Chapter 7 - THE SECURITY CHIEF'S TERRIBLE SECRET
"I want Marcus Hale detained immediately," Agent Whitcomb said.
I stood in the hospital corridor, gripping the phone that had carried Grant's last words.
Somewhere in Chicago, the man who had protected me was being held by people who wanted him dead.
And now the only person who knew where he might be was suspected of betraying him.
"No," I said.
Dana turned toward me.
"Hannah, the access records show his badge entered Grant's office. He also claimed to be tracking a vehicle whose official location has been falsified. We cannot ignore that."
"I'm not asking you to ignore it."
"Then what are you asking?"
"Find out what he knows before you arrest him."
Mara Ellis nodded.
"She's right. Whoever cloned or used that security credential may also have access to the company's surveillance system."
Dana studied us.
Then she called her field supervisor and requested a separate tactical response team.
No officers connected to Kessler would be included.
We found Marcus in the hospital parking garage.
He was standing beside his SUV, staring at his phone.
When he saw us, his expression tightened.
"Is Grant alive?"
Dana raised her identification.
"Mr. Hale, I need you to come with me."
Marcus looked at the badge.
Then at me.
"What happened?"
"Your access credential was used to authorize the cancellation of Thomas Mercer's brake inspection," I said.
His face went pale.
"That's not possible."
"Then explain it."
He ran a hand over his head.
"Eight months ago, Caleb called me and said Thomas needed documents from Grant's office. Grant was out of town."
"Did you let Caleb inside?" Dana asked.
Marcus hesitated.
"Yes."
My heart sank.
"He said he was retrieving an insurance file," Marcus continued. "I opened the office for him. He was Grant's partner. He had authorization to be there."
"What did he do?"
"I waited in the hallway."
"How long?"
"About ten minutes."
Dana exchanged a look with Mara.
"That's enough time to use an unlocked workstation if he had stolen credentials."
Marcus looked sick.
"I had no idea."
"Did you tell Grant afterward?" I asked.
"No. I didn't think it mattered."
I stared at him.
"And when Thomas died?"
"I remembered Caleb's visit. I asked him whether he'd accessed the security system."
"What did he say?"
"He told me to forget the whole thing."
Marcus lowered his eyes.
"Then he threatened my daughter."
The parking garage seemed to grow colder.
"You have a daughter?" I asked.
"Sophie. She's eleven."
His voice cracked.
"Caleb showed me photographs of her walking home from school. He said accidents happen to children too."
Dana stepped closer.
"Did you report the threat?"
"To whom? Kessler was standing beside him when he made it."
I looked at Marcus differently.
For six years, he had stood beside Grant, apparently fearless.
Now I saw the terror he'd been carrying.
"Did you help Caleb frame Grant?" I asked.
"No."
"Did you know he was going to kill Thomas?"
Marcus shook his head.
"I suspected something after the crash, but I couldn't prove it. And every time I asked questions, Caleb mentioned Sophie."
"Why did you stay?" Dana asked.
"Because if I resigned, I couldn't watch what he was doing."
He looked at me.
"And because Grant needed somebody inside that house who wasn't working for Caleb."
I wanted to believe him.
But I had learned what trust could cost.
"Then help us find Grant."
Marcus opened his phone.
"I have a transmitter in Grant's watch. Kessler's men disabled the vehicle tracker, but they didn't remove the watch."
"Can you locate it?"
"The signal is weak. It last appeared near the old municipal pump station."
I remembered the location.
My father had inspected that building twelve years earlier.
I opened his black notebook and searched the pages.
There it was.
A hand-drawn diagram of the pump station.
I showed it to Dana.
"My father marked an old maintenance tunnel beneath the north wall."
She studied the drawing.
"That tunnel isn't on the current municipal plans."
"Because it was sealed during renovation. But Dad wrote that the exterior entrance was never filled in."
Marcus leaned closer.
"That would let a team approach without passing the main gate."
Dana immediately contacted her tactical commander.
Within twenty minutes, we were driving toward the abandoned facility.
I sat in the command vehicle beside Mara.
Agent Whitcomb remained with the tactical team.
Marcus was allowed to assist only under supervision.
Nobody trusted anyone completely anymore.
And perhaps that was the only reason we had a chance.
The old pump station stood beside a neglected stretch of industrial waterfront.
Its windows were boarded.
A rusted fence surrounded the property.
Beyond it, a freight train passed slowly through the darkness.
Dana studied a tablet displaying the building's layout.
"Two heat signatures on the ground floor. Three below."
"One could be Grant," I said.
