Chapter 8
Derek survived the gunshot.
The bullet passed through his shoulder without striking an artery.
Doctors said he was lucky.
I did not know whether luck was the right word.
His mother had pushed him in front of a gun.
His uncle had pulled the trigger.
The wife he betrayed was the person who pressed her hands against his wound until paramedics arrived.
As they carried him away, he whispered an address.
“Old Harbor Road. Number eighty-six.”
“What is there?”
“Uncle Daniel’s house.”
Price and Diane escaped Meridian headquarters through an underground garage.
Police found their vehicle six blocks away.
My father’s ring was not inside.
Neither were they.
Cole sent agents to the Old Harbor Road address.
The house was empty.
But the basement contained photographs of me, Derek, Ruth, Margaret and Philip.
Some had been taken years before Derek met me.
One photograph showed me at my father’s funeral.
Derek stood far behind the mourners.
He had watched me bury my father before pretending we met by chance.
I sat beside his hospital bed the next morning.
Two guards waited outside.
He opened his eyes.
“You came.”
“I need answers.”
He looked disappointed.
“You should not expect comfort from me.”
“I don’t deserve it.”
I placed the funeral photograph on his blanket.
“How long were you watching me?”
“My mother took me to the funeral.”
“Why?”
“She wanted me to see the daughter of the man she blamed for my father’s disappearance.”
“You were already part of her plan.”
“I was twenty-three and angry.”
“You met me five years later.”
“She told me to apply to Meridian. Voss arranged the charity auction.”
Every happy memory became another calculated step.
“Why marry me?”
“At first, to gain access to the apartment.”
“And later?”
“I loved you.”
“You do not hurt someone you love because she refuses to obey.”
“I know.”
“You did not lose control, Derek. You made a choice.”
He stared at his hands.
“My mother spent years teaching me that anger was proof of strength.”
“You are responsible for what you did with that lesson.”
“Yes.”
The simple answer surprised me.
No excuse.
No demand for forgiveness.
Just yes.
“What does Price want with my father’s ring?”
“The seal can authorize the audit,” Derek said. “But it can also cancel the trust’s voting rights if used with your biometric signature.”
“My fingerprint?”
“And your voice.”
“They need me alive.”
“Until you authorize the cancellation.”
“Where will they take me?”
Derek looked toward the door.
“There is one place Voss controls that does not appear in Meridian’s records.”
“Where?”
“My mother’s house in Weston.”
“It has already been searched.”
“Not the room beneath it.”
The house had belonged to Diane for fifteen years.
I had attended holidays there.
I had slept in the guest room.
I never knew a secure chamber existed under the garage.
Cole obtained a warrant.
A tactical team entered that afternoon.
The hidden chamber was empty.
But its walls contained monitors connected to cameras across Boston.
One camera watched the entrance to my apartment.
Another showed Ruth’s building.
A third showed Philip’s hospital room.
The most disturbing feed showed the secure federal office where Margaret was currently sitting.
“Someone inside the building installed that camera,” Rachel said.
The conspiracy had not ended with Price’s disappearance.
Cole ordered a sweep.
Agents found the device above a ceiling tile.
Its network cable led to an office used by Deputy Director Samuel Ward.
Ward’s name appeared on my father’s final page.
He was arrested before he could leave the building.
Inside his briefcase, agents found a second phone.
It contained one message from Price.
Bring Elena to Weston at nine. Make it look protective.
Ward had been ordered to deliver me.
Rachel questioned him for hours.
He admitted helping Meridian bury investigations for twelve years.
He claimed he did not know where Voss was.
But he knew where Price planned to take Diane.
A private marina in Gloucester.
A boat was scheduled to leave for Canada at midnight.
Federal teams moved immediately.
I remained at headquarters with Margaret.
At eleven fifteen, Cole called.
They had found Diane at the marina.
She was alone, locked inside the trunk of a car.
Price had taken the boat without her.
The ring was gone.
Diane demanded to speak with me.
I should have refused.
Instead, I went to the interview room.
She sat beneath a fluorescent light with a blanket around her shoulders.
There were bruises on her face.
When I entered, she laughed.
“You look disappointed.”
“I was hoping you had finally understood what it feels like to be helpless.”
“Daniel surprised me.”
“You pushed your own son in front of his gun.”
“I knew he would aim high.”
“You used Derek as a shield.”
“And you ran to save him.”
“I stopped a man from dying. That does not mean I forgive him.”
Diane leaned back.
“He will always choose me.”
“He chose to record you.”
“Because you manipulated him.”
“No. He finally saw you.”
Her expression hardened.
“What do you want?”
“My ring.”
“Daniel has it.”
“Where is he going?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then you are useless to both sides.”
I stood.
“Wait.”
I stopped at the door.
Diane looked down at the table.
“Daniel is taking it to Charles.”
“Where?”
“Charles owns an island estate off the Maine coast.”
Cole entered.
“What is the location?”
“I want immunity.”
“You are not getting it.”
“Then enjoy searching the Atlantic.”
I returned to the table.
“You told me my father destroyed families. You used that lie to turn your son into a weapon.”
“Thomas took Philip from me.”
“Philip ran because you tried to kill him.”
“He was going to take Derek.”
“He wanted to protect him.”
Diane’s eyes filled with sudden rage.
“Philip wanted to expose everything. He would have left me with nothing.”
“So you chose money.”
“I chose survival.”
“You chose yourself. Every time.”
She looked away.
I lowered my voice.
“Price left you in a trunk. Voss will kill him as soon as he delivers the ring. Then every crime will lead back to you.”
“He needs Daniel.”
“No. He needs silence.”
Fear moved across her face.
I pushed a map toward her.
“Show us the island.”
Diane pointed to a spot near the Canadian border.
“Grayhaven Island.”
Cole immediately called the Coast Guard.
Rachel requested aircraft support.
A storm was moving along the coast, grounding smaller helicopters.
A federal cutter could reach the island before dawn.
Then my phone rang.
The hospital.
Philip Mercer had disappeared from his room.
The guard outside had been found unconscious.
Security footage showed Philip leaving in a wheelchair pushed by a hospital orderly.
The orderly removed his cap as they entered the parking garage.
It was Charles Voss.
Voss had been in Boston the entire time.
Grayhaven Island was a distraction.
Diane looked shocked when we showed her the footage.
Then she began laughing.
“You still don’t understand Charles.”
“What don’t we understand?”
“He does not run away from his enemies.”
She leaned toward the camera.
“He gathers them in one place.”
An alarm sounded throughout the federal building.
Smoke began pouring from the ventilation system.
Agents rushed into the hallway.
The lights flickered.
The doors automatically locked.
Cole tried his radio.
Nothing.
A message appeared on every computer screen.
COME HOME, ELENA.
A live video replaced it.
Voss stood inside my damaged apartment.
Philip was tied to a chair beside him.
Daniel Price held Margaret’s assistant at gunpoint.
And between them stood Derek in his hospital gown.
He had escaped from the hospital too.
Voss held my father’s ring against the camera.
“Midnight,” he said. “The Bennett apartment. Bring the final page.”
Derek lifted his head.
May you like
Then he said four words that made my blood run cold.
“Elena, don’t trust Margaret.”
