Chapter 2 - the thing sewn into the hoodie
Daniel refused to let campus security take the evidence bag.
Harlan Reed did not like that.
He hid it well.
But not well enough.
“You’re interfering with an active investigation,” Harlan said.
Daniel stood between him and Lily’s belongings.
“Then call Richmond County.”
“Whitfield falls under—”
“Call them.”
Erin looked toward Jenna.
Jenna quietly stepped into the hallway.
Three minutes later, county dispatch confirmed that the hospital itself had already requested an outside law-enforcement response because of the severity of Lily’s injuries.
Harlan’s expression changed.
“You called county police?”
Jenna met his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because someone nearly beat a nineteen-year-old woman to death.”
No one said anything after that.
Detective Maya Brooks arrived twenty-six minutes later.
She was forty, tired-looking, rain-soaked, and instantly suspicious of everyone.
Daniel liked her immediately.
She listened.
Looked at Lily.
Looked at the X-ray.
Looked at the evidence bag.
Then asked Harlan:
“Who collected the hoodie?”
“One of my officers.”
“Name?”
“Officer Kyle Warren.”
“Body camera?”
“Yes.”
“Footage?”
Harlan hesitated.
Maya noticed.
“Available?”
“I’ll have to verify.”
“Verify quickly.”
Harlan folded his arms.
“This is still Whitfield property.”
Maya looked at him.
“The campus is property. A felony assault is not.”
That ended the argument.
Harlan left.
Daniel watched him go.
Maya noticed that too.
“You don’t like him.”
“My daughter is afraid of him.”
“Did she identify him as the attacker?”
“No.”
“Then don’t make that leap yet.”
Daniel hated the restraint.
He respected it.
Maya collected the hoodie under formal chain-of-custody procedure.
Because Lily had specifically indicated something was hidden inside, the bag was opened in front of witnesses.
The torn shoulder seam had a small lump inside the lining.
Jenna found sterile scissors.
Maya cut carefully.
A metal object dropped onto the evidence tray.
A microSD card.
No one spoke.
Daniel looked toward Lily.
“You put that there?”
She blinked.
Yes.
Maya leaned closer.
“When?”
Lily’s fingers moved weakly.
She could not write yet because of medication and pain.
Jenna brought a simple letter board.
Lily pointed slowly.
B.
E.
F.
O.
R.
E.
Before.
“Before the attack?” Maya asked.
Yes.
Daniel stared.
Lily had hidden the card before anyone hurt her.
That meant she had expected trouble.
“You knew someone might come after you?”
Lily closed her eyes.
One blink.
Yes.
Daniel felt betrayed and terrified at the same time.
“What were you involved in?”
She opened her eye again.
Then pointed to letters.
L.
A.
B.
“Lab?”
Yes.
Maya bagged the memory card.
“What lab?”
Lily pointed again.
B.
Maya wrote it down.
“B-17?”
Yes.
Daniel frowned.
Whitfield’s new science complex had basement research rooms.
He remembered Lily mentioning she worked part-time in a behavioral-neuroscience lab.
But he had never heard B-17.
“What is B-17?”
Lily stopped.
Her hand trembled.
Then she pointed at the door again.
Maya understood.
“You don’t want to answer while campus personnel might be nearby.”
Yes.
Maya ordered the room placed on restricted access.
Only hospital staff, Daniel, and county investigators.
No campus security.
Harlan complained.
Maya ignored him.
The card went to digital forensics.
Lily went to surgery.
Daniel watched the double doors close behind her stretcher and felt as though someone had removed the floor from beneath him.
Maya sat beside him in the waiting room.
“Tell me about Lily.”
“She’s nineteen.”
“I know.”
“She’s a sophomore. Biology major. Wants medical school.”
“Friends?”
“Some.”
“Boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Anyone threatening her?”
“Not that I knew.”
“Problems with professors?”
“No.”
“Research?”
“She started assisting in a lab last semester.”
“Whose?”
Daniel searched his memory.
“Dr. Adrian Keller.”
Maya wrote the name.
“What does Keller study?”
“Memory. Sleep. Something neurological.”
“Human subjects?”
“I don’t know.”
That bothered both of them.
At 2:18 a.m., digital forensics called.
The microSD card was encrypted.
Not university encryption.
Lily’s own.
But the file names were visible.
Thirty-two video clips.
Eleven spreadsheets.
A folder called PATIENT ZERO.
A folder called CONSENT.
And one document titled:
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME.
Daniel stared at Maya.
“Open that.”
“We need the password.”
Daniel tried birthdays.
Noah—no, no Noah in story. Lily's mother maybe Sarah. He tried his birthday. Lily’s birthday. Her childhood dog.
Nothing.
Then he remembered a phrase Lily used whenever he worried too much before exams.
“Six impossible things.”
Maya looked at him.
“What?”
“Her mother used to read her Alice in Wonderland.”
Daniel typed:
siximpossiblethings
Wrong.
He tried:
6impossiblethings
The card unlocked.
Maya stared at the screen.
The document appeared.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, DO NOT GIVE THIS TO CAMPUS SECURITY.
CAPTAIN REED KNOWS.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Then the next line appeared.
May you like
BUT HE IS NOT THE PERSON I’M AFRAID OF.
👉 Lily had deliberately hidden evidence before the attack and warned that Captain Reed knew about the danger—but the person she truly feared was someone else.
