Chapter 9
Margaret stared at Derek’s image.
“He is trying to divide us.”
“Why would he warn me about you?” I asked.
“Because Voss told him to.”
The building’s emergency system unlocked the doors.
Fire crews discovered the smoke came from harmless theatrical canisters placed in the ventilation system.
The alarm had created panic.
It had also allowed Samuel Ward to escape federal custody.
We now had another traitor loose in Boston.
Cole ordered Margaret searched.
She protested but cooperated.
An agent found nothing on her body.
Then he opened her document box.
Beneath the files lay a tracking device.
Margaret looked stunned.
“I did not put that there.”
Rachel sealed it inside a signal-blocking pouch.
“Someone has been following every movement of the final page.”
“Who handled the box?” I asked.
“My assistant, Julia.”
Julia was the woman Daniel Price held in the apartment.
Either she had planted the tracker or someone used her to reach Margaret.
My phone received a text from Derek.
USE SERVICE TUNNEL. 11:40. COME ALONE.
Cole read it.
“It is a trap.”
“Everything is a trap.”
“We cannot allow you to enter that building.”
“They have Philip, Derek and Julia.”
“We will rescue them.”
“They control the cameras and tunnels.”
“So did Diane, and we caught her.”
“Price escaped.”
“Not tonight.”
Cole prepared a tactical operation.
Agents would enter through the roof and parking garage.
A smaller team would use the neighboring building to access my balcony.
I insisted on joining the service-tunnel team.
Rachel argued.
Cole threatened to restrain me.
Then Margaret placed the final page on the table.
“They need Elena’s voice and fingerprint. They will not begin until she arrives.”
“That makes her bait,” Cole said.
“It makes her leverage,” Margaret replied.
I made the decision.
At eleven thirty, I entered the maintenance tunnel beneath my building wearing a concealed vest and transmitter.
Cole followed at a distance.
The passage smelled of dust and smoke.
My father had once shown it to me during a building renovation.
He said every home should have a second exit.
I thought he was being overly cautious.
Now his caution was keeping me alive.
At eleven forty, the hidden door opened.
Derek stood on the other side.
His hospital gown was covered by a stolen coat.
His wounded arm hung in a sling.
He pulled me inside.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“You told me to.”
“I needed you close enough to hear me.”
“Where is Voss?”
“In the study.”
“And Margaret?”
“Did she come?”
“No.”
Relief crossed his face.
“My father told me she betrayed Thomas.”
“Philip said that?”
“He said Margaret told Daniel about the Providence meeting.”
I stepped back.
“My father trusted her.”
“He trusted Cole too.”
“Cole was framed.”
“So was my mother, according to her.”
“Do not compare them.”
Derek lowered his voice.
“I heard Voss and Price arguing. They said Margaret kept the final page because her name was removed from it.”
The document could have been altered.
Margaret had controlled it for eight years.
Before I could respond, footsteps approached.
Derek pulled me into the study.
Voss stood beside the burned desk.
Philip was tied to a chair.
Julia sat on the floor near the window.
Price held a gun.
Samuel Ward guarded the front door.
Four armed men controlled the apartment.
Every piece of broken furniture had been moved against the walls.
In the center of the room stood a scanner and a laptop.
My father’s ring rested beside them.
Voss smiled.
“Laura’s daughter finally comes home.”
“Release them.”
“After you dissolve the trust.”
“Where is my father’s letter?”
Voss gestured toward Price.
Price held up the envelope.
“You sign, you get the truth.”
“You burned my mother alive.”
Voss’s smile vanished.
“Your mother made the mistake of believing morality was stronger than power.”
“So you admit it.”
“I admit she made choices.”
Philip struggled against his restraints.
“Do not listen to him, Elena.”
Price struck him across the face.
Derek moved forward.
A gunman raised his weapon.
Voss pointed toward the scanner.
“Place your hand there.”
I removed the final page from my coat.
Price reached for it.
I pulled it back.
