Page 69 of Every Last One

“No. Besides, Dana said the doctors there are taking good care of her. I’d just be sitting there when I can be helpful here.” As she recapped this, she questioned if she was barricading behind her fears by staying put.

“I get that. Do they know what caused her to faint?”

“Not exactly. All they know is her iron levels are so low, she’s anemic.” She’d checked her phone quickly just before Eric had shown up.

“I’m sorry this is happening, Sandra.”

She scanned his eyes. “Could you go over there? Maybe just pop by and check in with Dana? I mean if you have a minute.”

“I’ve never met them before.”

He was right, but somehow, she’d forgotten about that. Making this request of him felt natural. “Maybe it’s time that changes.”

“All right. Leave it with me. I’ll head over there when I have a minute.”

She’d love to kiss him and fall into his arms, but now wasn’t the time. “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me.”

She stood there, watching him walk away, thinking she was lucky to have him in her life. It might be time to discuss taking their relationship to the next level. But that was a conversation for another day. Right now, she had a job to do.

THIRTY-EIGHT

4:30 PM

Sandra sent Dana a quick text to expect a friend of hers to show up. She told her he was a Metropolitan PD detective by the name of Eric Birch. Dana fired back a quick response.

Okay, all is moving along over here. Not to worry.

Sandra returned inside the vehicle. She wanted to try reaching the hostage takers again, but just calling for the sake of calling wouldn’t move things along either. It was always best to be armed with an edge.

“I’ve got something.” Brice sat back and pointed at Feeney’s laptop in front of him.

“Already?” She failed to keep the skepticism out of her voice.

“I’m a miracle worker. What can I say?” Brice boasted.

“With a little help from over there.” Monica smiled and pointed at Luis.

“Hey, don’t give my secret weapon away,” Brice said. “But, yeah, Luis got the laptop unlocked.”

Sandra looked at Luis. “Well done.”

Luis shrugged. “I took some computer training.”

“Just say it how it is, you’re a hacker,” Kreiger said with a smile.

It was a pleasant switch to see Kreiger happy.

“A novice white hat at best, but I only use my powers for good.” Luis blushed at his self-praise.

“Happy you’re on our side. All right, so what did you find?” She gestured toward her colleague.

“Feeney bookmarked a website called Fat Cats. It’s a forum with chat rooms for people to voice their complaints against big companies, corporate America,” Brice said.

“It sounds like less of a coincidence that our shot caller referred to the people in the boardroom as ‘fat cats licking up cream,’” Sandra said.

“Agreed. One of the chat rooms is specifically for people who owe money to Founders Hospital. Feeney has an account with the site, the logon parameters autofill in, and her handle is Drained Dry. She interacted with three other members in this chat room, responding to their comments, and they hers. Their handles are Alaya Princess, Broken Bridge, and Angry1111.”