Chapter 10 - The Woman in the Train Station
The address led to an abandoned train station forty miles north of the lake house.
Reed organized officers around the surrounding roads.
Mia was ordered to remain inside an unmarked vehicle.
At 11:24 p.m., a black sedan entered the station parking lot.
Brianna was driving.
Kyle sat beside her.
They had removed the SUV’s dealership tracking device before it was seized and apparently believed the police were still focused on the loan investigation.
They entered the station carrying a metal case.
Six minutes later, another vehicle arrived.
Nora stepped out.
Mia reached for the door handle.
Reed stopped her.
“Wait.”
“You knew she was coming?”
“No.”
Nora entered the station alone.
Through a surveillance feed, Mia watched her friend walk onto the dark platform.
Kyle emerged from behind a pillar.
“You should not have involved Mia,” he said.
Nora placed her hands where he could see them.
“You sent the photograph of my father.”
“We needed your cooperation.”
“You threatened him.”
“We reminded you he exists.”
Brianna approached with the metal case.
“Where are the trust documents?”
“Safe.”
“Give them to us.”
“First, tell me where Thomas is.”
Kyle smiled.
“Still negotiating.”
A train horn sounded in the distance, although the station had been closed for years.
Nora looked toward the tracks.
“Where is Evelyn?”
Brianna’s eyes narrowed.
“You were supposed to bring Mia.”
“I’m not delivering my friend to you.”
“That was the agreement.”
Mia turned to Reed.
“What agreement?”
Reed’s jaw tightened.
“We don’t know.”
On the platform, Kyle removed a phone from his pocket and played a video.
Thomas Hayes appeared seated in a small room.
He looked older than the man in the airfield photograph.
Alive.
A woman sat beside him with her face turned away.
Kyle paused the video.
“Bring Mia tomorrow, and both parents walk free.”
Nora’s voice shook.
“You said Evelyn was working with you.”
“She was.”
“What changed?”
Brianna placed the metal case on a bench.
“She remembered she had a conscience.”
Mia opened the vehicle door.
Reed grabbed her wrist.
“Do not.”
“They want me.”
“They may kill everyone once they have you.”
“Then arrest them now.”
“We need the hostages’ location.”
Mia watched Nora move closer to Kyle.
“What do you need Mia for?” Nora asked.
Kyle lifted his chin.
“Only she can open the primary account.”
“What account?”
“The one Evelyn hid before the crash.”
“How much?”
“Enough to make the trust look like spare change.”
Brianna laughed softly.
“Evelyn always trusted numbers. Unfortunately for her, Mia inherited the same habit.”
Nora looked directly toward the hidden camera.
For a second, Mia thought she could see through the darkness.
Then Nora said, “The number sequence from the photograph is incomplete.”
Kyle’s expression changed.
“What photograph?”
“The summer picnic.”
Brianna turned toward him.
“You said you searched Mia’s apartment.”
“I did.”
“You missed something.”
Kyle struck the bench with his hand.
“Where is the photograph?”
Police lights flooded the station.
Reed had heard enough.
Officers moved from every entrance.
Kyle grabbed Nora and pulled her in front of him.
Brianna opened the metal case.
Inside was not money.
It contained dozens of passports and a small electronic device.
She pressed a button.
The station lights went out.
Mia heard shouting through the surveillance audio.
Then a gunshot cracked through the darkness.
The feed returned eleven seconds later.
Nora was on the ground but moving.
Kyle had disappeared.
Brianna stood with her hands raised.
The electronic device lay broken at her feet.
An officer opened a service tunnel beneath the platform.
It led to the far side of the tracks.
Kyle’s phone was found near the entrance.
The video of Thomas and Evelyn was gone.
But a live location application remained active.
May you like
The signal was moving south.
Toward Mia’s apartment.
