Chapter 8 - Pier 46
I told Ortiz.
I didn’t try to play hero.
That may have saved Valerie’s life.
Seattle police traced the background details to a warehouse near Pier 46 connected to one of Vantage’s contractors.
They moved quietly.
No sirens.
No marked cars.
I stayed behind.
For twelve minutes.
Then I did something stupid.
I followed.
Not into the warehouse.
Just close enough to see.
Rain had started by the time I parked several blocks away.
The waterfront smelled like salt, diesel, and wet concrete.
Ortiz had ordered me to remain at the station.
I told myself I only needed to know Valerie was alive.
Then gunshots cracked across the harbor.
Three.
Fast.
I ran.
Police shouted somewhere ahead.
A man burst through a side door of the warehouse.
Gavin.
He saw me.
Even from fifty yards away, I knew he saw me.
He changed direction instantly.
“NORA!”
Ortiz screamed behind him.
I turned.
Gavin ran faster than a man his size should have.
I sprinted between parked trucks.
My shoes slipped on wet pavement.
He was gaining.
I reached a chain-link gate.
Locked.
Dead end.
I turned.
Gavin slowed.
Water ran down his scarred face.
“You should have stayed overseas.”
“You killed my father.”
“Your sister killed your father.”
“You watched.”
“She was useful.”
The words came so casually that something inside me went still.
“That’s all she was to you?”
“She wanted money. I showed her how to get it.”
“And Mom?”
“Collateral.”
He moved closer.
“And me?”
Gavin smiled.
“Expensive collateral.”
I backed against the fence.
Police lights flashed somewhere behind the warehouses.
“You won’t get the drive.”
“I don’t need it.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“You already copied it.”
He reached into his jacket.
This time it was a gun.
“But copies don’t matter if the witnesses disappear.”
A shot exploded.
I dropped.
Gavin staggered.
His gun hit the pavement.
Detective Ortiz stood twenty yards away, weapon raised.
“DON’T MOVE!”
Gavin grabbed his shoulder and ran behind a truck.
Officers chased him.
I stayed on the ground.
My ears rang.
Ortiz reached me.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“I told you not to come.”
“I know.”
“I am trying very hard not to arrest you myself.”
“Valerie?”
Ortiz looked toward the warehouse.
“Alive.”
They found Diane tied in a back office.
Valerie was in another room.
Her wrists were taped.
Her face was swollen.
When paramedics brought her outside, she saw me.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then Valerie began to cry.
Not dramatic tears.
Not the tears she had used for the police at Mom’s house.
These were ugly, shaking sobs.
“Nora.”
I walked closer.
She whispered, “He was going to kill me.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t know about the insurance policy.”
I searched her face.
“Do not lie to me again.”
“I knew they were creating documents with your name. I thought they were for the house.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
At least that was honest.
She looked down.
“I don’t expect you to believe anything.”
An officer approached Ortiz.
“Detective.”
He whispered something.
Ortiz’s jaw tightened.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“Gavin got away.”
Valerie’s head snapped up.
“No.”
Ortiz said, “He had a boat waiting.”
Valerie started shaking harder.
“You don’t understand.”
“What?” I asked.
She looked directly at me.
“Gavin isn’t the top.”
The rain suddenly felt colder.
“Who is?”
Valerie swallowed.
Then she said a name I had never expected to hear.
May you like
“Dr. Raymond Cole.”
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