Page 50 of Till Death Do Us Part

Matt stepped forward, his expression serious. "John, we need you to try and remember."

"I am trying, dang it," he said and winced in pain.

"Where are the children?" I asked.

He gave me a look, eyes narrow, a frown between his brows. "What children?"

"He's playing us,” Matt said. "Don't buy into it."

Matt approached John. “Your children… Thomas and the twins. You hid them somewhere so their grandmother couldn't see them. We need to know that they're okay—that you didn't hurt them."

John's face contorted with confusion and pain. "I… I don't have any children," he said, his voice almost a whisper. "What are you talking about?"

Matt and I exchanged a look of disbelief. How could he not remember his own children? Unless he was lying to us.

"John, you had the children," I said sternly. "You were hiding them from their grandmother. We need you to tell us where they are and whether they're safe."

John's eyes widened in fear, and he tried to sit up, but Dr. Calhoun gently pushed him back down. "You need to rest, John," he said. "Your injuries are serious."

But John was frantic now, his eyes darting around the room. "I don't have any children!" he exclaimed. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Please, don't anger my patient,” the doctor said. "He’s in no condition to be agitated right now. You’ll have to come back and ask him questions later."

"I swear, I don't remember," John added. "I don’t recall any of this."

"Not even your wife?" Matt asked. "Who went missing and was found dead in your storage unit? The one you had rented?"

John looked at us, perplexed. "What? Rachel is dead?"

"Oh, so you do remember your wife," Matt said.

"Yes, of course, I remember her. We were just married a few months ago."

"It would appear that the patient is suffering from some sort of memory loss,” Dr. Calhoun said. "I think we need to evaluate him to determine how severe this is. I will have to ask you to leave for now. His health is more important, to me at least."

Matt and I exchanged another look. This wasn't going anywhere. We needed to find another way to get the information. I motioned for Matt to follow me out of the room before turning to Dr. Calhoun.

"Doctor, do you know if John had any visitors during his stay here?" I asked.

He thought for a moment before nodding. "There was a woman who came to see him yesterday. She asked about him downstairs but was told that she couldn't see him since he was in the ICU and in police custody. Only immediate family was allowed in. I was there to talk to a patient's relatives when I heard her ask for him. She left without leaving her name, but I remember overhearing the conversation."

"Can you describe her to us?" Matt asked.

Dr. Calhoun furrowed his brows, trying to recall the woman's features. "She had long black hair and big brown eyes. She was wearing a red top and small jeans shorts.”

"Matt and I need to find this woman," I said. "Can you give us the security footage from the day she visited?"

“Of course. If you’ll just come with me, I’ll show you to our security room.”

Chapter46

Kyla and her mom tiptoed down the hospital corridor, glancing left and right for any sign of a guard or nurse. They had used Rachel’s card to get in through the back way. Since she was a nurse practitioner, she had access to areas most people didn’t. Her mom said she had taken it from Rachel’s belongings at the house.

The hallway’s darkness was broken up by harsh fluorescent lighting, casting a bluish-green hue onto the walls. Kyla’s mother marched forward with purpose while Kyla tried to keep up, her stomach churning with trepidation. She knew what her mother had in mind—run into John’s room, confront him about what he did to Rachel, and make him tell where he hid the children. They had heard he was awake and able to talk.

Kyla thought it was an awful idea. She wanted to grab her mom's arm and yank her back, but the determined look on her mom’s face made it clear that there would be no stopping her this time. As the police officer sitting outside the room left to get coffee, they snuck past him.

The room was illuminated only by the faint flickering of a nightlight, and John lay in his bed as still as a statue. Suddenly, his eyes fluttered open, and he blinked several times, trying to adjust to the dim light. Kyla's mom stalked forward like an angry lioness, her gaze sharp enough to cut through the darkness.

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