Chapter 5 - THE MURDER THEY BUILT AROUND HIMFederal agents surrounded Vincent.
He lowered the weapon immediately.
“I did not fire it.”
Commissioner Crane pointed toward Celeste.
“Your fingerprints are on the grip.”
Vincent looked down.
The weapon was one he had surrendered years earlier to a private armory. Someone had placed it beside him during the darkness.
Celeste was not dead.
The bullet had passed through her shoulder. Audrey pressed both hands against the wound while shouting for medical help.
Crane ordered the agents to arrest Vincent and seize every screen.
But the federal team did not move.
A woman stepped from behind them.
Special Agent Naomi Price.
She displayed her credentials.
“Commissioner Crane has no authority over this operation,” she said. “He was suspended forty minutes ago.”
Crane’s face changed.
Naomi looked toward Vincent.
“However, the warrant for your arrest is valid.”
Vincent allowed himself to be restrained.
His men tensed along the walkways.
“Stand down,” he ordered.
Crane began backing toward an exit.
Naomi noticed.
“Detain him.”
Two agents grabbed Crane.
He protested loudly, claiming the entire incident was a Moretti conspiracy. Then one of Naomi’s agents found a remote detonator inside his coat.
The device controlled explosives positioned beneath the pier.
Crane had intended to destroy the building, eliminate Celeste, Audrey, Vincent, and the evidence, then blame the deaths on Vincent’s criminal network.
“Who gave you the detonator?” Naomi demanded.
Crane remained silent.
Audrey stared at him.
“Julian.”
Crane smiled at her.
“Your husband is more intelligent than his father.”
Back at the estate, Julian was no longer in the library.
A guard had found the room empty fifteen minutes earlier. The window remained locked, and the corridor cameras showed no escape.
Eleanor entered the library and discovered one book missing from a shelf.
Behind it was a narrow service passage built during the estate’s original construction.
Julian had escaped through tunnels leading beyond the walls.
Richard had known about the passage.
He had said nothing.
Vincent was transported to a federal detention facility while Celeste underwent surgery. Audrey refused to leave her mother’s side.
For the first time since escaping the estate, Audrey had clean clothing, warm blankets, and food she could barely keep down.
Lena stayed with her.
“You need rest,” the physician said.
“I rested in a locked room for eight months.”
“You survived in a locked room.”
Audrey looked through the hospital window at federal agents guarding the corridor.
“Survival is not the same as living.”
Naomi entered after sunrise.
She placed a file on Audrey’s bed.
“We need your testimony against Julian and the Thornes.”
“You also want my testimony against my father.”
Naomi did not deny it.
“Vincent built an organization responsible for corruption, extortion, and violence.”
“He saved me.”
“He also created the network that allowed men like Richard to believe every institution could be purchased.”
Audrey hated the truth because it resembled her own accusation at the pier.
“What happens if I cooperate?”
“Your father faces trial. Your mother enters witness protection. The Thorne family’s assets are seized.”
“And me?”
Naomi hesitated.
“You begin again.”
Audrey laughed once.
It sounded empty.
“With whose permission?”
At the detention facility, Vincent sat across from a federal prosecutor.
He was offered a deal.
Full cooperation in exchange for protection for Audrey.
Vincent asked only one question.
“Is Julian still missing?”
“Yes.”
“Then Audrey is not protected.”
The prosecutor closed the file.
“You are in no position to make demands.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“You have frozen the accounts you know about. You have detained the officials whose names appeared in Celeste’s files. But Julian escaped through a tunnel no outsider knew existed.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“He had help from someone inside the estate.”
“Richard?”
“Richard is a coward. Julian’s helper is more dangerous.”
The prosecutor studied him.
“Give us a name.”
Vincent looked directly at the camera in the corner.
“Turn it off.”
When the camera went dark, he spoke two words.
The prosecutor’s face lost all color.
At the hospital, Audrey woke from a nightmare and found a white envelope beside her bed.
No one had entered the guarded room.
Her name was written across the front in Julian’s handwriting.
Inside was a photograph taken that morning.
It showed Vincent sitting inside the detention room.
A red mark had been drawn across his throat.
Beneath the photograph was a note.
SIGN THE TRANSFER DOCUMENTS, OR YOUR FATHER DIES BEFORE TRIAL.
Audrey pressed the call button.
Nothing happened.
The lights outside her room went out.
She pulled herself from the bed.
A nurse entered wearing a surgical mask.
Audrey backed away.
The nurse locked the door.
Then she removed the mask.
It was Eleanor.
Audrey reached for a metal tray.
Eleanor raised both hands.
“I am not here to hurt you.”
“You helped him lock me away.”
“I know.”
“Where is Julian?”
“I do not know.”
“Then leave.”
Eleanor placed a key card on the bed.
“Julian is coming for the files inside your mother’s trust.”
“He already has copies.”
“No. Celeste hid something he needs.”
“What?”
Eleanor looked toward the darkened corridor.
“A list of children.”
Audrey stared at her.
Eleanor’s voice trembled.
“Julian was never after your money. He was after the names your mother protected.”
A sound came from the ventilation shaft.
Metal scraping against metal.
Eleanor turned.
The cover dropped to the floor.
A man climbed into the room holding a knife.
Eleanor stepped in front of Audrey.
May you like
The man smiled.
“Mr. Thorne sends his love.”
