Chapter 12 - THE BACKUP PLAN
Kyle smiled.
“Hand him over.”
Maya held Oliver tighter.
“No.”
“You’re making this harder.”
“You helped Grant delete the cameras.”
“I helped with a lot more than that.”
Maya backed toward the kitchen.
“You planted my badge.”
“Yes.”
“The fake custody papers?”
“Vanessa handled those.”
“And tonight?”
Kyle shrugged.
“Grant likes backup plans.”
Maya threw a chair into his path and ran.
She burst through the laundry room.
A narrow service door led outside.
Locked electronically.
No power.
She reached for the manual release.
Kyle grabbed her hair.
Maya screamed.
Oliver wailed.
She drove her elbow backward.
Kyle loosened his grip.
Maya hit the release.
The door opened.
Cold night air rushed in.
She ran barefoot across the grass.
Behind her, Kyle shouted.
The pool appeared ahead.
The same pool.
The same place Oliver had almost died.
Maya stopped.
Dead end.
Tall fence on one side.
Pool on the other.
Kyle approached slowly.
“You really should’ve stayed quiet.”
Maya looked down.
Near the landscaping bed sat an emergency pool pole.
She grabbed it.
Kyle laughed.
“You think that’s going to help?”
“It helped more than your security system.”
He lunged.
Maya swung the pole into his knees.
Kyle fell.
She ran past him.
Then headlights flooded the garden.
Police vehicles crashed through the open gate.
“POLICE! DON’T MOVE!”
Ortiz ran across the lawn with officers behind her.
Kyle raised his hands.
Maya nearly collapsed.
Ortiz reached her.
“You okay?”
“Grant is inside.”
Officers stormed the villa.
Minutes passed.
Then Ethan emerged, supported by a paramedic.
“Oliver.”
Maya ran to him.
Ethan took his son and kissed his forehead.
“They got Grant?”
Ortiz came outside.
Her expression answered before she spoke.
“He escaped.”
“How?”
“Service tunnel beneath the old wine cellar.”
Ethan stared.
“I didn’t know there was a tunnel.”
“Grant did.”
Kyle began laughing from the back of a police car.
Ortiz walked over.
“What’s funny?”
Kyle leaned toward the window.
“You think Grant is running?”
Maya watched him.
Kyle’s smile widened.
“He’s not running.”
“Then what is he doing?”
“He’s finishing Claire’s problem.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“What does that mean?”
Kyle looked directly at him.
“You still think six million dollars was the reason Claire died?”
Silence.
Kyle shook his head.
“That money was nothing.”
Maya felt cold.
“What was Claire’s problem?”
Kyle leaned back.
“She found out who Oliver’s real trustee was supposed to be.”
Ethan frowned.
“I’m his trustee.”
Kyle smiled again.
May you like
“No.”
And suddenly the entire case became something else.
