.
The nurse paused. "Um... Jessica."
That's when I noticed she wasn't wearing a name tag like all the other nurses had been wearing.
"Where's your name tag, Jessica?"
The nurse's face went white. "I... I forgot it at home."
I stepped closer, still holding the bat. "What's in that needle?"
"What needle?" she said, but I could see her trying to hide a small syringe behind her back.
"The needle you're about to stick into Marcus's IV," I said. "What's in it?"
The fake nurse pulled out the syringe and lunged at Marcus.
I swung the bat and hit her arm hard. She screamed and dropped the syringe on the floor.
"Security!" I yelled. "SECURITY!"
The fake nurse ran toward the door, but I tackled her before she could escape. We fell to the ground, fighting.
She was stronger than she looked. She hit me in the face and tried to get away, but I held onto her legs.
"Maya!" Marcus yelled from his bed. "The needle! Don't let it break!"
I looked over and saw the syringe rolling toward the wall. If it broke, whatever poison was inside might hurt other people.
I let go of the fake nurse's legs and dove for the syringe. She scrambled to her feet and ran out the door.
Two security guards came running in just as she disappeared around the corner.
"Which way did she go?" one guard asked.
"Down the hall toward the elevators," I said, breathing hard.
The guards ran after her, but I knew she was probably already gone.
I carefully picked up the syringe. It was full of clear liquid that looked like water, but I knew it had to be poison.
"Marcus, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he said. "But Maya, this shows what I was saying. Harrison has partners."
I nodded. "And they know we're here."
Marcus looked scared. "If they sent someone to kill me in the hospital, they might send someone after Sarah too."
"Or Elena," I said. "Elena's probably still giving her statement to the police."
"We need to warn them, but we can't trust anyone," Marcus said. "Not the police, not the hospital staff, not anyone."
I walked back to the window and looked down at the parking lot again. This time, I noticed something that made my blood freeze.
There was a black van parked across the street. I could see someone sitting inside, watching the hospital.
"Marcus," I said quietly. "Don't move, but look toward the window."
He turned his head slightly. "What am I looking at?"
"The black van across the street. Someone's watching us."
Marcus squinted. "Can you see who it is?"
I stared at the van for a long moment. The person inside was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, but something about the way they sat looked familiar.
Then the person turned their head, and I got a clear view of their face.
My heart stopped.
"Marcus," I whispered. "That's not just anyone watching us."
"Who is it?"
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was impossible. It couldn't be real.
"Maya, who is it?" Marcus asked again.
I turned to look at him, my hands shaking. "Marcus, the person in that van... it's Elena."
"What? That's impossible. Elena is at the police station."
I looked back at the van. The person who looked exactly like Elena was now talking on a phone.
"Either Elena has a twin sister she never told us about," I said, "or Elena has been lying to us this whole time."
Marcus tried to sit up in bed. "Maya, that doesn't make sense. Elena was tied up in the building. Harrison was trying to kill her."
"Was he?" I asked. "Or was that all an act?"
I watched the Elena look-alike in the van. She was nodding like she was getting orders from someone on the phone.
"Marcus, what if Elena isn't the victim we thought she was? What if she's been working with Harrison all along?"
"But that's crazy," Marcus said. "Why would Elena help Harrison kill witnesses if she was a witness herself?"
I thought about everything that had happened. Elena showing up right when Marcus needed a bodyguard. Elena being at exactly the right places at the right times. Elena always seeming to know just a little too much about everything.
"What if Elena wasn't really a witness fifteen years ago?" I said slowly. "What if that was all a lie?"
Marcus looked confused. "What are you saying?"
I turned back to the window. The van was starting to drive away, but before it went, the Elena look-alike turned and looked right up at our window.
She smiled and waved.
Then she held up a sign against the van's window.
The sign had three words written in big red letters: "MAYA IS NEXT."