Chapter 10 - The Choice at Ashford Bend
Victor had taken the key and disappeared.
Sarah alerted the police, but Elena no longer believed the situation could be solved by waiting. Evelyn had Julian. Victor had the key. Both were heading toward the place Margaret died.
Elena insisted on riding with the security officers. Sarah came with her.
Police vehicles approached from the opposite direction, their lights hidden until they were within half a mile of Ashford Bend.
The road curved sharply along a wooded ravine. Rain had begun to fall, turning the pavement black beneath the moon.
A vehicle stood sideways across the road.
Julian’s car.
Elena stepped out before Sarah could stop her.
“Julian!”
The driver’s door was open. Blood marked the seat, but the car was empty.
A phone rested on the hood.
It rang.
Elena answered on speaker.
“Walk to the guardrail,” Evelyn said.
Sarah shook her head.
Elena moved forward while two officers circled through the trees.
At the edge of the ravine, a narrow maintenance path descended toward the abandoned Ashford pumping station. The building had served the old Blackridge construction site before the project was shut down.
Lights glowed inside.
“Come alone,” Evelyn said. “Or Julian falls.”
The call ended.
Elena handed the phone to Sarah.
“If I don’t go, she’ll kill him.”
“If you do, she may kill both of you.”
“Give the police five minutes to move around the building.”
Sarah looked at Elena’s stomach.
“You could go into labor at any moment.”
“Then let’s hope my daughter inherited my timing.”
The rain intensified.
Elena followed the path to the pumping station.
Inside, rusted pipes crossed the ceiling. Water dripped through holes in the roof.
Julian sat tied to a chair near an open service shaft. A wound above his eyebrow bled down his face.
Evelyn stood behind him with a pistol.
Victor was across the room, holding the brass key.
“Elena,” Julian said. “Leave.”
Evelyn pressed the gun against his neck.
“Quiet.”
Elena stopped.
“You have the key,” she said. “Let him go.”
Evelyn laughed.
“Victor has the key. I have the only person foolish enough to believe he mattered to me.”
Julian stared at her.
“Mother.”
“You were useful,” Evelyn said. “That isn’t the same as being loved.”
Victor moved closer.
“You told me he was my son.”
“I told you what kept you obedient.”
“You let me believe it for thirty-seven years.”
“And you protected us for thirty-seven years.”
Victor’s expression twisted.
Elena saw the old guilt and selfishness battling inside him.
“What does the key open?” she asked.
Evelyn nodded toward a steel control box beside the shaft.
“Thomas hid the original Blackridge ledger inside the old pumping system. The key opens the release mechanism.”
“Why didn’t you retrieve it before?”
“Thomas changed the locking sequence. I needed the second code.”
“The safe code.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know it.”
“You do. Thomas left it in the recording.”
Elena remembered his message.
Where Evelyn cannot enter without revealing what she did to my wife.
Six numbers.
A date.
Not Margaret’s death. Not the crash.
The truth was connected to Caroline Ash.
Caroline had died in 1982.
“Caroline’s birthday,” Elena said.
Evelyn’s eyes sharpened.
“What was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Thomas told you.”
“No. But he left her photograph.”
Victor looked at the brass key in his hand.
“I know the date.”
Evelyn aimed the gun at him.
“Then enter it.”
Victor approached the control box. He inserted the key and typed six digits.
The mechanism clicked.
A cylindrical metal container rose from the service shaft.
Evelyn’s composure cracked with relief.
“Bring it to me.”
Victor removed the container.
Instead of obeying, he tossed the brass key into the open shaft.
Evelyn fired.
The bullet struck Victor in the abdomen.
Julian threw himself sideways, knocking Evelyn off balance despite the ropes binding him. The chair crashed against the concrete.
Elena ran toward the gun.
Evelyn struck her across the face.
Elena fell near the edge of the service shaft. Her abdomen tightened with sudden, crushing pain.
Julian shouted her name.
Evelyn raised the pistol.
Before she could fire, Victor grabbed her ankle.
She kicked his wound, but the delay was enough.
Police entered from both sides.
“Drop the weapon!”
Evelyn dragged Julian’s chair toward the shaft and placed the gun against his head.
“If I fall,” she said, “he falls with me.”
Julian looked at Elena.
For the first time, she saw no arrogance in his face. Only shame.
“Don’t save me,” he whispered.
Evelyn pulled the chair backward.
Julian twisted violently, using his weight to strike her knees.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Victor seized the metal container and pushed it toward Elena.
Evelyn lost her footing.
She caught the edge of the shaft with one hand.
Julian’s chair tipped beside her.
Elena could reach only one of them.
She lunged forward and grabbed Julian’s bound wrist.
Evelyn looked up.
“You ungrateful little thief.”
Then her fingers slipped.
She vanished into the darkness.
A distant splash echoed from below.
Police pulled Julian and Elena away from the edge.
Elena clutched her belly as another contraction seized her.
Sarah knelt beside her.
“How far apart?”
Elena cried out.
May you like
Water spread across the concrete beneath her dress.
This time, it was not from a broken bottle.
