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seen her take Christopher’s blood and put it into
a vial with a bright blue cap.
    Sweat
broke out on his forehead. Of course, why hadn’t he thought of the obvious? Some
clinics sent their specimens to an outside laboratory.
    Shit,
now what was he going to do? He tapped his fingers on the desk nearby as the
sound of sirens got closer. He had to find what lab Charlotte used. That meant
seeing her again or at least speaking to her, and all without raising any
suspicions.
    Judging
by the sound, the police car was only a few blocks away now. He sprinted down
the hallway and then out the back door.   Aiden
managed to get into his car and was half a block away before he passed the
first police car.
    Fuck,
he thought that would take care of everything, but if he couldn’t get that
blood back they might all be finished.

Chapter Five
     
    Charlotte
pounded at the alarm clock button with her fist, but the damn thing wouldn’t
die. The shrill sound continued to fill her bedroom. She finally admitted
defeat and flopped over on her back. The room was pitch-black. Peeking at the
gap in the drapes, she noticed it was still dark outside.   That was strange because her alarm was always
set for 7:00 a.m. and at this time of the year it was usually lighter than this
in the morning. She flopped on her side again looking at the object in
question. It was just past midnight, and the sound wasn’t coming from her alarm
clock, but the phone next to it.
    Whoever
was calling wasn’t giving up or in the mood for leaving a message on her voice
mail. The clinic didn’t offer after-hours emergency service, so it wasn’t
connected to that. Anyone needing medical assistance past 6:00 p.m. was told to
go to the nearest ER. Charlotte sat up, flipped on the light and squinted while
reaching for the phone, saying a silent prayer that everything was okay with
her dad.
    “Hello.”
    “Dr.
Delaney?”
    “Yes,
speaking.”
    “I’m
the deputy sheriff Brenner of Outlook Valley, and there’s been a break in at
the clinic.”
    Shit.
She ran her hands through her hair. Had she said that out loud or just thought
it? Hard to tell at this time of the morning.
    “If
it’s not too much trouble, we’d like you to come to the clinic and tell us
what’s missing. We assume this is drug related, but we want to be sure.”
    “You
mean right now?”
    “It
could wait, but the alarm’s been set off and probably you need to reset and arm
it.”
    So much for crawling into bed for a nice
long sleep.
    “Okay,
give me about twenty minutes and I’ll be there.”
    ****
    Charlotte
was thankful for one thing. She’d actually found a coffee shop open at this
ungodly hour. She took a sip before getting out of her car and heading up the
path to the clinic. If it wasn’t for the caffeine making its way through her
system, she’d been dead to the world right now.
    “Dr.
Delaney.”
    A
man in his upper fifties with thinning hair and a pouch of a belly with a muffin
top held out his hand to her.
    “Yes.
Are you Deputy Brenner?”
    “Yes, ma’am and so sorry to call you out
at this hour of the morning.”
    “No
problem. So what would you like me to do?”
    “Could
you check if anything’s missing? Looks like the drug cabinet was opened so maybe you could start there.”
    Charlotte
walked along the corridor noting that the lab door, that she distinctly
remembered closing before she left, was now wide open. However, she didn’t
think it was worth mentioning because it didn’t house anything that you could
sell or get you high. She walked down on the hallway to the drug storage
cupboard and straight away she could see that several bottles were missing.
    “Yes,
looks like they broke in for some drugs,” said Charlotte the deputy standing
behind her.
    “Yeah, the usual thing. No alarm system
seems to deter them these days. We’ll give you a police report to give to the
insurance company. And if you want to have a quick look around and see if
anything else is