Chapter 7 - The Bargain at Pier 6)
Mia could hear rain striking the metal roof.
No one moved.
Owen's hand was steady.
That frightened her more than if he had been nervous.
He had done this before.
Maybe not this exact scene.
But threats.
Fear.
Control.
Those were familiar to him.
"The map," Owen repeated.
Mia held up both hands.
"I don't have it."
Owen glanced toward Nora.
"She does."
Nora smiled slightly.
"Then why are you pointing the gun at Mia?"
"Because you don't care about dying."
His eyes moved to Mia.
"She does."
Elias pulled against the restraints.
"Owen."
"Quiet."
"You drugged me because you were afraid."
Owen turned.
"I drugged you because you should have stayed in your world."
"My world?"
"Your father understood how Harbor City worked. Everyone got paid. Everyone stayed useful."
Elias's expression darkened.
"My father died alone because no one trusted him."
"And somehow you learned the wrong lesson."
Mia looked toward the metal box.
"What is in there?"
Owen laughed.
"You really don't know."
Elena stepped from behind Nora.
Owen's face changed.
"You."
Elena looked at Curtis.
Curtis went pale.
"You should have checked whether I was breathing before you left me," she said.
Owen aimed the gun toward her.
Elias surged against the chair.
Nora immediately moved between Elena and the weapon.
"One shot," Nora said calmly, "and every officer already surrounding this building comes inside."
Owen glanced around.
Mia realized Nora was bluffing.
Maybe.
She hoped not.
Owen's confidence slipped.
Curtis whispered, "We should go."
"Shut up."
"Price said no bodies."
"Price isn't here."
A new voice came from the doorway.
"Actually, I am."
Everyone turned.
Mayor Jonathan Price stepped inside under a black umbrella.
Two men stood behind him.
Mia recognized one as the mayor's chief of staff.
Price closed the umbrella.
At sixty one, he looked exactly as he did on television.
Polished.
Calm.
Fatherly.
The face of Harbor City.
He looked at Owen with disgust.
"You were supposed to solve this quietly."
Owen's face reddened.
"I did until Vance started digging."
Price looked at Elias.
"You could never leave things alone."
Elias smiled coldly.
"Runs in the family."
Mia stared at the mayor.
"You knew my father."
Price's eyes moved to her.
"Thomas Dawson was a decent man with terrible judgment."
"You mean he wouldn't take your money."
Price sighed.
"Your father believed truth was enough. It rarely is."
"You killed him."
"No."
The answer came too quickly.
Mia studied him.
Price continued.
"The warehouse fire was never supposed to happen."
Owen turned sharply.
"Don't."
Price ignored him.
"The plan was to remove the records and frighten Thomas into silence."
Mia looked at Owen.
"What did you do?"
Owen's jaw clenched.
Price spoke.
"Owen panicked."
"Shut up."
"He spilled accelerant near the east loading bay and started a small fire."
Owen shouted, "You told me to destroy the office."
"Not the warehouse."
"You said leave nothing."
Price's calm expression vanished.
"Because you are incapable of understanding anything unless it is spoken like an order to a dog."
Owen raised the gun toward Price.
Everything changed at once.
Curtis ducked.
Nora pulled Elena behind a column.
Elias threw his weight sideways.
The chair crashed to the floor.
Mia grabbed the nearest object, a metal hook, and struck Owen's wrist.
The gun fired.
The bullet hit the ceiling.
One of Price's men ran.
Nora's security team entered.
Within seconds Owen was pinned against the floor.
Curtis raised his hands.
Price backed toward the door.
Lucas Grant stepped inside behind him.
This time he was not bluffing.
"Mayor Price."
Price froze.
Lucas held up his phone.
"You're going to want to stay exactly where you are."
Police sirens approached outside.
Nora walked toward the mayor.
"You chose the wrong building for a confession."
Price looked toward the ceiling.
A camera blinked above the loading door.
Nora smiled.
"Pier security."
Mia stared at her.
"You knew?"
"I hoped."
Owen laughed from the floor.
"You think that's enough?"
Everyone looked at him.
His face was twisted with hatred.
"You think one recording proves murder? The fire report says accident. Finch is gone. Arthur Vance is dead. Half the witnesses are dead."
Mia walked to the metal box.
Owen's expression changed.
"Don't."
She opened it.
Inside was a small cassette tape.
A key.
And a sealed envelope.
Mia opened the envelope.
The letter was from Samuel Ortega.
Thomas and I agreed that if either of us failed, our children should never carry our guilt. The truth belongs to them only when they are ready to choose it.
Below was a series of numbers.
Coordinates.
Tunnel C.
Owen laughed again.
"Go ahead."
His voice became strangely confident.
"Dig under the city."
Mia looked at him.
"You moved it."
His smile answered.
Elena whispered, "When?"
Owen looked at her.
"Years ago."
Mia felt hope collapse.
The entire chain had led nowhere.
Then Elias, still on the floor, began laughing.
Everyone turned.
Owen frowned.
"What?"
Elias looked at Mia.
"Your father was smarter than all of us."
"What do you mean?"
"The brass key."
Mia pulled it from her pocket.
Elias nodded toward the numbers in Samuel's letter.
"Read the last four."
Mia did.
318.
Unit 318.
Her mind raced.
The storage unit had not belonged to Owen originally.
It had belonged to Thomas.
Owen had taken it over.
Why?
Because he was searching for something.
Mia suddenly understood.
"The tunnel isn't under Dock 14 anymore."
Nora stared.
Mia continued.
"The map shows where the city redevelopment moved the access routes."
Lucas unfolded the copy they had photographed before the storage fire.
Tunnel C ran beneath Harbor East.
Then turned inland.
Straight beneath Calder Storage.
Unit 318.
Owen stopped smiling.
Mia looked at him.
"You spent eleven years renting that unit because you knew the evidence was nearby."
Owen said nothing.
"And you never found it."
Mia looked toward Nora.
"The maintenance shaft."
The one they crawled through while escaping the fire.
It had not simply been a ventilation passage.
May you like
It was the top of the old tunnel system.
The real evidence had been beneath Owen's feet for eleven years.
