Chapter 8 - What Margaret Paid to Hide)
The plan was simple.
Which meant Claire hated it.
Daniel would meet Thomas at an abandoned roadside restaurant outside Tacoma.
Police would remain nearby.
Daniel would wear a transmitter.
Claire would stay with Detective Reed in a surveillance vehicle.
No confrontation.
No improvisation.
No heroics.
Daniel agreed to every condition.
Then Thomas changed the location.
Ten minutes before the meeting, a text arrived.
Pier 9.
Daniel drove.
The surveillance team followed.
Pier 9 was mostly empty at night.
Cargo containers rose like dark walls.
Wind moved across the water.
Thomas stood beneath a broken security lamp.
Claire saw him through the surveillance monitor.
He looked almost exactly as he had at Emma's memorial.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
Daniel approached.
Thomas laughed.
You brought them.
Daniel stopped.
Brought who?
Don't insult me.
Thomas looked toward the distant vehicles.
Police radios went silent.
Daniel said.
Tell me what happened.
Thomas shoved his hands into his coat pockets.
You should have left it buried.
My daughter was stolen.
I know.
Daniel flinched.
You knew.
I knew after.
After what?
After Voss chose her.
Why Emma?
Thomas looked away.
She was convenient.
Daniel lunged forward.
Police moved.
Thomas raised both hands.
Easy.
Daniel shouted.
She was my child.
And Rebecca needed one.
That was not your decision.
No.
Whose decision?
Voss.
Why?
Thomas exhaled.
Because Voss needed Margaret loyal.
Daniel stared.
Thomas explained.
Voss and Sloane were running illegal placements. Margaret discovered irregularities in birth records months before Emma was born. She threatened to report them.
So they bought her silence.
They gave Rebecca a baby.
Claire felt sick.
Margaret had portrayed herself as a desperate mother manipulated by Voss.
But she had also been a witness.
Voss had used Emma as both gift and leverage.
Daniel asked.
Where do you fit?
Thomas looked toward the water.
Debt.
What debt?
Gambling.
Claire closed her eyes.
Thomas had always been the successful brother.
The expensive suits.
The sports cars.
The effortless confidence.
A performance.
Sloane knew I owed people money, Thomas said. He offered seventy five thousand for your security report.
Did you know what he wanted it for?
He said they were testing emergency evacuation procedures.
You believed that?
I needed the money.
Daniel's voice hardened.
Did you know a child would be taken?
Not at first.
At first.
Thomas said nothing.
Daniel moved closer.
When did you know?
That night.
Claire watched the monitor.
Thomas continued.
Sloane called me around midnight. He told me there would be a transfer during the fire alarm. My job was to get you away from the maternity floor.
You called me about the office break in.
Yes.
You were inside the hospital.
Yes.
Why?
To make sure you left.
Daniel's hands trembled.
Did you know Emma was the child?
No.
When did you find out?
The next morning.
And you said nothing.
Thomas's face crumpled slightly.
What was I supposed to do?
Tell me.
They had already changed records. Margaret had taken the baby. Voss said if anyone talked, all of us went to prison.
You let us bury someone else's child.
Thomas closed his eyes.
Yes.
Daniel punched him.
Police rushed forward.
Thomas fell.
Claire climbed from the vehicle despite Reed ordering her to remain.
She crossed the pavement.
Thomas sat against a concrete barrier with blood at his lip.
Claire stood over him.
He looked up.
Claire.
Don't say my name like you know me.
Thomas lowered his eyes.
I'm sorry.
No. You are sorry because we found out.
He said nothing.
Where is Voss?
I don't know.
Margaret says he disappeared.
Then he's probably running.
Claire watched his face.
Thomas looked surprised.
Too surprised.
He didn't run?
What does that mean?
Thomas looked toward Reed.
If Voss vanished without his passport, he didn't leave voluntarily.
Who would take him?
Thomas stood slowly.
The people above him.
Claire's skin went cold.
Above him?
You think Voss created the network?
Reed stepped closer.
What network?
Thomas laughed bitterly.
St. Catherine wasn't the only hospital.
Claire stared.
How many?
I don't know.
How many children?
I don't know.
Why did Rebecca write that Emma wasn't the only baby?
Because she found records.
Where?
Thomas looked around the pier.
A vehicle engine started somewhere nearby.
Thomas's expression changed.
He turned.
A black sedan accelerated from behind a row of containers.
Reed shouted.
Move.
The car came directly toward them.
Everyone scattered.
The sedan clipped a barrier.
Metal screamed.
Police raised weapons.
The vehicle turned sharply and sped toward the exit.
Officers pursued.
Claire lay on the pavement beside Daniel.
Thomas had disappeared.
Reed shouted his name.
No answer.
Then Claire saw the edge of the pier.
Thomas was hanging from a metal ladder below the railing.
Daniel pulled him up.
Thomas collapsed onto the pavement.
He was laughing.
Someone just tried to kill you, Reed snapped.
Thomas looked at him.
No.
Then who?
Me.
Claire went cold.
Why?
Thomas wiped blood from his mouth.
Because they know I'm talking.
Reed crouched.
Who are they?
Thomas looked directly at Claire.
The same people who paid Voss.
Names.
I only know one.
Who?
Thomas hesitated.
Then he whispered.
Senator Elias Ward.
Claire stared at him.
The name was everywhere.
Television.
Newspapers.
Campaign posters.
Elias Ward was a former state attorney general and current United States senator.
Claire almost laughed because the claim was too enormous.
Reed's expression remained neutral.
What does Senator Ward have to do with missing babies?
May you like
Thomas answered.
Ask him where his daughter came from.
