Chapter 4 - My Father's Warehouse
There were nine people in that room.
One of them had stolen the drive.
Agent Brooks locked the courthouse down.
Nobody left.
Searches began.
Nothing.
Mom.
Dad.
Ethan.
Rachel.
Me.
The judge.
Two agents.
Brooks.
No drive.
"Vance took it before he ran," Dad said.
"No," I replied.
"He never got close enough."
"Then Thomas."
"Thomas isn't here."
Dad looked at Mom.
Mom looked at Rachel.
Everyone suspected everyone.
That was exactly what whoever planned this wanted.
I examined Lily's backpack.
The zipper.
The lining.
The rabbit.
Then I saw something.
A tiny cut inside the side pocket.
I reached in.
Nothing.
But the cut was fresh.
Someone had sliced through the backpack from behind while it sat on the table.
The drive could have been removed without opening the zipper.
"Who stood behind this bag?"
Silence.
Then Rachel answered.
"Your father."
Dad stared at her.
"That's a lie."
I looked at him.
"Empty your pockets."
"I'm your father."
"Today that doesn't mean much."
He refused.
Agent Brooks didn't ask.
She searched him.
No drive.
Then she removed his suit jacket.
A small black object fell from inside the lining.
The drive.
Mom gasped.
Dad looked genuinely shocked.
"That's not mine."
I believed him.
That was the worst part.
Somebody had planted it.
The operation was bigger than my parents.
Bigger than Vance.
Maybe bigger than Thomas.
We made a copy under federal supervision and prepared to go to the warehouse.
I wasn't going alone.
The note demanded it.
We ignored that.
Brooks assembled a tactical team.
I wasn't officially part of it.
I was emotionally compromised.
She reminded me twice.
I reminded her my niece was inside.
Eventually, we compromised.
I stayed behind the entry team.
The warehouse sat near the river.
Carter Logistics had stopped using it ten years earlier.
Or that's what Dad claimed.
At 2:41 p.m., we entered.
No gunfire.
No guards.
No Vance.
We found Lily upstairs.
She was sitting in an office coloring.
Completely unharmed.
Ethan ran to her.
She screamed, "Daddy!"
He dropped to his knees.
I looked away.
For the first time all day, something inside me loosened.
Rachel hugged both of them.
Lily had no idea she'd been kidnapped.
"Uncle Charlie said Daddy needed me here," she explained.
Uncle Charlie.
Vance had been so close to the family that Lily called him uncle.
I wanted to break something.
Instead, I asked, "Where did Uncle Charlie go?"
Lily pointed toward a metal door.
"He said Grandpa was waiting."
Dad went pale.
"That's impossible."
We opened the door.
Stairs descended underground.
The warehouse plans showed no basement.
We found one anyway.
Rows of filing cabinets.
Computers.
Shipping records.
Photographs.
Twenty years of secrets.
Agent Brooks stared around the room.
"This is the archive."
"What archive?"
"The one we've been trying to find."
My father sat down.
His empire had just become a crime scene.
I found a framed photograph on a desk.
Dad.
Mom.
Thomas.
Vance.
All young.
All smiling.
Behind them was a fifth man.
I didn't recognize him.
"Who's this?"
Mom did.
She whispered his name.
"Gerald Hale."
Judge Hale's husband.
I stared at her.
"The judge?"
Mom shook her head.
"Her husband died fifteen years ago."
Another dead man.
Wonderful.
Brooks found financial ledgers.
Payments routed through shell companies.
Vance's name.
My father's company.
Thomas.
Gerald Hale.
And another name.
Elaine Carter.
Mom collapsed into a chair.
"I didn't know."
Dad laughed.
"You always say that."
"Shut up."
It was the first time I'd ever heard my mother say those words to him.
She looked at me.
"I signed things Richard gave me."
"How many?"
"I don't know."
"For how long?"
"Years."
"You never asked?"
"I trusted my husband."
Dad looked wounded.
I almost admired the audacity.
A computer chimed.
One screen turned on by itself.
A video appeared.
Thomas.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
"Maddie."
It was prerecorded.
"If you're watching this, Vance brought you to the warehouse."
I stepped closer.
"He thinks the drive will protect him. It won't."
Thomas looked directly into the camera.
"Your parents made terrible choices. But they are not the people you should fear most."
Judge Hale's name appeared on the screen.
My stomach dropped.
"The custody hearing wasn't randomly assigned."
Brooks cursed.
Thomas continued.
"Someone made sure Rebecca Hale got the case."
Why?
The answer appeared seconds later.
Because Gerald Hale wasn't dead.
The screen changed.
A recent photograph.
The fifth man from the old picture.
Older now.
Standing outside Lily's school.
My blood turned cold.
Thomas said, "Gerald built the network."
Another photograph.
Gerald meeting Vance.
Another.
Gerald entering my father's company.
Another.
Gerald watching me from across a street.
"He has spent twenty years cleaning up everyone who could expose him."
The video flickered.
"If Rebecca learns her husband is alive, she becomes dangerous to him."
I understood.
The judge wasn't involved.
She was another victim.
A gunshot echoed upstairs.
I moved before anyone spoke.
Brooks followed.
We reached the warehouse floor.
One federal agent was down, wounded in the shoulder.
The rear door stood open.
Dad was gone.
So was Mom.
On the concrete floor was Dad's phone.
A new message glowed on the screen.
MADISON, YOUR PARENTS HAVE ONE LAST CHANCE TO FIX WHAT THEY STARTED.
An attachment appeared.
Live video.
Mom and Dad sat bound to chairs.
Behind them stood Charles Vance.
Beside him was an older man.
Gerald Hale.
Then Gerald stepped closer to the camera.
"Bring me my drive."
May you like
He smiled.
"And bring my wife."