“The hostages leave first.”
“One hostage,” Voss said.
“Julia.”
He nodded.
Ward opened the apartment door.
Julia stood.
Before leaving, she looked at Margaret’s document box on the floor.
Then she looked at me.
“He knows,” she whispered.
Ward shoved her into the hallway.
“What does he know?” I asked.
Voss ignored me.
“Your hand.”
I placed my fingers on the scanner.
The laptop requested voice authorization.
A sentence appeared.
I, Elena Laura Bennett, relinquish all voting rights held by the Bennett Residential Trust.
I read only the first four words.
Then I stopped.
Price raised his gun.
“Finish it.”
“I want the letter.”
He threw the envelope across the floor.
I opened it.
My father’s handwriting filled several pages.
Elena,
Your mother died because she refused to let Charles Voss steal the homes of innocent families.
Diane lured her to the house.
Daniel locked the rear exit.
Charles started the fire.
My vision blurred.
The letter continued.
Philip and I found the proof. Margaret agreed to deliver it to Agent Cole in Providence.
Margaret never arrived.
I looked up.
Derek was right.
Voss watched me carefully.
“Now you understand.”
“Margaret betrayed my father.”
“She made a practical choice.”
A voice came through my concealed earpiece.
Cole whispered, “Keep him talking.”
I folded the letter.
“What did you offer her?”
“Safety.”
“And money?”
“Enough.”
Philip shook his head.
“He is lying.”
Voss laughed.
“Philip still believes people can be saved.”
The balcony door exploded inward.
Federal agents entered.
At the same moment, Cole’s team breached the hallway.
Chaos filled the apartment.
Price grabbed me and pressed a gun against my head.
Derek tackled him.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Ward ran toward the service corridor.
Cole intercepted him.
Voss seized my father’s ring and the final page.
He kicked open the damaged study wall and disappeared into the passage.
I followed.
“Elena!” Cole shouted.
The tunnel twisted downward.
Voss was older, but he knew the route.
He reached the parking garage and ran toward a waiting car.
Margaret sat behind the wheel.
She had come after all.
Voss jumped into the passenger seat.
I emerged from the tunnel as the engine started.
Margaret looked directly at me.
For one second, neither of us moved.
Then she pressed the accelerator.
The car raced toward the exit.
A police barrier began lowering.
Margaret could have turned away.
Instead, she drove faster.
The car crashed through the barrier and entered the street.
Cole reached me.
“You’re hurt.”
I touched my forehead.
The old wound had reopened.
“Margaret took him.”
“We have units following.”
Back upstairs, Price had been arrested.
Ward was in custody.
Philip was safe.
Derek had suffered another injury to his shoulder, but he was conscious.
He looked at the empty doorway.
“She was working with them.”
“I should have believed you.”
“I gave you no reason to.”
Price began laughing as agents pulled him to his feet.
“You think Voss is running?”
Cole grabbed his coat.
“Where is he going?”
“To finish what Thomas started.”
“Where?”
Price smiled at me.
“The house where Laura Bennett died.”
The abandoned house had never been demolished.
Meridian still owned the land.
Fire had destroyed most of the structure, but the stone basement remained.
Voss had kept the place for twenty-five years.
Margaret was driving him back to the beginning.
Rachel organized the pursuit.
Before we left, Philip called me closer.
“Margaret did not betray your father.”
“The letter says she failed to attend the meeting.”
“She failed because I stopped her.”
“Why?”
“Daniel had her daughter.”
I stared at him.
“Margaret has a daughter?”
“Julia.”
The assistant they had taken hostage.
Margaret had remained silent all these years to protect her child.
“She did not take Voss because she chose him,” Philip said. “She took him because he still controls Julia.”
“But Julia is safe.”
“Margaret doesn’t know that.”
I ran toward the stairs.
Voss was not escaping with an ally.
May you like
He was holding another mother hostage.
And if Margaret believed her daughter was still in danger, she would do anything he ordered.
