The Venus Trap - COMPLETED (The 1st Installment of The Derek Welsh Trilogy)

Chapter 29

Wednesday 11th

Derek watched as Rita fell asleep and her breaths were steady. Rita seemed to be back to her normal self although Derek sensed that she was still shaken and keeping something from him. Derek decided to talk about it later when Rita already left the hospital. Her doctor visited them while Derek was still with her and had discharged her for tomorrow. Derek decided to wait a while before he went home, and he would be back here to pick Rita up first thing in the morning. He sat there with his assistant for about half an hour more and when he thought that Rita was already deep in her sleep, he stepped out.

He walked past Lindsay's room and Derek peeked inside from the little window on the door. Lindsay was talking intensely with Alex. Alex's back was facing him, and a man walked past both girls. It was Glenn. He was still there, the bastard, Derek thought. He left the room and walked away towards the waiting area to find Patricia or Lucas.

He found both of them plus Ben Foster sitting together, huddled up in a corner not far from Tim Moreland's room. They all looked serious and grim. Patricia lifted her face and she saw Derek. She motioned him to join them with her hand.

"How's the shoulder?" Patricia asked.

"It's fine," Derek shrugged while taking a seat next to Lucas. "So, any progress?" he asked to the three of them.

"Tim Moreland's lawyer is inside with him now. Then we will proceed. But Derek, we've...." Patricia's words were lost in the middle of sentence because she was looking at Lucas, as if seeking approval.

Lucas nodded. And he turned to Derek while giving him a tablet.

"What?" Derek received the tablet.

He read what's on it. A list of names with doses of medicine. Likely they were all patients of Dr. Ryuto Deguchi, since it was his name that was written on the header as the administering physician.

"What am I looking at here?" he asked, confused.

"We think we know who the mole is. But it is a bit complicated. It's just a theory for now, but if we were right, we don't want them to get to Dr. Moreland first before he ever testifies," Patricia said. "There are only the four of us here. Me, Lucas, Ben and Angelo. But I'm going to need Ben and Angelo to be in charge with guarding Moreland. There is no one left that I could trust."

"We need all the help we can get. I know that I am breaking protocol here, but...." Lucas continued. "We're asking you a favor."

They explained the situation to Derek. Patricia pointed a number on the tablet and Derek read the name of a patient. He could make the connections now on how Patricia, Lucas and Ben made the deduction of who the mole was and who else might be involved. Now, all they had to do was to prove it.

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Thursday 12th

Patricia was watching Ben shifted in his seat. He was on the driver's seat while Patricia sitting next to him. Their car was warm enough, so Patricia pulled down her window a little bit to let some fresh air in. The noise from the traffic outside seeped through the gap of her window. It had stopped raining, leaving traces of little crystal dots in the windshield.

Patricia switched on the wiper to clean it and to give them a better view. She crossed her leg and crossed it again. Both of their eyes were set on the flat on the opposite side, in SSZ. They had been waiting there for almost an hour but the person that they were waiting for hadn't shown up yet.

The bags under Ben's eyes were dark purple. Not so much different from Patricia's. Both of them smelled like rose and mint, courtesy of the nurses' toiletries they had used when using the shower in the hospital. Lucas had to stay put to supervise Tim Moreland. The room he was in was too small and they wanted to put his family there for safety reason and to make Moreland cooperate better. So, Patricia had requested Moreland to be moved to a suite on the fourth floor.