Chapter 6
“Bathroom!” Reed shouted.
My mother grabbed Lily.
I followed them into the back bathroom while Reed pushed a heavy table against the apartment door.
Another violent bang shook the frame.
“Police! Identify yourself!”
No answer.
A third bang.
The lock cracked.
Reed fired one shot through the lower section of the door.
Someone yelled outside.
Then footsteps ran down the hall.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Agent Parker rushed from the bedroom with her weapon drawn.
“Back stairs!”
We moved.
Lily was crying against my chest.
My mother struggled to keep up.
Reed led us down three flights.
An unmarked SUV waited behind the building.
Parker drove.
Reed sat in front.
We sped away.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Somewhere nobody in my department knows.”
“That makes me feel better.”
“It shouldn’t.”
He looked back at me.
“We have a leak.”
The words made everything worse.
We drove nearly an hour.
Eventually we reached a small farmhouse outside the city.
An elderly man opened the door.
Reed called him Uncle Ray.
Not his real uncle.
A retired officer.
Nobody else knew him.
Lily fell asleep on an old couch.
My mother sat beside her.
Reed and Parker talked quietly in the kitchen.
I overheard enough.
The man who attacked the safe apartment escaped.
Blood had been found in the hallway.
No body.
No identification.
The SUV was stolen.
Professional.
I entered the kitchen.
“Who knew we were moving to the apartment?”
Reed looked at Parker.
She answered.
“Deputy Director Howard approved it.”
“Who else?”
“Captain Nolan.”
“Federal agents?”
“Two.”
“And you.”
“And Marcus.”
I looked at Reed.
“What about Vanessa?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Richard?”
“Shouldn’t have.”
“But he did.”
“Yes.”
Reed rubbed his face.
“We need to assume anything entered in official systems is compromised.”
Parker opened the laptop containing copies of Emily’s files.
“We also found something else.”
She turned the screen.
A spreadsheet.
Patient names.
Hospital names.
Serial numbers.
Deaths.
I stared.
“What am I looking at?”
“Potential victims of defective equipment sold by Sterling.”
“How many?”
“Thirty-eight confirmed deaths so far.”
My chest tightened.
“Thirty-eight?”
“Could be more.”
“And Richard killed Emily to hide this?”
“Probably not just this.”
Parker scrolled.
“There are payments to shell companies associated with Senator Whitmore.”
“How much?”
“More than twelve million dollars over six years.”
Reed leaned against the counter.
“Bribes.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Parker pointed at another column.
“Some payments happened right before state hospital contracts were awarded.”
I thought about Emily.
She hadn’t just uncovered fraud.
She had uncovered a machine.
Money.
Politics.
Dead patients.
Corrupt people.
And she had tried to stop it.
My phone suddenly rang.
The secure phone.
Unknown caller again.
Reed reached for it.
I stopped him.
“I’m answering.”
“Daniel.”
“He wants me.”
“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t.”
“If Richard thinks I’m scared, he’ll keep controlling this.”
Reed looked angry.
Then nodded.
“Speaker.”
I answered.
“Hello?”
A man breathed on the other end.
Then a familiar polished voice.
“Daniel.”
Richard Sterling.
I had heard him speak at charity events on television.
Now hearing my name made my skin crawl.
“You killed my wife.”
A pause.
“You should be careful with accusations.”
“You ran her off the road.”
“Vanessa told you that?”
“She told police.”
Richard laughed softly.
“Vanessa tells people whatever saves Vanessa.”
“Where are you?”
“You know better than to ask.”
“You threatened my daughter.”
“I don’t hurt children.”
I nearly exploded.
“Someone fired into my mother’s house.”
“Not my instruction.”
Reed signaled for me to keep him talking.
“Then whose?”
Silence.
Richard finally said, “You don’t understand how many people Emily endangered.”
“She exposed criminals.”
“She exposed men who can destroy families without getting their hands dirty.”
“Like Whitmore?”
The silence changed.
I knew I had hit something.
“Interesting,” Richard said.
“So you know about him.”
“Daniel, listen carefully.”
“No.”
“If you want Lily alive, listen.”
My throat tightened.
Richard continued.
“I’m not your biggest problem anymore.”
“Who is?”
“The senator.”
Reed leaned closer to the phone.
