Chapter 8 - Twelve Seconds of Darkness.
.The blackout lasted only twelve seconds.
It felt much longer.
Emergency lights flickered on near the floor, painting the corridor in dim blue strips.
Someone shouted from the nurses' station.
A cart crashed somewhere down the hall.
Evan's first thought was Olivia.
He turned toward her room.
Claire grabbed his sleeve.
"Do not run in the dark."
He pulled free, then immediately regretted the sharpness of the movement.
"She is in there."
"And emergency power is already coming on."
The ceiling lights returned one row at a time.
Evan rushed into Olivia's room.
The monitors were functioning on backup power.
Olivia was still there.
The resident physician looked annoyed but calm.
"She is stable."
Evan exhaled.
When he returned to the corridor, Noah was staring at his tablet.
"The security network rebooted."
Claire frowned.
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning every active camera disconnected for twelve seconds."
Dana looked toward Victor.
He was gone.
"Where is Sloan?" Noah asked.
No one knew.
Claire's expression hardened.
"Locker twelve."
They took the elevator down to the ballroom level.
The gala had mostly emptied, leaving abandoned glasses, folded programs, and half-cleared tables beneath chandeliers that suddenly seemed too elegant for what was happening upstairs.
A coat-check attendant stood behind a walnut counter.
Noah showed his badge.
"I need access to locker twelve."
The attendant looked nervous.
"Those are for board members."
"Whose locker is twelve?"
She checked a printed sheet.
Her finger stopped.
"Olivia Cross."
Evan's chest tightened.
The attendant opened the small brass door.
The locker was empty.
Claire crouched and looked inside.
"Something was here."
A rectangular outline in the dust marked the bottom shelf.
Noah examined the lock.
"No damage."
"So someone had a key," Evan said.
The attendant shook her head.
"There are only two master keys."
"Who has them?"
"Me and the event supervisor."
"Who is the supervisor?"
The attendant hesitated.
"Mr. Sloan approved the staffing list."
Claire leaned closer.
"That was not the question."
The attendant looked toward the empty ballroom.
"Victor Sloan took the second key around eight."
Noah's phone buzzed.
He read a message from hospital security dispatch.
"They found Victor's phone."
"Where?" Evan asked.
"In the underground parking garage."
Claire looked at the empty locker.
"He took the folder and left."
Noah shook his head.
"Maybe."
"What else?"
Noah turned the phone toward them.
A still image from the garage camera showed Victor walking toward a black sedan.
Beside him was another person.
A woman wearing a bright red jacket.
Dana stared at the image.
"I know her."
Evan looked at her.
"Who is she?"
Dana's voice dropped.
As they crossed the deserted ballroom, Claire noticed that several place cards from the foundation board table had been removed while the others remained.
Olivia's card was gone.
Victor's was gone too.
Rebecca Hale's card was the third missing name.
Noah photographed the table before anyone could clear it.
The detail might mean nothing, but after a night of vanished footage and missing badges, none of them were willing to dismiss coincidences anymore.
Evan finally understood why Claire had refused to let housekeeping clean the broken glass upstairs.
May you like
Once something disappeared, getting the truth back became much harder.
"Dr. Hale's wife."
