Chapter 13 - The Door From the Inside
The recording cut before the name finished.
Not accidental.
Someone had corrupted it.
Beatrice recovered fragments.
Three syllables.
Nothing conclusive.
They returned to Alexander's ledger.
One person remained unexplained.
Samuel Price.
Logistics controller.
One of the seven.
Quiet.
Unremarkable.
Present for twenty-six years.
Beatrice searched old records.
Samuel had driven Alexander the night he died.
The official report said Alexander was alone.
There.
The smallest lie.
Often the most important.
Samuel was brought in.
He didn't resist.
Bastion placed Alexander's recording before him.
Samuel listened.
Then cried.
“I didn't kill him.”
“Who did?”
“I left him at the garage.”
“With whom?”
Samuel looked at Elena.
Everyone turned.
Elena went pale.
“No.”
Samuel whispered, “You were there.”
Bastion looked at the woman who raised him.
“Mother?”
Elena sat.
“Yes.”
She had met Alexander that night.
They argued.
Alexander planned to confront Voss publicly.
Elena begged him not to.
He left anyway.
She followed.
But someone else followed both of them.
Evelyn.
Bastion's biological mother.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“I was there.”
She had warned Alexander that Voss knew about the evidence.
Alexander refused to run.
Minutes later, his brakes failed.
Neither woman killed him.
But both had hidden their presence because exposing the truth would reveal Bastion's parentage.
Beatrice reconstructed the maintenance records.
The brakes had been serviced that afternoon.
Authorization:
Marcus Vale.
There was the answer.
Marcus had killed Alexander under Voss's orders.
Marcus, now wounded and in federal custody, confessed when confronted with the records.
The twelve-year mystery ended with something painfully ordinary.
A trusted friend.
Money.
Fear.
Orders.
But Voss remained free.
And he still wanted the archive.
Beatrice finally unlocked it.
Thousands of documents appeared.
Enough to dismantle Meridian.
She began uploading them to federal investigators.
Ninety percent.
Ninety-five.
Ninety-nine.
Then the system stopped.
REMOTE OVERRIDE.
Someone had accessed the hotel network.
Bastion called security.
No answer.
They raced back to the Mercer Grand.
The penthouse was dark.
Beatrice entered the library.
Her original laptop was gone.
On the desk lay one royal-blue thread torn from her dress.
A message appeared on the wall monitor.
COME ALONE, BASTION.
Beatrice read the location.
The old Mercer house.
Where Elena had supposedly died.
Bastion looked at her.
“No.”
She knew what he meant.
“You aren't leaving me here.”
“He wants me.”
“He wants the archive.”
“I won't risk you.”
She stepped closer.
“You don't get to decide whether I risk myself.”
“I can decide whether I help you do it.”
“You really haven't learned anything about me.”
His mouth almost smiled.
“No. Unfortunately, I have.”
They went together.
The old house was dark.
The front door stood open.
Inside, a single lamp illuminated the staircase.
Voss's voice came from upstairs.
“Bastion.”
Bastion drew his weapon.
Beatrice followed.
At the end of the corridor stood the bedroom where Elena's death had been staged decades earlier.
The door was closed.
Something moved behind it.
Bastion reached for the handle.
It turned before he touched it.
The door slowly opened from the inside.
May you like
And someone Bastion believed was safely in federal custody stepped through.
Marcus Vale.
