How Can I Kill Them with My Broken Arm? Chapter 11
Margaret was seated along one side of the long table. She caught my eye when I walked in and gave me a small nod
I found a seat and sat down.
The meeting began with a briefing on the past week’s investigation, followed by the medical examiner’s report, the tech unit’s surveillance analysis and the results of the review into Nina’s case files from the past eight months.
Every single item pointed to the same conclusion. Cole and Nina had systematically concealed medical malpractice, tampered with evidence, committed perjury and framed another person for their crimes.
Any one of those charges alone was enough to put them away for years.
When the briefing ended, the conference room fell silent for several seconds.
The hospital’s newly appointed chief administrator was Hugh Brannigan, a man in his mid-50s who had previously served on the state board of health and had a reputation for being uncompromising.
He leafed through the documents on the table, looked up, and let his gaze rest on Cole and Nina’s names before speaking.
“Beyond these two individuals, was anyone else inside the hospital involved?”
The air in the room seemed to vanish with that single question.
Everyone understood what he was really asking. Cole had not been able to operate unchecked at the state hospital for this long on his own authority as a surgeon. Someone had given him the access.
Someone had helped him delete records. Someone had smoothed things over with the families. The people sitting in this conference room had at least some idea of who that someone was.
No one spoke.
Hugh waited a few seconds. When the silence held, he turned to me.
“Vera, what’s your take?”
Every pair of eyes in the room shifted in my direction.
I was quiet for a moment, then I spoke.
“Mr. Brannigan, I believe this investigation needs to go all the way.”
“All the way meaning what?”
“Not just Cole and Nina. Not just this one incident. Not just the past eight months.” My voice was not loud, but every word landed clearly.
“I mean every medical incident at the state hospital over the past five years. Every malpractice dispute. Every altered medical record. Who approved them, who signed off on them, who stamped them. Every single one, with nothing left out.”
The conference room went so quiet that the only sound was the low hum of the fluorescent lights overhead.
A few sharp breaths and exchanged glances rippled through the room, and at least one person suddenly became very interested in the documents in front of them.
Hughed at me for a few seconds, and then a mille crossed his face. It was small, but it was genuine.
“Good” he said “We’ll do it Vere’s way’
Aher the meeting layer was waiting for me in the hallway
ere do you have any idea how bug of a homer’s nest you just kicked?”
“The roots at thar hospital go deeper than you think. Once you start digging, what comes up might not stop at
Colle
Manganer sighed and gave my uninjured left arm a pat
“Then dig
I walked out through the front doors of the state board of health. The sun was bright and the breeze was cool.
My phone buzzed once. It was a text from an unknown number, just one line.
“Vere, you won
I looked at the message I did not reply, I did not block the number and I did not delete it. I took a screenshot and saned it to my photos
Then I slipped my phone back into my pocket and looked up at the sky.
It was a deep, clear blue, the same shade I had seen through the window of the execution chamber in my last life.
This time was different, though
This time I was still alive.
This time, I was the one who wOLL
