Chapter 7: Shadows in the Cabin
The hunting cabin smelled of cedar, old wool, and damp earth when we finally carried Cole inside and laid him out on a narrow iron-framed cot. The rain drummed a relentless, heavy beat against the tin roof, drowning out the distant rumble of thunder. I struck a match, lighting the single kerosene lamp on the wooden table to cast a warm, flickering glow across the sparse room. The brindle mastiff paced the wooden floorboards once before dropping heavily beside the cot, its eyes locked on the front door. Miller bolted the heavy deadbolt, sliding a rusted iron latch into place before checking the perimeter through a cracked window pane.
"The doors are secure, but we don't have electricity or a landline," Miller said, brushing rain from his jacket shoulders. "If Sterling’s people trace my cruiser plates, this place becomes a box with no way out."
I didn't answer right away. I was kneeling beside Cole, unwrapping the damp gauze on his chest to check his surgical stitches. The skin around the heavy tattoos was warm to the touch, a sign that the fever from the trauma was beginning to spike again. Cole opened his eyes, the gray irises catching the amber lamplight as he reached out a trembling hand to grip my wrist.
"The card..." Cole whispered, his voice rough and strained from lack of water. "In the lining... it proves where the trial funds went."
"I have it, Cole. Just rest," I said softly, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the tiny micro-SD card I had retrieved from his jacket back at the hospital.
May you like
I walked over to the wooden table where Miller had laid out an old laptop he kept in the cabin trunk. I slid the card into the reader, the screen flickering to life with a harsh blue glare that illuminated the dark corners of the room. Files populated the desktop—dozens of encrypted PDF ledgers, bank transfers, and internal memos bearing St. Jude Memorial letterheads. Miller leaned over my shoulder, his breath catching as the first document opened on the screen. It detailed millions of dollars funneled through shell corporations, directly linking Dr. Sterling and the hospital's executive board to an illegal pharmaceutical trial that Cole had been assigned to investigate.
"My God," Miller breathed, staring at the columns of numbers. "They weren't just treating patients. They were testing unapproved compounds on people who couldn't fight back."
