Chapter 6 - THE NURSE WHO REFUSED TO FORGET|
Nora Whitcomb answered her apartment door holding a baseball bat.
"Who sent you?"
Detective Ellis immediately raised her identification.
"Chicago Police Department."
"We'd like to talk about Rosa Moretti."
The woman's face changed.
For a moment, I thought she might slam the door.
Instead, she lowered the bat.
"Three years," she whispered.
"I've waited three years for someone to say that name."
Nora lived in a modest apartment above a neighborhood pharmacy on Chicago's North Side.
She was in her late fifties, with silver-streaked hair and tired blue eyes.
She no longer worked at St. Catherine's.
After questioning Rosa Moretti's death, she had been removed from the hospital's cardiac unit.
Months later, she resigned.
Now she worked part-time at a community clinic.
Luca stood beside Detective Ellis as Nora led us into her small living room.
I remained near the doorway, keeping my hands folded.
Nora looked at Luca for a long time.
"You have your mother's eyes."
Luca swallowed.
"You knew her?"
"I was her nurse."
"She was frightened, but she wasn't confused."
Nora sat down.
"She kept asking whether her husband had arrived."
"She said she needed to give him something."
Luca leaned forward.
"What happened to her?"
Nora looked at Ellis.
"Are you recording this?"
"With your permission."
Nora nodded.
"Then I'll tell you everything."
She explained that Rosa had been admitted after a fall.
Although she needed medical observation, she had been conscious and able to speak.
Nora remembered Rosa insisting that she wanted doctors to do everything medically appropriate to keep her alive.
But later that evening, an instruction appeared in her chart limiting emergency treatment.
Nora had never heard Rosa authorize such a change.
"And you reported it?" Ellis asked.
"Immediately."
"To whom?"
"Dr. Adrian Vale."
Nora's expression became bitter.
"He told me the family had made the decision."
"But Rosa had been answering questions herself."
"I told him that."
"What did he say?"
"He ordered me to leave the room."
Luca's face darkened.
Nora continued.
"Shortly afterward, Rosa's condition deteriorated."
"By the time I was allowed back inside, she was unconscious."
I saw Luca grip the arm of his chair.
Nora looked at him sadly.
"I tried to get help."
"Dr. Vale told me the treatment limitations had already been approved."
"Then he ordered me to stop interfering."
Luca stood so quickly that his chair scraped the floor.
Detective Ellis immediately spoke.
"Mr. Moretti."
He froze.
His breathing was heavy.
I approached him carefully.
"Luca."
It was the first time I'd addressed him without his title.
He looked at me.
"Your mother deserves the truth."
"But she also deserves for you to stay here and hear it."
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he sat down.
Nora wiped her eyes.
"I believe Rosa was deliberately denied care during a medical emergency."
"Whether the original medical crisis was caused intentionally is something investigators will have to establish."
"But I know those records were changed."
She reached beneath her sofa and removed a worn cardboard folder.
Inside were copies of notes she had made during her final shifts at St. Catherine's.
They included dates, times, names, and the concerns she had reported to her supervisor.
"I kept these because I knew somebody would eventually ask."
Detective Ellis accepted the folder carefully.
"These could be important."
Nora nodded.
"The hospital's official records don't match my notes."
"Rosa's supposed treatment limitation appeared after I'd already documented her asking for full care."
I felt a chill.
"Could someone have added it later?"
"That's what I suspected."
"Hospital systems record changes."
"But the administration refused to give me access to the audit history."
Luca leaned forward.
"Who was in the room with Dr. Vale?"
Nora looked toward the window.
"Victor Bellini came first."
"Then a young woman arrived carrying documents."
"She said she worked for Victor's legal office."
"Vanessa," Luca whispered.
Nora nodded.
"That was her name."
"She was the person who brought the authorization papers."
The room became silent.
Luca looked as though he'd been struck.
Vanessa hadn't merely known his mother.
She had participated in the events surrounding her death.
"Why didn't you contact the police?" he asked.
Nora lowered her head.
"I did."
"I reported my concerns."
"But I couldn't prove what happened, and the hospital insisted the records were accurate."
"Then my supervisor told me I was risking my license."
She looked at him.
"I called your father because I thought he might listen."
"He didn't."
Luca closed his eyes.
I could see the pain on his face.
But Nora wasn't finished.
"There's something else."
She stood and walked toward a narrow bookshelf.
From behind a framed picture, she removed a small envelope.
"Rosa gave me this before she became unconscious."
"She told me to give it to her son if anything happened."
"Why didn't you send it?"
Nora looked ashamed.
"I tried."
"But the man who came to my apartment afterward said my family would be harmed if I got involved again."
"Who was he?" Ellis asked.
"I never learned his name."
Nora placed the envelope on the table.
Luca stared at it.
He seemed almost afraid to touch it.
Finally, he opened the flap.
Inside was a single handwritten page.
Rosa's handwriting was unmistakable.
Luca, if I cannot tell you what I've discovered, find the original deed from Hamilton Court.
Victor believes I destroyed it.
I didn't.
The document proves he never had the right to sell those buildings.
And the second medical chart proves something far worse.
Luca read the final sentence aloud.
"The man your father trusted with our properties is the same man who arranged for me to be silenced."
Nora watched him carefully.
Then she spoke the words that changed everything.
May you like
"Your mother knew she might not leave that hospital alive."
"And she was still trying to protect people who had no idea they were in danger."
