Chapter 6
“Get down!”
Rebecca shoved me beneath the conference table.
The emergency lights flashed red.
Nora dropped beside me.
Daniel Monroe was pulled toward the wall by another agent.
For several seconds, nobody knew what was happening.
Then came shouting.
Doors slamming.
Footsteps.
Rebecca spoke into her radio.
“Status.”
Static.
“Status!”
A voice finally answered.
“Power failure. Backup systems active. Possible breach in the parking structure.”
My baby kicked hard beneath my ribs.
I wrapped both arms around my stomach.
Rebecca crouched beside me.
“You stay with Nora.”
“Where are you going?”
“To find out if this is connected.”
“Rebecca—”
She was already gone.
Nora looked at me.
“You really know how to choose husbands.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
It came out half hysterical.
“My next relationship is going to be with a houseplant.”
“That sounds healthier.”
Another alarm sounded.
Then the lights returned.
Ten minutes later Rebecca came back.
“No breach.”
“What happened?”
“Someone cut power to one external transformer.”
“Accident?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Distraction.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“For what?”
Rebecca looked toward the hallway.
“Keller’s gone.”
My stomach sank.
“What do you mean gone?”
“He was supposed to report to headquarters this morning. He never arrived. His government vehicle was found three blocks from his apartment.”
Nora asked, “Did he know you suspected him?”
“No.”
“Then something tipped him off.”
Rebecca’s jaw tightened.
I thought of the message.
YOU WERE NEVER THE ONLY INFORMANT.
Maybe that had not come from Adrian.
Maybe Keller had sent it.
To frighten me.
To remind me he was watching.
Daniel asked the question none of us wanted to ask.
“Does he have my daughter?”
“We don’t know.”
“I saw the video.”
“He drove away with her. That doesn’t prove she remained with him.”
Daniel slammed his fist against the wall.
“I should have protected her.”
I looked at him.
“Don’t do that.”
He stared at me.
“She’s my daughter.”
“And Adrian was my husband. We trusted the wrong people. Blaming ourselves helps them.”
For a moment, Daniel’s expression changed.
Then Rebecca’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
“Vivienne’s been located.”
“Where?”
“Her attorney’s office.”
I stared at her.
“She didn’t run?”
“She says she was preparing to surrender voluntarily.”
Nora snorted.
“How noble.”
“Agents are bringing her in.”
“Can I see her?”
“No.”
“Rebecca.”
“No.”
I knew that tone.
There would be no argument.
So I changed the question.
“Can I hear the interview?”
She hesitated.
Nora said, “My client may possess information useful for evaluating any statements Mrs. Blackwood makes.”
Rebecca frowned.
“You two are dangerous together.”
Twenty minutes later, I sat behind one-way glass.
Vivienne entered the interview room.
She looked immaculate.
Cream suit.
Pearl earrings.
Silver-blond hair perfectly styled.
No handcuffs.
Not yet.
Her attorney sat beside her.
Rebecca entered with another agent.
Vivienne smiled.
“Rebecca. How unpleasant to see you again.”
Rebecca placed several photographs on the table.
“Where is Lila Monroe?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you arrange for Agent Mark Keller to remove her?”
Vivienne blinked.
Only once.
But I saw it.
So did Rebecca.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You paid Keller.”
“Prove it.”
Rebecca slid a banking record forward.
“Three payments from a Blackwood consulting company to a corporation registered to Keller’s brother-in-law.”
Vivienne looked at the record.
Then at Rebecca.
“I own hundreds of companies.”
“Conrad does.”
“No, Agent Sloan.”
Vivienne leaned back.
“Conrad owns what I allow him to believe he owns.”
Behind the glass, Nora whispered, “There it is.”
Rebecca remained still.
“Tell me about the offshore account under your daughter-in-law’s name.”
“I decline.”
“Tell me about Dr. Pierce.”
“I decline.”
“Tell me why you needed her fertility records.”
“I decline.”
“Tell me why your son assaulted a pregnant woman in front of forty witnesses.”
For the first time, Vivienne’s face changed.
“My son has always had difficulty controlling his emotions.”
“You weaponized that.”
“I do not control Adrian.”
“No. You just teach him who to hurt.”
Vivienne’s attorney leaned forward.
“Agent Sloan—”
Vivienne raised one finger.
He stopped speaking.
Even her lawyer obeyed her.
Rebecca said, “Your family empire is finished.”
Vivienne smiled.
“Empires do not disappear because bureaucrats carry boxes out of a house.”
“They disappear when the money disappears.”
That smile weakened.
“We froze forty-seven accounts this morning.”
Vivienne’s eyes sharpened.
“Domestic only.”
Rebecca smiled.
“And six offshore.”
Silence.
For the first time, Vivienne looked afraid.
Barely.
But enough.
Rebecca leaned closer.
“Where is Lila?”
“I don’t know.”
“Keller took her.”
“Then ask Keller.”
“He’s missing.”
Vivienne looked toward the mirror.
Toward me.
Could she know I was there?
I suddenly felt as if she could see through the glass.
Then she said, “Mark Keller has always been unreliable.”
Rebecca froze.
“You said you didn’t know what I was talking about.”
Vivienne’s attorney closed his eyes.
Vivienne realized her mistake.
Too late.
Rebecca sat back.
