Chapter 4 - The Locked Cabinet
At 2:13 in the morning, Beatrice walked through the estate.
She carried a laundry basket to make herself look ordinary.
Nobody questioned housekeepers carrying laundry.
That was why she had survived so long.
People saw uniforms before they saw people.
The old medical wing was at the end of the east corridor.
Beatrice unlocked the service door with a key she had borrowed months earlier.
Inside, dust covered the cabinets.
She found B-14.
Locked.
She looked around.
Then inserted a thin metal pin into the lock.
The cabinet opened.
Inside were medication records.
Dozens of them.
Most were old.
But three belonged to Lorenzo.
Beatrice pulled them out.
The dosage schedules didn't match the doctor's current orders.
Someone had been changing his medication.
Not enough to kill him immediately.
Enough to make him weaker every day.
Beatrice's hands trembled.
Then she found another document.
A handwritten instruction.
Increase only when Rossi asks.
Rossi.
Sebastian.
A sound came from behind her.
Beatrice froze.
The door creaked.
She turned.
Nobody.
Then a voice came from the darkness.
“You shouldn't have opened that.”
Beatrice spun around.
A man stood at the end of the corridor.
Dr. Caldwell.
She nearly dropped the papers.
“What are you doing here?”
He looked frightened.
“I could ask you the same.”
“You knew.”
Caldwell's eyes lowered.
“I suspected.”
“Then why didn't you stop it?”
“Because every time I questioned the orders, someone reminded me that my daughter was still working at the estate.”
Beatrice stared.
Caldwell whispered:
“Sebastian controls more than you realize.”
Then footsteps echoed from the corridor.
Caldwell grabbed the documents.
“Go.”
“Where?”
“Back to Lorenzo.”
“Why?”
Caldwell looked terrified.
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“Because if Sebastian realizes we know, Lorenzo won't survive the morning.”
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