Chapter 5 - Five People
Nobody spoke for nearly a minute.
The car kept moving through the dark.
Finally Sofia said, “Well, it wasn’t Elena.”
“Obviously,” Price muttered.
“And it wasn’t me.”
Brooks stared through the windshield.
“We don’t assume anything.”
Sofia looked offended.
“You think I’m trying to kill my sister?”
“I think assumptions are how people get buried.”
Elena touched Sofia’s hand.
“She’s right.”
Sofia pulled away.
“Great. Everybody’s a suspect.”
Brooks canceled the transfer.
They changed direction three times before settling Elena in an unused apartment owned by the attorney general’s office.
No hospital staff.
No paperwork under her real name.
No outside phone calls.
For two days, nothing happened.
Then Price discovered the leak.
He walked into the apartment holding printed access logs.
“The hospital administrator never opened the transfer file.”
Brooks looked up.
“So?”
“You did.”
Brooks’ face hardened.
Price dropped the pages on the table.
“Your credentials accessed Elena’s transfer details sixteen minutes before that phone call.”
Sofia stood.
“I knew it.”
Brooks didn’t move.
“Someone cloned my login.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
Price’s hand rested near his holster.
Elena watched both of them.
“Stop.”
Neither listened.
Price said, “Give me your weapon.”
Brooks laughed.
“No.”
“Naomi.”
“You’re in my safe house.”
“And you may have compromised it.”
Brooks slowly removed her pistol.
She placed it on the table.
Then her phone.
Then her badge.
“There. Feel better?”
“No.”
“Good. You shouldn’t.”
Brooks sat down.
“Because if Vale has somebody with enough access to clone my state credentials, this is bigger than a county sheriff.”
Elena suddenly remembered something.
“The gala.”
They all looked at her.
“What gala?” Price asked.
“Three weeks ago. Vale held a fundraiser at the estate. Judges, politicians, contractors, cops.”
Brooks frowned.
“Federal judges don’t run political fundraisers.”
“He called it a charitable foundation dinner.”
“For what charity?”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“Apparently Harrison Vale.”
She remembered seating charts.
Security lists.
Guest names.
One name stood out now.
Daniel Kessler.
Deputy Director of the state investigative bureau.
Brooks’ boss.
Brooks went still when Elena said it.
“You’re sure?”
“He sat beside Evelyn all night.”
Price swore.
Brooks grabbed her phone, then stopped.
“No calls.”
“What do we do?” Sofia asked.
Brooks looked at Elena.
“We make Vale think you’re weaker than you are.”
“How?”
“We let the press know you woke up confused.”
Price understood first.
“We bait him.”
“Exactly.”
The story ran the following morning.
BALCONY FALL VICTIM SUFFERS MEMORY LOSS.
Harrison saw it during breakfast.
Evelyn sat across from him sipping coffee.
“She remembers,” Evelyn said.
Harrison folded the newspaper.
“You don’t know that.”
“A woman who survives a fall like that remembers the hand that pushed her.”
“I didn’t push her.”
“You hit her.”
He glared at his mother.
She smiled.
“Don’t be sensitive about details.”
Harrison stood.
“We need to find the recording.”
Evelyn calmly spread jam over toast.
“I already did.”
Harrison froze.
“What?”
She looked up.
“The recording you’re so terrified of.”
“Where is it?”
Evelyn smiled.
“Somewhere you’ll never find it.”
May you like
For the first time, Harrison realized his mother wasn’t protecting him.
She was holding him hostage.
