Chapter 13 - THE EMPTY SAFE HOUSE
The return trip felt endless.
Claire spent every mile believing her children might be dead.
Then, two hours from Kansas City, Lieutenant Ramirez called.
“We found Emma.”
Claire nearly stopped breathing.
“Oliver?”
“Safe.”
“Alan?”
“Injured but alive.”
“My mother?”
“Gone.”
Claire cried openly.
Margaret reached over and squeezed her shoulder.
Claire didn’t pull away.
When they reached the safe house, police vehicles filled the street.
The bathroom door had been broken.
A bullet hole marked the wall.
Emma sat inside an ambulance holding Oliver.
Claire ran.
Emma jumped into her arms.
Claire hugged both children until Emma complained she couldn’t breathe.
“What happened?”
Emma looked toward Ramirez.
“Grandma broke the door.”
“Did she shoot?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Uncle Alan.”
Claire stared.
Alan was being treated for a head wound.
“He shot at Grandma?”
Emma shook her head.
“At the man behind her.”
“What man?”
Emma pointed to the house.
Police had found blood but no body.
Ramirez approached.
“Someone entered through the back while Eleanor was trying to take the baby. Alan fired once. The intruder escaped.”
“Eleanor?”
“Escaped separately.”
Claire looked at Alan.
“You knew my mother.”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
He looked miserable.
“She hired me twenty-two years ago.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Of course she did.”
“Claire—”
“Who do you actually work for?”
“No one now.”
“Wrong answer.”
He sighed.
“The Vale family retained my firm for estate matters. Years later Daniel discovered that connection.”
“So Daniel chose you because of my mother?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“No.”
Claire wanted to scream.
Instead Emma touched her hand.
“Mom, I found something.”
Claire looked down.
“What?”
“Grandma dropped her phone.”
Police had taken it into evidence.
Ramirez handed Claire a printed photograph recovered from its lock screen.
Three people stood outside a building.
Eleanor.
Victor Hale.
And Daniel.
Timestamp: six months earlier.
Claire stared.
“My mother, Hale, and Daniel were together.”
Margaret looked equally stunned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Claire turned.
“You keep saying that.”
Margaret took the photograph.
“Daniel believed Hale was Northstar.”
“Maybe Daniel was lying.”
“No.”
“How can you know?”
“Because he tried to kill Hale.”
Everyone went silent.
Margaret continued.
“Three months before his fake accident.”
Claire stared.
“And failed?”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t he arrested?”
“Because Hale was officially dead at the time.”
Claire laughed.
Emma spoke quietly.
“This family has too many dead people.”
Even Ramirez smiled at that.
Then Oliver started crying.
Claire carried him into the house.
She needed a diaper.
Something normal.
Anything normal.
While changing him, she noticed a bruise near his ankle.
Tiny.
Circular.
She called Ramirez.
“Was this here before?”
Claire didn’t know.
The lieutenant examined it.
“A needle mark.”
Claire’s blood turned cold.
“When?”
“Recent.”
“What did they do to him?”
Oliver seemed normal.
Still, they rushed him to a hospital under police protection.
Blood tests were ordered.
A pediatrician examined him.
Two hours later, the doctor returned.
“The baby is healthy.”
Claire exhaled.
“But we found something unusual.”
“What?”
“His blood contains a fluorescent tracer.”
Claire stared.
“A what?”
“It’s harmless in this quantity. But it can be detected using specialized equipment.”
Margaret understood first.
“They tagged him.”
The doctor frowned.
Claire felt sick.
“Someone injected my son with something so they can track him?”
Margaret nodded.
“Not where he is.”
May you like
She looked terrified.
“Who he is.”