“Thank you.”
The interview ended shortly afterward.
Vivienne was formally arrested for conspiracy, obstruction, identity theft, and several financial offenses.
As agents led her away, she turned once toward the one-way glass.
She smiled.
I hated that smile.
It was Adrian’s.
Or maybe Adrian’s had always been hers.
Nora and I were preparing to leave when Rebecca returned.
“We found Keller’s secondary phone.”
“Where?”
“In his apartment.”
“Anything useful?”
“One deleted text chain recovered.”
“With Vivienne?”
“Yes.”
She placed a transcript on the table.
Keller: RAID CONFIRMED 1400 THURSDAY.
Vivienne: GOOD.
Keller: YOUR DAUGHTER-IN-LAW IS STILL COOPERATING.
Vivienne: I KNOW.
Keller: THEN MOVE THE MONEY.
Vivienne: ALREADY PREPARED.
My breath caught.
Rebecca pointed farther down.
Keller: WHAT ABOUT THE GIRL?
Vivienne: LILA KNOWS TOO MUCH.
Keller: UNDERSTOOD.
Daniel, reading over my shoulder, went pale.
“What does understood mean?”
Rebecca said quietly, “We’re trying to find out.”
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
Rebecca activated recording equipment.
I answered.
“Hello?”
Breathing.
Then a weak voice.
“Please don’t hang up.”
“Lila?”
Daniel lunged toward me.
“My God.”
Rebecca gestured for silence.
“Lila, where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Her voice shook.
“Are you hurt?”
“My head.”
“Is Keller with you?”
Silence.
Then whispering.
“He left.”
“Where?”
“He said he had to fix something.”
“Can you see outside?”
“It’s dark.”
“Are you inside a building?”
“Yes.”
“What do you hear?”
Lila breathed.
I heard something through the phone.
A low mechanical rumble.
Then a horn.
Rebecca wrote something.
TRAIN?
Lila whispered, “Trains.”
Rebecca immediately began messaging a team.
“Anything else?” I asked.
“Water.”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know. I can smell it.”
Daniel was crying silently.
“Lila,” I said, “your dad is here.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t let him hear me like this.”
Daniel covered his mouth.
I looked at him.
“He loves you.”
A sob came through the phone.
“I ruined everything.”
“No.”
“I helped Adrian.”
“We can deal with that later.”
“I stole your documents.”
“I know.”
“I thought you were bad.”
“I know.”
“I watched him hit you.”
Her voice broke completely.
“I didn’t help.”
That one hurt.
I closed my eyes.
“No. You didn’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You can apologize after we find you.”
Rebecca held up a note.
ASK ABOUT LANDMARKS.
“Lila, think. Did you see anything when Keller brought you there?”
“I was in the back seat.”
“Any signs?”
“He drove across a bridge.”
“What kind?”
“Steel. Big.”
“Anything after that?”
“Warehouses.”
Rebecca was typing fast.
“Did he say anything?”
Lila became quiet.
Then whispered, “He was angry.”
“What did he say?”
“He kept saying Vivienne was making him clean up her family’s mess.”
Rebecca and I exchanged a look.
“Anything else?”
“He said he should’ve never taken money from Conrad.”
“Conrad?”
“Yes.”
Not Vivienne.
Another layer.
Another lie.
Then a sound came through the line.
A door.
Lila gasped.
“He’s back.”
Rebecca grabbed the phone from me.
“Lila, hide the phone.”
“I can’t.”
“Do it now.”
Footsteps.
A man’s voice.
“What are you doing?”
Lila screamed.
The call ended.
Daniel rushed toward the door.
“I’m going.”
Rebecca blocked him.
“My teams are already moving.”
“To where?”
“Industrial properties near the rail yards and river.”
“That’s half the city!”
“Let us work.”
Twenty-eight minutes later, they found the building.
An abandoned Blackwood shipping warehouse beside the freight tracks.
Daniel and I watched live radio updates from the conference room.
Agents entered.
No Keller.
Then one voice said the words I had been praying to hear.
“Female located. Alive.”
Daniel collapsed into a chair.
I started crying.
Rebecca put one hand on my shoulder.
“They have her.”
“What about Keller?”
“Gone.”
Lila was taken to a hospital under armed protection.
Her injuries were not life-threatening.
She had a cut on her scalp and bruising from being restrained, but she could talk.
And she wanted to talk.
Rebecca questioned her that evening.
This time, I was allowed to watch.
Lila looked smaller without the designer dress and perfect makeup.
Twenty-two.
That was all.
Twenty-two and terrified.
Rebecca asked, “What did Keller want from you?”
“The backup.”
“What backup?”
“The files I copied.”
“Where are they?”
Lila looked straight toward the camera.
“I gave them to her.”
I frowned.
Rebecca did too.
“To Mrs. Blackwood?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Lila shook her head.
“I didn’t know her name.”
“What did she look like?”
“Older. Maybe fifty. Red hair.”
My heart stopped.
I knew exactly one woman with red hair who knew about the case.
A woman who had attended every one of my secret meetings before Rebecca joined the investigation.
Deputy U.S. Attorney Caroline Voss.
The prosecutor overseeing the entire Blackwood case.
Rebecca went pale.
May you like
The corruption was not only inside the FBI.
It had reached the prosecutor’s office too.
