Chapter 37 - Dr. Shaw’s Explanation
Dr. Shaw agreed to meet the investigator at a federal office after the clinic’s security footage showed her attorney’s assistant requesting Jonah’s file without proper authorization.
She arrived with two lawyers and a cane. She was in her eighties, but her voice remained clear and firm.
“I never authorized anyone to erase Ms. Bell,” she said.
“You authorized a temporary identity adjustment,” the investigator replied, showing her the memo.
“To protect a source while the field team was still in danger.”
“You signed a transfer document under an alias.”
“I followed the emergency protocol.”
“Did you tell Nadia?”
“She was injured.”
“Did you tell Claire Whitaker?”
“I believed she had been briefed.”
I looked at her. “I was told the patient was receiving care and would be consulted when stable. I was never told her name had been changed.”
Dr. Shaw’s lawyers shifted in their chairs. She studied me carefully.
“You were under significant stress after the operation,” she said. “Your team was fractured. Harlan told me you agreed to the temporary procedure.”
“I did, with limits. The recording shows that.”
She looked toward her attorney, who advised her not to answer further.
The investigator placed the second recording on the table. Dr. Shaw listened to Harlan say that I would not remember enough to challenge the decision.
Her expression changed, but only slightly.
“I didn’t hear that,” she said.
“Did you know they planned to keep Nadia’s identity hidden indefinitely?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did your assistant try to obtain Jonah Vale’s file?”
“I did not instruct him to.”
“Do you know why he used your name?”
“I can’t explain his actions.”
She stood, ending the interview. The investigator warned her that the inquiry would continue and that the attempted file request had been documented.
In the hallway, Dr. Shaw approached me while her attorneys were distracted.
“I thought I was protecting people,” she said quietly. “Harlan assured me the records would be corrected.”
“Why didn’t you check?”
“I was responsible for the medical unit, not the intelligence review.”
“That distinction let you walk away.”
She looked down. “Yes.”
Nadia had been waiting by the elevator. She heard the last sentence.
“Do you know where Jonah is now?” she asked Dr. Shaw.
“I don’t.”
“Did you approve moving him?”
“I signed an emergency authorization. I was told he had a safe contact.”
“Who told you?”
“Warren Harlan.”
“Was it true?”
“I don’t know.”
The elevator doors opened. Dr. Shaw stepped inside without offering another explanation.
On the ride home, Nadia said, “She admits just enough to feel honest, then stops before it costs her.”
“She may genuinely not know everything.”
“That doesn’t make it enough.”
I looked out the window at the passing trees. “No. It doesn’t.”
At the farm, Ethan told us that the inspector general had traced Voss’s company payments to several people involved in HARBOR. The payments were not labeled as bribes, but they appeared shortly after each person signed or approved a record change.
One payment went to Peter Laird. Another went to Helena Marsh. A third went to an account connected to Harlan’s estate.
“What does that prove?” Nadia asked.
“It proves money moved,” Ethan said. “The investigation still has to establish why.”
The committee scheduled another hearing.
Before it could begin, Jonah sent Nadia a scanned page from his old clinic file. It described his transfer to a new location and included a handwritten note:
May you like
Do not reunite him with Bell or Whitaker.
The note carried Dr. Shaw’s initials.
