Chapter 6: The Sealed Folder

On Thursday night I took my break at three a.m. and did not go to the lounge.

I went down to the second floor instead, to the development office.

It was dark and smelled of toner and old coffee.

As foundation chair, I had a master card for every door on that hall.

Nobody had thought to take it back.

I stood in the doorway with the card in my hand and my heart going hard.

I told myself I was a nurse who had lost track of a receipt.

Then I went in and shut the door behind me.

The dedication files were in a gray cabinet at the back, and the cabinet had a lock.

The same card opened it.

The top drawer was marked PAVILION: GIFT AGREEMENTS in the development director's neat label.

I walked my fingers back through the folders, past the big donors, the hospital's trustees and a shipping family's five-year pledge.

The last folder was thin.

It was marked GADSDEN, and under the label someone had written SEALED in red.

I took it to the desk and turned on the small lamp.

Inside were three pages.

The first was a gift agreement, two paragraphs long, naming the Camille Gadsden Pavilion for Newborn Care in exchange for a ten-million-dollar gift.

It had two signatures at the bottom.

One was Camille's, in a loopy blue hand.

The other was Colt's.

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