Richard said, “Whitmore knows Emily made copies. He believes I have them. When he realizes you do, he will erase you.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because he’s already trying to erase me.”
Reed gestured for me to ask about location.
“Where are you?”
Richard laughed.
“Still doing what the detective tells you?”
My eyes snapped toward Reed.
“How do you know he’s here?”
The line went quiet.
Then Richard said, “You have a leak.”
“Who?”
“I’ll trade.”
“For what?”
“The drive.”
“No.”
“Then enjoy running.”
“You’re going to prison.”
“Maybe.”
His voice hardened.
“But if I go down, Whitmore goes down first.”
“Then testify.”
Richard laughed.
“You think I trust law enforcement?”
Neither did I, at that moment.
“Meet me.”
Reed shook his head violently.
Richard continued.
“Just you.”
“Where?”
“I’ll send instructions.”
The call ended.
Reed swore.
“No.”
“You heard him.”
“It’s a trap.”
“Maybe.”
“There is no maybe.”
I looked toward the living room.
Lily slept with her head in my mother’s lap.
“If Richard has evidence against Whitmore—”
“We’ll find it.”
“How?”
“We do our job.”
“Your safe house was attacked.”
Reed had no answer.
Parker spoke.
“Marcus, he has a point.”
Reed stared at her.
“You want to send a civilian to meet a murder suspect?”
“I want to know what Sterling has.”
“He killed Emily.”
“I know.”
I looked at both of them.
“I’m going.”
Reed slammed his hand against the counter.
“No.”
My phone buzzed.
An address.
An abandoned church outside Franklin.
11 P.M.
COME ALONE OR DON’T COME.
Under it was a photograph.
Richard standing beside a newspaper from that morning.
He held something in his other hand.
A red folder.
I zoomed in.
A label was visible.
WHITMORE.
Parker whispered, “That could be what we need.”
Reed closed his eyes.
“We do it my way.”
At ten thirty, I drove alone toward the church.
At least it looked like I was alone.
Reed followed two miles behind.
Parker was in another vehicle farther back.
No radios that could be easily tracked.
No official system.
I reached the church.
Dark.
Abandoned.
Windows broken.
I stepped inside.
“Richard?”
Nothing.
Then a light came on near the altar.
Richard Sterling stood there.
He looked nothing like television.
No expensive suit.
Jeans.
Dark jacket.
Unshaven face.
A gun in one hand.
The red folder in the other.
“Stop there.”
I did.
“You killed Emily.”
His face tightened.
“She left me no choice.”
I almost rushed him.
He raised the gun.
“Do not make Lily an orphan.”
That stopped me.
“Give me the folder.”
“Give me the drive.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You know where it is.”
“The police have it.”
Richard cursed.
“Then we’re dead.”
“Who is Whitmore?”
“Worse than me.”
“That isn’t difficult.”
Richard almost smiled.
“You think Emily was some brave investigator?”
“She was.”
“She was also stubborn.”
“You murdered her for being stubborn.”
“I wanted the drive.”
“You ran her off the road.”
His jaw tightened.
“I wanted her scared.”
“She died.”
“Yes.”
“You left her to die.”
Richard looked away.
For the first time, shame appeared.
“Vanessa was supposed to call an ambulance.”
I stared at him.
“She said you stopped her.”
“Vanessa lies.”
“Then what happened?”
Richard opened his mouth.
A red dot appeared on his chest.
I saw it before he did.
“DOWN!”
I lunged.
A gunshot shattered the church window.
Richard fell.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Another shot hit the altar.
I dragged him behind a stone column.
“Who is shooting?”
“Whitmore’s people!”
“Where?”
Richard gasped.
“Bell tower!”
I pulled out the hidden transmitter Reed had given me.
“Reed!”
No answer.
Static.
Richard laughed weakly.
“They jammed you.”
Another shot.
Wood exploded above us.
Richard shoved the red folder into my hands.
“If I die, give this to the FBI.”
“What’s in it?”
“Everything Whitmore thinks I destroyed.”
“Why me?”
“Because your wife was right.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“About Vanessa.”
My blood went cold.
“What about her?”
Richard coughed.
“She wasn’t following Emily for me that night.”
I stared.
“Yes, she was.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I told Vanessa to stay home.”
“Then why was she there?”
May you like
Richard’s answer was almost drowned out by another gunshot.
“Because she was already obsessed with you.”