"Possibly."
Marcus pointed to a passage beneath the building.
"That's where the transmitter signal is coming from."
Dana spoke into her radio.
"Teams Alpha and Bravo, approach the north service entrance. Hold until confirmation."
I watched the tactical officers disappear into the darkness.
Every second felt like an hour.
Mara sat beside me, working through the files we had copied from Thomas's drive.
"There's something I don't understand," she murmured.
"What?"
"Caleb didn't start by stealing huge amounts. The first false contracts were only a few thousand dollars."
"Why does that matter?"
"Because small transactions don't explain why witnesses were murdered."
She opened another spreadsheet.
"Look at the dates."
The earliest suspicious payments occurred shortly before my father's death.
Several were made to a company named Northstar Recovery.
Mara frowned.
"That company didn't perform any municipal services."
"What did it do?"
She searched through the archived vendor descriptions.
Then she looked at me.
"It provided private security and debt collection."
A chill went through me.
"Caleb was paying people to threaten witnesses."
"That's what it looks like."
She opened another payment record.
The recipient was a private contractor whose name had appeared repeatedly in my father's notebook.
Paul Kessler.
Suddenly, Dana's voice came through the radio.
"We've entered the basement."
Gunfire erupted.
I grabbed the edge of my seat.
"Officer down!" someone shouted.
Then static.
A horrible silence followed.
"Grant?" I whispered, though there was no way he could hear me.
The radio crackled again.
"One suspect secured. One fleeing through the eastern access corridor."
Another voice answered.
"Hostage located."
My heart leaped.
"Is he alive?" I demanded.
No one answered.
Then Dana spoke.
"Grant Mercer is alive. He's injured, but conscious."
I covered my mouth.
Tears spilled down my cheeks.
Marcus exhaled so heavily that I realized he'd been holding his breath.
A few minutes later, two tactical officers emerged from the building.
Grant walked between them.
His hands were no longer cuffed.
Blood stained his shirt, and his face was bruised.
But he was walking.
I opened the vehicle door before anyone could stop me.
"Hannah!"
I ran toward him.
He looked up.
For one second, surprise crossed his face.
Then he caught me as I threw my arms around him.
I held him so tightly that he winced.
"You're hurt!"
"I've had better nights."
His voice was rough.
I pulled back and touched the cut above his eyebrow.
"I thought they'd killed you."
He looked at my tear-streaked face.
"They tried."
"What happened?"
"Kessler wanted me to sign a confession. He said if I admitted ordering my father's death, the rest of my family would be left alone."
"Did you?"
"No."
Grant swallowed.
"He told me Caleb had been planning this since my father discovered the accounts."
I looked into his eyes.
"Then we have proof."
"We have part of it."
He glanced toward the pump station.
"Kessler escaped through a drainage passage before the tactical team reached him."
My heart sank.
Grant touched my cheek.
"You found me."
"I found my father's old drawings."
A faint smile crossed his face.
"Daniel Reed saved another life."
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then Grant pulled me close again.
I could feel his heartbeat against my cheek.
I had spent eleven months trying to be invisible inside his house.
Now I knew I would never look at him the same way again.
A car approached.
Dana stepped out, carrying a sealed evidence bag.
"We recovered the documents Kessler wanted Grant to sign," she announced. "We also found a phone containing communications with Caleb."
"Enough to arrest him?" Grant asked.
"Enough to strengthen the case. But he'll know the operation failed."
Marcus suddenly looked down at his phone.
His face drained of color.
"Sophie."
Grant turned.
"What about her?"
Marcus showed us the screen.
A photograph had arrived from an unknown number.
An eleven-year-old girl sat on the floor of an unfamiliar room, crying.
A thick chain secured the door behind her.
Below the photograph was a message.
YOUR DAUGHTER HAS PAID FOR YOUR DISLOYALTY.
Marcus staggered backward.
"No. No, please."
His phone rang.
He answered.
Caleb Rourke's voice came through the speaker.
"Hello, Marcus. I believe we need to discuss your daughter's future."
Grant stepped forward.
"Caleb."
There was a long pause.
Then Caleb laughed.
"Grant? My goodness. You really are difficult to kill."
Grant's expression hardened.
"Touch that little girl, and you'll answer for it."
Caleb's voice turned cold.
"Then bring me Hannah Reed."
I stopped breathing.
"Why me?" I whispered.
Caleb answered as though he had heard.
"Because her father left something I couldn't find twelve years ago."
May you like
He paused.
"And until Hannah gives it to me, Sophie Hale isn't coming home."
