Chapter 5: The Hospital Room - Words from the Dead
Chapter 5: The Hospital Room - Words from the Dead
Mercy General Hospital was in a state of unprecedented uproar. The Intensive Care Unit had been locked down. Police officers stood guard outside Room 402, where the woman who had died on Monday was now breathing on Thursday.
Detective Vance walked into the room. Eleanor was hooked up to half a dozen monitors, her skin slowly regaining its natural color. Dr. Aris was standing by the bed, reviewing a tablet with a look of pure astonishment.
"How is she, Doc?" Vance asked, keeping his voice low.
Dr. Aris shook his head slowly. "It’s a medical miracle, Detective. Her metabolic rate was artificially suppressed to a level that should have caused severe brain hypoxia. But her cognitive functions are intact. The Atropine the paramedics administered broke the chemical binding. She's awake."
Vance stepped closer to the bed. Eleanor’s eyes were open, watching him. She looked exhausted, traumatized, but fiercely alert.
"Eleanor," Vance said gently. "It's Paul. I'm here. You're safe."
Eleanor opened her mouth. Her voice was raspy, dry as sandpaper. "Where... where is he?"
"Richard is at the precinct," Vance assured her. "He's being detained. We ran a preliminary tox screen on your blood, Eleanor. Clara was right. You had massive levels of a synthetic paralytic in your system."
Eleanor closed her eyes, a tear slipping down her cheek. "I heard him, Paul. I heard everything."
"You were conscious?" Dr. Aris asked, horrified.
"Since yesterday," Eleanor whispered, her voice trembling. "The paralysis... it wore off just enough for me to hear. I heard the mortician preparing me. I heard Richard crying at the viewing. It was fake. Every tear was fake. I tried to scream. I tried to move my fingers. But I was trapped in my own body. A prisoner."
Vance clenched his fists. "He did this to stop you from going to the FBI about the charity."
Eleanor nodded weakly. "Yes. I found the ledgers. He was stealing millions. When I confronted him on Sunday, he poured me a glass of wine. He said we needed to calm down and talk. That was the last thing I remember before waking up in the cold."
"Clara tried to save you," Vance said. "She found the poison, but Richard framed her for theft before she could warn you."
"Clara," Eleanor breathed, a look of immense relief washing over her face. "I saw her. At the church. She broke the box. She heard me."
"She said God sent her," Vance mused, a skeptical but entirely bewildered look on his face. "She broke out of a transport van that crashed right outside the church cemetery. The guards said she kicked the window out just as they drove past, claiming she 'heard a voice from the ground'."
Eleanor looked at the ceiling, her chest rising and falling with steady, living breaths. "I was praying in the dark, Paul. For three days, I screamed to God in my mind. I begged Him not to let me be buried in the dark. I begged for someone to listen."
Dr. Aris stepped back, crossing himself quietly. "Medicine can explain the toxin, Detective. But it cannot explain how a woman in a moving van heard the silent prayers of a paralyzed woman in a sealed coffin."
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"We're dropping all charges against Clara Hayes," Vance said firmly. "I'm calling the DA right now. And then, I'm going to have a very long, very unpleasant conversation with my brother-in-law."
"Don't just talk to him, Paul," Eleanor said, turning her head to look fiercely at the detective. "Destroy him. Bring his sins to the light."
