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And rang.
Frustrated, she knew Charlie was probably letting his guard down because the case had been concluded. Valerie stood up and left the room, files in hand.
She’d show Will and Charlie what she’d found. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too inebriated to take it in.
Valerie closed the storage room door behind her and walked along the corridor. Somewhere nearby, an overhead light buzzed and flickered. She could hear it clicking. As she turned a corner, and then another, she walked straight into a man standing before her.
She jumped with a fright, but soon let out a loud sigh when she saw that it was Doctor Whitmore.
“Sorry, Valerie,” he said. “I was just heading back to the file room you set up. I need to look over Saldana’s records for the board. I just hope it doesn’t cause me too much grief.”
He smiled.
Valerie smiled back. “No problem. I was just back there. You should find the file you’re looking for on one of our desks. I think Charlie had it. That’s the desk in the middle of the room.”
The doctor glanced down at the files under her arms. He joked, “I hope you’re not taking any of our files with you.”
“No,” she said. “I just have something I wanted to run past Charlie and Will for our records.”
“Righty ho,” he said. “Well, I won’t get in your way any longer.”
“We’ll drop by in the morning to say goodbye.”
“Please do.” The doctor smiled and disappeared around a corner.
Valerie hurried along the corridor, the files still under her arms. She hoped she didn’t bump into anyone else until she saw Will and Charlie.
Dialing again on her phone, she walked and listened.
It rang.
And rang.
Finally, Charlie picked up. “Sorry Val, I couldn’t hear you over Will boring me.”
“How rude,” Will quipped from somewhere nearby.
“What’s up?” asked Charlie. “The champagne is flowing.”
“Charlie,” she said. “Stop drinking and get over to the main building. Meet me in the dining room.”
“Why, what’s up?”
“It’s not Saldana. It’s ...”
A hypodermic needle was thrust into Valerie’s neck. Something cold coursed through her veins. She stumbled forward and then collapsed on the floor. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the blank expression of Doctor Whitmore standing over her.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Valerie’s paralyzed body was heavier than Dr. Whitmore had anticipated. As he dragged her body across the carpeted floor, he noticed the cell phone lying next to her. He stopped, picked it up, and then continued dragging the agent’s body.
He cursed himself for having let Valerie make that call. He knew he should have been quicker. His greatest fear was that Charlie and Will would somehow put it together. That they would be after him as the murderer of Elmwood Psychiatric Retreat. Then there would be nothing to do but run.
But Dr. Whitmore had managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the FBI long enough. He wasn’t quite ready to give up just yet. There were many more victims out there for him to get his hands on. If he played this right, Saldana could still go down for the murders, and he would be free to continue his murder spree.
All of that would only be possible if he killed and disposed of Valerie in a clinical, strategic way.
As he dragged her body through the empty corridors of the storage area. The doctor worried that he would encounter another person from the staff looking for supplies or cleaning. He would then be forced to murder them in an unplanned way.