Chapter 9 - The Trap)
Grace read the message three times.
Then she tore the photograph from Bennett's hand.
"They know we found the list."
"Yes."
"How?"
"We're investigating."
"No."
Grace shook her head.
"How?"
The operation was supposed to be confidential.
Only federal agents, Bennett, Rebecca, Grace and a handful of specialists knew what had been recovered from the playground.
If Richard and Mark already knew, someone inside the investigation was leaking information.
Again.
The network had not collapsed.
It was still protecting them.
Bennett isolated the investigative team.
Phones were collected.
Access logs reviewed.
Within hours, they found the leak.
Assistant District Attorney Paul Mercer had accessed sealed warrant information and contacted an unregistered phone minutes later.
He was arrested.
But the damage was done.
Richard and Mark knew authorities possessed the full list.
They also knew Grace and Peter were under protection.
Which meant they would not attack directly.
They needed leverage.
At 3:15 p.m., Rebecca disappeared.
Her protective officer found an empty restroom.
Window open.
No Rebecca.
A note sat beside the sink.
THE LIST FOR REBECCA.
Grace nearly screamed when Bennett told her.
Evelyn collapsed.
Peter went silent.
But security footage revealed something strange.
Rebecca had not been dragged away.
She had walked.
Alone.
She had received a text.
Then left voluntarily.
"Why?" Grace asked.
Bennett studied the text captured through digital recovery.
COME ALONE OR YOUR MOTHER DIES.
Richard had sent Evelyn's home address.
Photographs taken through her window.
Rebecca believed the threat.
She left to save her mother.
Grace understood exactly why.
Richard did not need chains.
He used love.
The same weapon every time.
By evening, another message arrived.
A location.
An abandoned marina north of Green Bay.
Midnight.
Bring the complete network file.
No police.
Grace volunteered immediately.
Bennett refused.
"They'll kill you."
"They may kill Rebecca if I don't."
"We'll use tactical teams."
"They'll be watching."
"We know."
Grace looked at her.
"Then let me make them believe they won."
Bennett stared at her.
Grace explained.
Richard thought she was emotional.
Dependent.
Still shocked.
Mark thought she was the grieving widow he had manipulated for four years.
Neither man had ever considered Grace dangerous.
Because every plan they made depended on underestimating the women they targeted.
That would become their mistake.
At 11:52 p.m., Grace drove toward the marina alone.
At least, she appeared alone.
A transmitter was sewn into her coat.
A tracking device was inside the fake metal tube containing a copied network list.
Federal teams remained several miles away.
No visible police.
The marina stood empty beneath cold rain.
Grace stepped from the car.
"Rebecca!"
Nothing.
Then lights turned on inside an old warehouse.
Mark appeared first.
Grace's stomach twisted.
He looked almost exactly as he had at family dinners.
Same gray hair.
Same familiar face.
The man who had held Peter as a baby.
The man who had hugged Grace at Daniel's funeral.
"Hello, Gracie."
She hated the nickname.
Only family used it.
"You killed Daniel."
Mark smiled faintly.
"You always were impatient."
"Where is Rebecca?"
"Inside."
Richard stepped from behind him.
No tuxedo.
No polished smile.
He wore jeans and a dark jacket.
Without the performance of charm, his face looked strangely ordinary.
That frightened Grace.
"You ruined everything," he said.
Grace laughed.
"Peter ruined everything."
Richard's eyes hardened.
"Your son should have stayed seated."
Grace stepped closer.
"Say that again."
Mark raised a hand.
"Enough."
Grace looked at him.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Daniel loved you."
Mark's smile disappeared.
"No. Daniel judged me."
"He discovered you were stealing."
"He discovered a business model."
"You murdered women."
"I never touched them."
Grace looked at Richard.
Richard said nothing.
Mark shrugged.
"People made choices."
"Did Daniel choose to die?"
For the first time Mark's mask cracked.
"He chose not to stop."
Grace felt tears fill her eyes.
"So you admit it."
"I admit Daniel was stubborn."
Mark pointed toward the metal tube.
"Give me the list."
"Rebecca first."
A door opened.
Rebecca emerged with her hands bound.
Samuel Voss stood behind her holding a gun.
The lawyer.
Another face from Daniel's file.
Grace's pulse accelerated.
Three men.
One hostage.
Tactical teams still too far away to intervene without a signal.
Richard stepped toward Grace.
"The list."
Grace held up the tube.
"Tell me where Natalie is."
Mark laughed.
"You think you're negotiating?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because if I leave here without Natalie, you never get this."
Richard glanced at Mark.
There it was.
Tension.
They were no longer perfectly aligned.
Grace continued.
"Natalie copied your accounts. She knows where the reserve money is."
Mark's expression changed.
Grace had guessed.
And the reaction confirmed it.
Richard turned to him.
"You said she didn't."
Mark snapped, "Shut up."
Grace understood.
Richard had been told Natalie was only a witness.
Mark had hidden the money from his own partner.
Years of loyalty suddenly became irrelevant.
Richard looked at Mark.
"How much?"
"Not now."
"How much?"
Grace saw the fracture opening.
She pushed.
"Enough that Mark planned to disappear without you."
Richard stepped toward Mark.
"You lying bastard."
Mark pulled a gun.
Everything happened at once.
Rebecca dropped to the floor.
Voss turned.
Grace threw the metal tube toward Richard.
Richard instinctively reached for it.
Mark fired.
The shot shattered a light.
Grace ran.
Outside, tactical teams moved.
Inside the warehouse, men shouted.
Another shot.
Then another.
Grace reached Rebecca and dragged her behind a steel container.
"Stay down!"
Voss tried to escape through a rear door.
Agents intercepted him.
Richard attacked Mark.
The two men crashed into a table.
The metal tube rolled across the floor.
Mark kicked Richard away and ran toward the dock.
Grace heard Bennett shouting through her hidden earpiece.
"Grace, stay down!"
But Mark was heading toward a speedboat.
If he escaped, he might disappear again.
Then Richard screamed.
"He's going for Natalie!"
Mark stopped.
Everyone froze for half a second.
Grace turned.
Richard was on the floor, bleeding from his shoulder.
He pointed toward Mark.
"She knows where he kept the money."
Grace shouted, "Where is she?"
Richard looked at her.
Fear finally replaced arrogance.
"Old cannery on Lake Michigan."
Mark fired toward him.
Agents returned fire.
Mark dropped his gun.
Officers tackled him before he reached the boat.
Grace looked back at Richard.
Bennett knelt beside him.
"Address."
Richard smiled weakly.
"Deal."
Bennett's face hardened.
"A woman may be dying."
"Then I suggest you listen."
Grace moved toward him.
For nearly three years she had loved this man.
Now she felt nothing.
"Peter was right about you."
Richard looked at her.
Grace bent closer.
"You aren't brave enough to have a real name."
Richard's smile vanished.
Behind them, Mark screamed that Richard was lying.
Agents dragged him away.
Then Richard gave the address.
A search team left immediately.
At 2:26 a.m., Bennett's phone rang.
Grace watched her answer.
"Did you find her?"
A pause.
Bennett closed her eyes.
Grace's heart stopped.
Then Bennett smiled.
"Alive."
Natalie Price had been found alive.
Weak.
Drugged.
Locked inside a basement room beneath the abandoned cannery.
May you like
After six years, the missing woman was finally coming home.
But what Natalie told investigators after waking would reveal the last secret Daniel had died trying to expose.
