Prodigal Son

Chapter 31

Felicity hesitated outside Oliver's darkened hospital room, peering in from the hall. The police and the paramedics coming from the nearby fire had arrived at Verdant not long after Diggle. Oliver got the second ambulance, the first one going to Carina, who surprisingly was still holding on. Word was she'd survived surgery and barring complications would be around to stand trial.

Tommy, still slightly drunk, was found right where Carina said she'd left him. He rode in with Oliver to the hospital so he could get checked out in the ER. Like Oliver, he'd been hit from behind. Turned out, the thick glass on the bottom of a premium bottle of vodka made a club hard as a cinderblock.

Lucky for Tommy, he'd only received a glancing blow. He was examined, given a few stitches and released as long as he had someone that could wake him periodically during the night. Verdant wasn't an option with the whole place taped off as a crime scene. Moira insisted he come to the mansion. Tommy refused and Roy ended up being the one keeping an eye on him back at his motel room.

Before Oliver took his ride to the hospital, he'd been slipping in and out of consciousness. Unsurprisingly, the doctors ruled he had a concussion. Starling General was keeping him overnight for observation and would decide the next day when he could go home.

Or at least that was all the news Thea texted her.

Felicity hadn't talked to Oliver since he'd been whisked away. She'd spent hours at the police station answering the same questions again and again. Diggle had been able to back up some of what she told them, but the police had been highly skeptical. Same with the short statement they'd taken from Oliver at the hospital, convinced he'd lie for her.

As for Ashley Dickerson having anything to do with George Patel's murder and or the Malcolm Merlyn connection, they'd outright laughed...until Felicity figured out Dickerson must have installed her own surveillance in Verdant like she'd had in the townhome.

It had been something Ashley said. She claimed to have seen Carina take the cell phone before Felicity could press a button, but hiding on the second floor as Dickerson had been doing, she couldn't have seen anything. There were no sightlines from the VIP section to the loading dock or the storage area.

Everyone knew Tommy didn't even have his own video system to tap into. The outside of his club, yes, but inside his "what happens at Verdant stays at Verdant" stance was part of his marketing.

The detectives weren't exactly eager to believe her claim of a secret feed, but that was what lawyers were for and Jean Loring made sure they investigated her claim immediately.

She waited while they ran a signal sweeper through the club and eventually they found the hidden surveillance worked into the wiring for the sound equipment. Up in the VIP lounge they even put two and two together and realized the tablet they'd found abandoned there might have come from the suspect. The SCPD opened it up and found it not only tapped into the feed, but linked to a backup of past recordings. With the timeline Felicity gave them, it didn't take them long to find the proof she needed.

It was all there. Ashley's confession of Patel's murder, shooting Carina, trying to kill them, and her admission of framing both Felicity and Tommy.

Felicity checked the hospital corridor again. Still quiet. She'd passed Moira and Thea in the family waiting room, one asleep on the couch and the other curled up in a chair. She envied them; she was exhausted. It was late. An hour past late and well past visiting hours even if she had been family and officially allowed to visit, but she'd risked the wrath of any real life Nurse Ratchet and came anyway.