Chapter 9 - THE GRANDFATHER’S SECRET
Danner dragged Emily toward the basement.
Police lights flashed through the windows.
Thomas held Nora at gunpoint.
“Back door!”
Margaret turned toward Claire.
“What did you mean?”
Thomas shouted, “Move!”
Claire stood.
“I said Charles knew!”
Thomas raised his gun toward her.
Claire did not flinch.
“Go ahead.”
“Claire.”
“You killed everyone I ever loved anyway.”
Then she threw herself at him.
The gun fired.
Nora screamed.
Emily tackled Danner.
His weapon skidded across the floor.
Margaret kicked it away.
Danner grabbed Emily by the throat.
Emily drove her knee into his stomach.
He bent.
She smashed a lamp over his head.
Glass exploded.
Police broke through the front door.
Thomas ran.
Ruiz entered with her weapon raised.
“Police! Down!”
Danner dropped to his knees.
Claire clutched her bleeding arm.
Thomas disappeared through the kitchen.
Ruiz chased him.
Emily cut Nora’s ropes.
“You okay?”
Nora touched her face.
“You came.”
“Yeah, well, apparently I make terrible decisions.”
Nora laughed and cried at the same time.
Margaret knelt beside Claire.
“My father knew?”
Claire winced.
“Not the way Thomas wants you to think.”
“What way?”
“Charles found out Thomas had threatened you. He planned to hide the baby for forty-eight hours while federal agents prepared an arrest.”
Margaret stared.
“He never told me.”
“He thought you’d refuse.”
“He was right.”
Claire nodded.
“Thomas intercepted the plan. He convinced me Charles wanted the baby gone permanently.”
“Why would you believe that?”
Claire looked ashamed.
“Because Thomas told me Charles was going to send me to prison.”
“For what?”
“Embezzlement.”
Margaret understood.
“You were helping Thomas steal.”
“Yes.”
Claire looked at Emily.
“I took you from the hospital.”
Emily’s face went hard.
Claire continued.
“The fire was supposed to be a distraction in a storage wing.”
“People died.”
“I know.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
Emily stepped closer.
“Three people died so Thomas could steal me?”
Claire shook her head.
“The fire spread farther than planned.”
“That doesn’t make it better!”
“I know!”
Claire broke down.
“I hear them every night.”
Margaret stood over her.
“Why didn’t my father expose Thomas?”
“He tried.”
“What happened?”
Claire looked toward the kitchen.
“Thomas killed him.”
A shot rang outside.
Then another.
Ruiz shouted.
Everyone ran to the back porch.
Thomas’s car smashed through a side gate.
Ruiz fired at the tires but missed.
He disappeared down the road.
Danner was in custody.
Nora was safe.
But Thomas was gone.
Claire reached into her coat.
Ruiz pointed her weapon.
“Slowly.”
Claire pulled out an envelope.
“I stole this from Thomas’s safe.”
Inside was a photocopy of Charles Ashford’s ledger.
Ruiz scanned it.
Payments.
Judges.
Police officers.
Hospital staff.
Politicians.
Then one name stopped her.
She stared at it.
Emily noticed.
“What?”
Ruiz closed the ledger.
“Nothing.”
Emily snatched it.
Near the bottom was a payment dated only six months earlier.
Recipient:
L. RUIZ.
Emily looked at the detective.
“Is that you?”
Ruiz’s face went still.
May you like
Before she could answer, every light in the house went out.
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