Chapter 11 - The Man Behind the Shooting
Rachel arrived at Pier Nine at 11:41.
She wasn't alone.
Enzo followed despite her objections.
So did Brooks.
Police and federal agents waited several blocks away.
Inside the warehouse, Caleb knelt beneath a hanging light.
Isabella stood behind him.
Rachel stopped.
“Why?”
Isabella's gun remained steady.
“Because Marco told me the truth.”
Marco emerged.
Rachel understood.
Isabella had never truly escaped him.
Or perhaps she had and returned.
“Which truth?” Rachel asked.
“That Caleb knew I survived.”
Caleb shook his head.
“He's lying.”
Marco produced letters.
Caleb's signature appeared on them.
Orders to locate Isabella.
Orders to stop searching.
Rachel examined the dates.
Something was wrong.
Caleb had supposedly signed one letter while hospitalized after a motorcycle crash.
His right arm had been immobilized.
Rachel remembered seeing the scar during treatment.
“You forged them.”
Marco's smile vanished.
Isabella looked at Rachel.
“How do you know?”
“Because I'm a nurse.”
Rachel explained.
The signature angles were inconsistent with an immobilized dominant arm.
Isabella looked at Marco.
He fired.
Caleb tackled Isabella.
The bullet missed.
Enzo's men entered.
Gunfire shattered windows.
Marco fled toward the tunnels.
Rachel, Caleb, and Isabella followed.
Beneath Pier Nine they found the vault.
Marco opened it.
Inside were not drugs.
Not weapons.
Records.
Thousands of pages.
Photographs.
Audio tapes.
Evidence accumulated over decades.
Proof of officials, corporations, criminals, and law-enforcement officers who had worked with Marco.
Enough to destroy hundreds of lives.
Marco wanted it burned.
Daniel had wanted it exposed.
Caleb confronted him.
“You killed my parents.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Lucia?”
Marco smiled.
“She was first.”
Caleb raised his gun.
Rachel stepped between them.
“Don't.”
“He deserves it.”
“Maybe.”
She looked at Caleb.
“But my father didn't spend his life collecting evidence so you could finish this with another bullet.”
Caleb's hand shook.
Then he lowered the gun.
Marco laughed.
“You're weak.”
“No,” Caleb said. “I'm finished becoming you.”
Police entered the tunnel.
Marco reached inside his coat.
A shot rang out.
He collapsed.
Enzo had fired.
Marco survived.
Barely.
As paramedics carried him away, he grabbed Rachel's wrist.
“You think I'm the man behind this?”
Rachel stared.
Marco smiled through blood.
“I worked for someone.”
“Who?”
His eyes shifted toward the tunnel entrance.
Rachel followed his gaze.
Dr. Brooks stood there.
Marco whispered:
“Ask him about his mother.”
Then he lost consciousness.
Rachel looked at Brooks.
Brooks looked terrified.
“My mother died thirty years ago.”
Rachel remembered Daniel's recording.
Someone inside Harbor Mercy.
Someone he trusted.
Brooks's father had been involved.
But perhaps the initials H.B. had never meant Harrison Brooks.
Rachel searched archived hospital records.
There was another Brooks.
Helen Brooks.
Harrison's mother.
Declared dead in 1996.
No body recovered.
Rachel slowly looked up.
A phone rang inside the vault.
An old landline.
Impossible.
Caleb answered.
A woman's voice said:
“Put Rachel Hayes on the phone.”
Rachel took it.
“Who is this?”
The woman laughed softly.
Then she said:
“Ask your mother why Daniel really chose her.”
Rachel turned toward Margaret.
May you like
Margaret had just entered the tunnel.
And the look on her face told Rachel she knew exactly who was calling.
