The Closer Bell — Case 35: The Quiet Floor

Laid up on a hospital step-down floor with cracked ribs and pneumonia, retired detective Gus Bell can't sleep — and Mildred, on his tray table, starts counting the soft three-note chimes of SENTRY, the early-warning AI, and the footsteps that should follow them. Some nights, after 2 a.m., there are no footsteps: only two keystrokes, and a patient no one goes to see.