Chapter 8 - The Murder in Black Hollow
Sheriff Hollis ordered Ethan out of the car with his hands visible. Rain swept across the road in silver sheets. Behind the barricade, six deputies stood with weapons raised.
Valerie did not move.
“You said Leon was dying,” she whispered to Mara. “Victor said he called three days ago.”
“He did.”
“Then why are they saying I murdered him?”
“Because someone found his body after you escaped.”
Valerie’s face collapsed. “You knew.”
Mara looked toward the sheriff. “I found him in the cellar. His throat had been cut. I knew Lucian would place the knife in your hand if he could.”
“So you chased me with a belt?”
“I was trying to force you toward the Ashford road before Hollis arrived.”
Valerie laughed once, broken and furious. “You could have told me.”
“You would not have believed me.”
“I do not believe you now.”
Hollis shouted again.
Ethan lowered the window. “Sheriff, I am Ethan Ashford. You are obstructing a federal investigation.”
Hollis smiled. “Tonight you are only a man transporting a murder suspect.”
Ethan noticed a broken-wing emblem painted beneath the nearest patrol car’s rear bumper. Cross controlled the barricade.
Mara leaned forward. “The drainage ditch on the right leads beneath the old mill bridge. Drive when lightning strikes. They will fire at the engine, not the cabin. Lucian wants Valerie alive.”
“What about you?” Ethan asked.
“I am less valuable.”
Lightning flashed.
Ethan accelerated.
The sedan struck the wooden barrier and broke through. Gunfire exploded behind them. The rear window shattered. Valerie dropped to the floor. Mara drew her pistol and fired through the broken glass, hitting the tires of the lead sheriff vehicle.
The road ended at a flooded ditch.
Ethan drove into it.
Water rose over the hood. The current spun the car sideways, but the sedan struck the concrete mouth of a culvert and stopped. They climbed out through the passenger side and crawled through mud beneath the road while deputies searched the bank above.
On the far side, Mara led them to an abandoned textile mill. Inside, old looms stood beneath a leaking roof. She opened a locker containing clothing, cash, medical supplies, and three prepaid phones.
“You prepared this,” Valerie said.
“Leon and I prepared escape points across the county.”
“Then show me proof he did not fear you.”
Mara took a folded note from her wallet. Leon’s handwriting was shaky.
Mara, if Valerie runs, make her hate you enough to keep moving. Love will make her turn back.
Valerie read it twice, then tore it in half.
“He made decisions for me until his last breath.”
Ethan said, “He may have been trying to save your life.”
“Everyone keeps saving me by lying.”
A prepaid phone rang.
Mara answered. Her face changed.
“It is for you,” she told Valerie.
Valerie put the phone to her ear.
A woman’s voice whispered, “Do not go to the clinic.”
Valerie stopped breathing.
The voice was weak, but unmistakably the same as the recordings.
“Mother?”
Ethan moved closer.
Lydia continued, “The hospital feed is staged. I escaped Black Hollow years ago. Lucian does not know where I am.”
“Then where are you?”
“I cannot tell you while Mara is listening.”
Mara reached for the phone, but Valerie stepped back.
Lydia said, “Ask her who held the knife that killed Leon.”
The call ended.
Valerie raised the phone slowly. “Who killed him?”
Mara’s pistol lowered toward the floor.
“I held the knife.”
Valerie slapped her.
The sound cracked through the mill.
Mara did not defend herself. “He asked me to.”
“No.”
“Lucian had injected him with a compound that would destroy his memory and leave him alive for questioning. Leon knew he would reveal you. He begged me to end it.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect nothing from you.”
Ethan heard a vehicle outside.
They hid behind the machines. A single man entered carrying a medical case. Dr. Samuel Wren, the physician who had treated Valerie at the estate.
“I followed Victor’s emergency signal,” he said. “Sheriff Hollis has sealed every road.”
Mara aimed at him. “Who sent you?”
“Celeste.”
Ethan did not lower his weapon. “Prove it.”
Wren opened the case. Inside was Victor’s bloodstained phone and a small vial labeled with Ethan’s name.
“Celeste asked me to test the blood from your torn sleeve,” Wren said. “Your DNA matches a restricted Cross registry.”
Ethan felt the mill grow colder.
“Whose registry?”
Wren looked at Valerie before answering.
“Lucian’s.”
Valerie stared at Ethan.
Wren continued, “Not as his son. As his brother.”
Mara stepped backward as if struck.
“That is impossible.”
“No,” Wren said. “It means Subject 214 was born to the same woman who gave birth to Lucian Cross.”
Everyone turned toward Mara.
She shook her head. “I had only one son.”
A voice came from the darkness above the looms.
“That is what they told you.”
May you like
Lydia stepped onto the metal walkway.
Alive.
