Chapter 6: The Theatre Log

The archive was in the basement of the old wing, past the linen room and down a corridor with no windows.

I got in with a research access badge that Martin's supervisor had signed off.

The woman at the desk looked at the badge and then at my face and then at the badge again.

"Records room three," she said. "Sign the book."

I signed the book as Lucas Vaughn.

The room had six desks and four of them were empty and the air was too warm.

A man in a cardigan was asleep in the corner with a journal over his face.

I sat down at the desk nearest the wall and opened the terminal.

The hospital records system came up in a blue box I'd used a hundred times.

I knew this system better than the people who ran it.

I'd written two of the audit protocols for it in my last year as a consultant.

Nobody had ever taken my name off the admin list.

I typed my old login out of habit and stopped.

Then I typed it anyway.

It let me in.

I sat there for a moment with my hands off the keyboard.

Eleven weeks ago I'd walked out of this building in a coat with my stethoscope in the pocket.

Nobody had thought to close the door behind me.

I went to the theatre records and pulled up Theatre Four for the date.

There was the entry. Two ten a.m. Arthur Red, entering.

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