Chapter 9 - THE FIRST BODY FELL
Luke traced the prepaid phone call in eleven minutes.
The signal came from an abandoned pharmaceutical warehouse near the river.
Bennett requested tactical support.
Luke did not wait.
He left Catherine under police supervision and took Marco through the estate’s rear exit.
Adrian disappeared during the confusion.
That confirmed more than any confession could have.
The warehouse complex occupied four blocks of industrial land. Half the buildings had collapsed. The remaining structures belonged to shell companies created during Luke’s father’s administration.
Marco studied the site map inside the vehicle.
“There are three entrances.”
“Adrian will expect the police at the front.”
“We are not the police.”
Luke checked the weapon beneath his coat.
Marco looked at him.
“You said you hated guns.”
“I hate funerals more.”
They entered through a drainage tunnel leading beneath the eastern building.
Above them, thunder rolled over the river.
Luke moved through the darkness with a flashlight in one hand and the photograph of Elena fixed in his mind.
He had spent months trying not to imagine her.
Now every memory returned as punishment.
Elena laughing in the kitchen.
Elena sleeping with one hand curled beneath her cheek.
Elena standing alone in the bedroom while he told her he loved someone else.
He had believed sacrifice would make him noble.
Instead, it had made him absent.
A distant gunshot echoed through the tunnel.
Luke stopped.
Marco switched off the flashlight.
Another shot followed.
Then shouting.
“They’re fighting each other,” Marco whispered.
“Good.”
They reached a steel ladder and climbed into the warehouse basement.
The lights flickered.
Luke heard footsteps overhead.
A man rushed down the stairs carrying a duffel bag.
Marco pulled him into the shadows and struck him once.
The man collapsed.
Inside the bag were medical supplies, passports, and several vials labeled with serial numbers.
Marco held one toward the light.
“These are from Shaw’s clinic.”
Luke recognized the name.
“My father closed that place.”
“Maybe he closed it because he wanted the research.”
They continued upward.
On the first floor, they found blood across the corridor.
A body lay beside an open door.
Luke turned him over.
It was Adrian’s driver.
The man recorded following Elena’s van.
He had been shot in the chest.
His phone remained in his hand.
Marco unlocked it using the dead man’s fingerprint.
The final outgoing message was addressed to Adrian.
SHAW CHANGED SIDES. MOVE THE WOMAN NOW.
Luke read it twice.
“Shaw is helping Elena.”
“Or using her for something else.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Luke ran.
The second floor contained a row of windowless rooms.
The first was empty.
The second held surveillance equipment and printed photographs of Elena dating back to the week before the divorce.
Luke saw images of himself beside her.
Their home.
Their bedroom windows.
Someone had been watching before he received the threat.
His decision had never protected her because she had already been chosen.
“Luke,” Marco called.
At the end of the corridor, a metal door stood open.
Inside was a chair with broken restraints.
Blood marked the floor.
An ultrasound monitor remained powered on.
The screen displayed a frozen image.
A child.
Luke approached slowly.
Numbers in the corner showed the fetal heart rate.
Alive.
His hand trembled as he touched the edge of the monitor.
Marco found a strip of fabric beneath the chair.
“Elena was here.”
Luke looked toward a second door at the rear of the room.
It opened into a service corridor.
An alarm suddenly sounded.
Red emergency lights flashed.
Marco checked the dead driver’s phone.
“Someone triggered the fire system.”
Smoke began flowing from the vents.
Not smoke.
Gas.
Luke covered his mouth.
“Move.”
They ran toward the service stairs.
A masked man appeared at the far end and fired.
The bullet struck the wall beside Luke’s head.
Marco returned fire.
The masked man fell.
Luke reached him and pulled away the mask.
He recognized the face.
Daniel Mercer.
Ashford Holdings’ former chief financial officer.
Daniel had supposedly died three years earlier in a boating accident.
Luke stared at the body.
“My father attended his funeral.”
Marco searched Mercer’s jacket.
He found an identity card, two phones, and a key stamped with the number 19.
One phone displayed a recently opened message.
DELIVER ELENA TO THE AIRFIELD. THE DOCTOR IS EXPENDABLE.
Luke took the phone.
“Which airfield?”
“There are four within fifty miles.”
The gas thickened.
They escaped through a loading bay moments before flames erupted from the upper windows.
Outside, police sirens approached from the main road.
Bennett arrived and climbed from the first vehicle.
“You went in without us.”
“Elena was moved.”
“We know.”
Luke looked at her.
“How?”
“A traffic unit saw a medical transport van leaving the south gate eight minutes ago.”
“Direction?”
“West.”
Marco checked the map.
“The private Ashford airfield is west.”
Luke began walking toward the vehicle.
Bennett caught his arm.
“There’s something else.”
She held up a photograph recovered from Catherine’s prepaid phone.
It showed Evelyn Shaw standing beside Luke’s father.
Between them was a young woman holding a newborn baby.
The date printed on the photograph was thirty-four years earlier.
The newborn would now be Adrian’s age.
Bennett turned the image over.
A handwritten message covered the back.
Arthur promised the child would inherit everything.
May you like
Luke looked toward the burning warehouse.
For the first time, he wondered whether Adrian Ashford was truly his brother.
