Chapter 6 - THE ROAD OUT)
Elena moved before anyone else.
She slammed the sedan door and shouted:
“Drive!”
Margaret hit the accelerator.
The car lurched.
Victor jumped aside.
Adrian grabbed the wheel from the passenger side.
“The barrier!”
“I see it!”
Margaret aimed directly toward the chain locking the steel gate.
Elena covered Leo.
The sedan struck.
Metal screamed.
The chain snapped.
The gate swung inward.
They shot into the abandoned quarry road.
Victor’s men returned to the SUV.
Arthur looked backward.
“They’re following.”
Adrian scanned the dashboard.
“Margaret, how much fuel?”
“Quarter tank.”
“Enough.”
“For what?”
“To reach Bellmere.”
Elena said:
“They’ll call ahead.”
“Not if their radio system has problems.”
Adrian removed a small device from his pocket.
Margaret glanced at it.
“What is that?”
“A problem.”
He pressed a button.
Behind them, the SUV continued pursuit.
Then suddenly slowed.
Adrian smiled.
“GPS jammer.”
Elena stared at him.
“You carry that around?”
“I work interesting jobs.”
Leo whispered:
“I like him.”
“This is not the time.”
The quarry road split.
Margaret turned left.
Adrian shouted:
“Right!”
Too late.
The left road ended at an old equipment yard.
Margaret braked.
Elena’s heart sank.
Another dead end.
Adrian pointed at an abandoned maintenance building.
“Inside.”
They left the car.
Arthur could barely walk.
Elena and Adrian supported him.
Leo stayed close.
Margaret locked the building behind them.
The SUV arrived moments later.
Victor’s voice echoed outside.
“You’re making this unnecessarily theatrical.”
Adrian whispered:
“He says, while chasing us through a quarry.”
Arthur almost smiled.
Elena searched the building.
Rusting machinery.
Oil drums.
A desk.
Old lockers.
At the rear, a loading door.
Padlocked.
Adrian examined it.
“We need something to cut this.”
Leo pointed.
“Like that?”
Bolt cutters hung from the wall.
Adrian looked at him.
“You’re definitely Michael’s son.”
They cut the lock.
Beyond the door lay another path leading downhill toward a rail line.
A freight train moved slowly in the distance.
Adrian checked his watch.
“Local cargo service.”
Margaret stared at him.
“You want Arthur to jump onto a train?”
“No.”
Adrian pointed beyond the tracks.
“Bellmere bus depot is half a mile past them.”
They left.
Victor’s men entered the building behind them.
Elena heard doors crashing.
They crossed the railway after the freight train passed.
Arthur was fading.
His breathing became shallow.
Elena took his arm.
“You need a hospital.”
“No Sterling hospital.”
“What?”
“Victor sits on the board.”
Elena looked at Adrian.
“Where?”
“St. Catherine’s.”
“Can we trust them?”
“They’re independent.”
They reached the bus depot.
At 1:38 a.m., it was nearly empty.
A security guard sat inside a glass booth.
Adrian approached.
“Call state police.”
The guard looked suspicious.
Victor’s people reached the far side of the parking lot.
Adrian slapped his identification against the glass.
“Now.”
The guard reached for the phone.
Victor stopped.
He saw the camera above the booth.
He smiled as if nothing unusual had happened.
Then he walked away.
His men followed.
Elena watched.
“That’s it?”
“No,” Adrian said. “That means he’s changing tactics.”
State police arrived twelve minutes later.
Victor was gone.
Arthur was transported to St. Catherine’s.
Elena and Leo rode in the ambulance.
At the hospital, toxicology tests found levels of sedative medication far above Arthur’s prescription.
The physician documented everything.
For the first time that night, Elena breathed.
Then two state detectives arrived.
Detective Nora Price took Elena’s statement.
She listened carefully.
Unlike Victor’s family attorneys, she did not interrupt.
When Elena finished, Price asked:
“Do you have evidence of the alleged coercion?”
“The documents.”
“Where are they?”
“At the estate.”
“Recordings?”
“No.”
“Threatening messages?”
“No.”
Elena felt frustration.
“He locked us in a room and pumped gas inside.”
Price nodded.
“We’ll investigate.”
“Victor will clean everything.”
“Probably.”
The detective surprised her with the admission.
“That’s why we move carefully.”
Arthur requested to speak privately.
Elena entered his hospital room.
He looked exhausted.
But clear.
“I need to tell you something before Victor does.”
Elena sat.
Arthur looked at his hands.
“Michael’s trust has another provision.”
“What provision?”
“If both parents are deceased or declared incapable before Leo turns eighteen, voting control transfers temporarily.”
“To whom?”
Arthur looked at her.
“To Victor.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“So he gets the shares if something happens to me.”
“Until Leo turns eighteen.”
“And the agreement would help him declare me incapable.”
“Yes.”
Elena felt sick.
Arthur continued.
“But Michael added another amendment.”
“The one Victor can’t find?”
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
“I never saw it.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Michael told me.”
Arthur swallowed.
“He said the amendment would destroy anyone who tried to steal Leo’s inheritance.”
Elena stared.
“What does that mean?”
“He smiled when he said it.”
That sounded exactly like Michael.
Arthur continued.
“He said Leo would know when the time came.”
The airplane.
Elena stood.
“We need to get home.”
Arthur grabbed her wrist.
“No.”
“The memory card is there.”
“Victor knows that now.”
“He doesn’t know where.”
Arthur looked toward the door.
“Elena, there’s something else.”
She waited.
“Michael’s accident happened twenty miles from your house.”
“I know.”
“He was driving home.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Arthur’s voice lowered.
“He wasn’t.”
Elena stared.
“Then where was he going?”
Arthur looked ashamed.
“To meet Adrian.”
“Why?”
“To give him the original Lazarus files.”
Elena’s pulse increased.
“Did Adrian get them?”
Arthur slowly shook his head.
“Michael never arrived.”
Elena thought about the stranger who had appeared conveniently on her bus.
The man who knew the passages.
The man who knew exactly what Michael had been investigating.
“Why didn’t Adrian tell me that?”
Arthur answered quietly.
“That is what you should ask him.”
Elena turned toward the window.
Adrian stood at the end of the hospital corridor.
Watching Leo sleep in a chair.
May you like
For the first time since the bus, Elena wondered whether the warning had really been meant to save her.
Or to lead her directly to something Adrian had spent three years trying to find.
