Chapter 6 - THE KIDNAPPING THAT FRAMED AN INNOCENT MANMia backed away from Thomas.
“Where is Chloe?”
Thomas locked the door.
“I can explain.”
“You have her bracelet.”
“They forced me to bring it.”
“Who?”
“Julian.”
Marcus reached inside his coat for his phone.
Thomas raised both hands.
“If you contact the police, Chloe dies.”
Mia wanted to hate him. Every part of the situation made him appear guilty. Yet his face held terror, not triumph.
“What does Julian want?” she asked.
“The ledger.”
“He tried to burn it.”
“He didn’t know your mother had made copies. He believes the ledger contains the location of every backup.”
Marcus looked toward the air vent.
“Does it?”
Thomas nodded.
“Elena recorded account numbers in code. Julian cannot decode them without the original.”
Margaret closed the curtains.
“Where is Chloe being held?”
“An abandoned textile mill near the river.”
“Then we go now.”
Thomas grabbed Mia’s arm.
“It’s a trap.”
“So was this house. So was our employment. So was my entire life.”
Her voice broke.
“I am done letting other people decide whether my sister lives.”
Marcus arranged for a private investigator named Lena Ortiz to meet them near the river. Lena had previously worked for federal law enforcement and owed Isabel a favor.
They entered the mill through a drainage tunnel.
Inside, machinery stood beneath layers of dust. Voices echoed from the second floor.
Chloe sat tied to a chair beneath a hanging light.
Malcolm Price stood beside her.
Daniel Cross guarded the stairs.
Julian was nowhere in sight.
Thomas whispered that a rear staircase led to the office above the factory floor. Lena climbed it while Marcus cut the building’s electricity.
Darkness swallowed the mill.
Mia ran toward Chloe.
Daniel caught her halfway across the floor, but Thomas tackled him into a stack of wooden crates. Malcolm drew a knife and pressed it near Chloe’s shoulder.
“Bring me the ledger!”
Mia held up the steel box.
“Let her go.”
Malcolm smiled.
“You’re as foolish as your mother.”
“My mother defeated you.”
“Your mother died begging.”
Thomas roared and lunged forward.
Malcolm dragged Chloe toward the loading platform.
A red light blinked above the exit.
Mia recognized it as part of the old fire alarm.
Lena had restored the emergency system.
Sprinklers exploded overhead.
Malcolm slipped on the wet floor. Chloe kicked backward, striking his knee. Mia seized her sister and pulled her away as Thomas pinned Malcolm against the railing.
Daniel fled through a side door.
Police sirens approached.
Lena had contacted an honest federal agent rather than local authorities controlled by Julian.
Malcolm was arrested.
Thomas surrendered voluntarily and confessed to helping Julian under threat. He had delivered Chloe’s bracelet but secretly left the motel key so Mia would suspect him and force the truth into the open.
Chloe held him at a distance.
“You still abandoned us.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get forgiveness because you saved me once.”
“I know that too.”
At dawn, the federal prosecutor examined the ledger.
It was powerful evidence, but much of it required authentication. Richard remained in jail because the forged security recording appeared genuine.
Malcolm refused to cooperate.
Julian appeared on television as interim chairman of the Vance Foundation.
Standing beside Evelyn, he announced that Richard had suffered a breakdown and attempted to destroy the charity to hide his crimes.
Evelyn cried before the cameras.
“I loved my husband,” she said. “I tried to save him.”
Mia nearly threw the television from the motel dresser.
Then the broadcast changed.
Julian introduced a new witness.
Daniel Cross walked onto the stage.
He claimed Richard had ordered Isabel’s car sabotaged six years earlier because she discovered his affair with Elena Torres.
Reporters erupted with questions.
Chloe covered her mouth.
Richard was being blamed not only for fraud and arson, but for Isabel’s murder.
Marcus received a call from the detention center.
“They’re moving Richard,” he said.
“Where?”
“No one will tell me.”
At that moment, Mia’s phone received a photograph.
Richard sat inside a prison transport van, unconscious and bleeding from the forehead.
A message appeared beneath it.
BRING THE LEDGER TO THE HALCYON GALA TOMORROW NIGHT, OR RICHARD NEVER REACHES COURT.
A second photograph followed.
May you like
It showed Evelyn standing outside the van.
She was holding the keys.
