Chapter 11 - THE MAN BEHIND THE BADGE
The explosion beneath Lake Mercer sent a column of water and smoke into the night sky.
The lift stopped twenty feet below the surface.
Its emergency brakes locked.
Heat rose through the shaft.
Mason forced the upper hatch open.
They climbed one by one onto a maintenance ladder.
Natalie went first, then Ashley, Rachel, Malcolm, and Elias. Mason remained below to help the wounded men.
Halfway up, Elias grabbed Malcolm’s ankle.
Malcolm kicked him in the face.
Elias lost his grip.
Mason caught his jacket.
“Help me!” Elias shouted.
Malcolm looked down at the man who had served him for years.
“You failed at the bridge. You failed at the hospital. You failed here.”
Then he stepped on Elias’s hand.
Elias fell.
His scream disappeared into the fire below.
Mason stared in horror.
Malcolm continued climbing.
When they reached the surface, Natalie forced him to the ground and handcuffed him.
“You just murdered your own accomplice.”
Malcolm looked toward the burning spillway.
“Then your case has become simpler.”
Ashley clung to Rachel but kept asking for Andrew.
Natalie called the hospital.
No one answered.
She tried again.
A nurse finally picked up.
Natalie identified herself.
“I need Andrew Carter’s condition.”
The nurse paused.
“Mr. Carter was transferred.”
“Transferred where?”
“I don’t know. State police authorization.”
“Who signed it?”
“Lieutenant Conrad Shaw.”
Rachel overheard the name.
Her face changed.
“Shaw is Hartley.”
Natalie lowered the phone.
“What do you mean?”
“He controlled the original investigation. He buried the evidence.”
“Why would he take Andrew?”
“Because Andrew knows where the files are.”
“What files?”
“The complete trial records. Names, payments, patient results, everything.”
“Andrew told me they burned.”
“He lied.”
Ashley looked between them.
“Why does everyone say Daddy lies?”
Rachel closed her eyes briefly.
“Because sometimes lying is how he keeps people alive.”
Natalie called Mason over.
“Contact dispatch. Issue an alert for Shaw and Andrew.”
Mason checked his radio.
“Communications are back.”
The response came within minutes.
Shaw’s vehicle had left Bellmere Regional Hospital twenty-seven minutes earlier. Highway cameras recorded it traveling west.
Toward the Carter house.
Natalie placed Malcolm inside a patrol car.
He smiled through the window.
“You are chasing the wrong man.”
She ignored him.
“You think Andrew is the victim,” Malcolm continued. “Ask why he kept the records. Ask who paid him after the fire.”
Rachel slammed the door.
“Don’t listen.”
Natalie faced her.
“Did Andrew go to Hartley to assassinate Malcolm?”
Rachel hesitated.
“Yes.”
Ashley heard.
The child stepped away from her mother.
“No.”
“Ashley,” Rachel began.
“My daddy doesn’t kill people.”
Rachel crouched.
“He did bad things before he knew you.”
“You don’t know him.”
“I knew him before you were born.”
“You left.”
The words struck Rachel silent.
Ashley moved toward Natalie.
“I want my daddy.”
Natalie took her hand.
“We’re going to find him.”
Rachel stood.
“I’m coming.”
“You’re also under investigation.”
“For surviving?”
“For starting the fire.”
Rachel’s mouth tightened.
“Arrest me after Andrew is safe.”
Natalie looked at the burning facility, the patrol car holding Malcolm, and the frightened child between them.
Then she gave Rachel a spare bulletproof vest.
“Stay where I can see you.”
They drove toward the Carter house.
During the journey, Rachel told Natalie the part Andrew had hidden.
He had arrived at Hartley House under orders from a private military contractor called Meridian Shield. The contractor claimed Malcolm Vale was developing a weaponized biological compound for foreign buyers.
Andrew’s mission was to retrieve the research and kill Malcolm if necessary.
But inside Hartley, Andrew discovered children were being used as test subjects.
He abandoned the assassination order and tried to help Rachel expose the facility.
“Why keep the files?” Natalie asked.
“Insurance.”
“Against whom?”
“Everyone.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“But Shaw thinks Andrew does.”
“Yes.”
Ashley listened from the back seat.
“Did Daddy start the fire?”
“No,” Rachel said.
“Did he hurt children?”
“No.”
“Did he try to kill Grandpa?”
Rachel looked toward the road.
“He came there intending to.”
“But did he?”
“No.”
Ashley absorbed the answer.
Then she said, “People can change before they do the bad thing.”
Rachel looked back at her daughter.
“Yes.”
The Carter house appeared ahead.
A state police vehicle was parked near the porch.
May you like
The front door stood open.
Inside, someone screamed.
