Chapter 7 - THE TRAP AT PIER NINE
Pier Nine had not existed officially for twenty-five years.
The original warehouse had burned in 1998.
Or so public records claimed.
Anthony knew better.
A replacement structure sat beneath an abandoned freight terminal south of Philadelphia.
“It was used for off-book cargo,” Anthony explained.
Nicholas drove.
I sat beside him.
Anthony sat in back.
Michael followed with men Nicholas trusted.
Police stayed farther away.
Raymond had warned us he would kill the hostages if marked vehicles approached.
Nicholas hated every second.
“You are not going inside,” he told me for the fifth time.
“He asked for me.”
“He can ask for the moon.”
“He has my father.”
“Which one?”
I looked at him.
Nicholas grimaced.
“Sorry.”
“No. Fair question.”
We almost laughed.
Under different circumstances, it might have been funny.
Instead it was just another reminder of how absurd our lives had become.
Anthony leaned forward.
“Raymond doesn’t really want Rachel.”
Nicholas glanced in the mirror.
“He wants the key.”
“Yes.”
“So we give him a fake.”
Anthony shook his head.
“He’ll know.”
“How?”
“Because he has Gabriel.”
I turned.
“Gabriel knows the key?”
“He created it.”
“So he knows what it looks like.”
“Yes.”
Nicholas’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“Then we control what Raymond doesn’t know.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
Nicholas looked at me.
“That we opened the locket.”
I understood.
Raymond thought the key was still hidden inside.
We replaced it with a similar piece from Michael’s equipment case.
The real key stayed taped beneath Anthony’s watch.
At 5:41 p.m., we reached the terminal.
Raymond called.
“One car.”
Nicholas answered.
“You get one car.”
“No police.”
“You get no police.”
Anthony raised an eyebrow.
Nicholas muted the call.
“I didn’t say there were no police.”
Anthony almost smiled.
We drove inside.
The warehouse smelled of oil, rust, and river water.
Raymond stood beneath a single hanging light.
Thomas sat tied to a chair.
Gabriel sat beside him.
Victor was on the floor.
Camille stood near a steel support, wrists bound.
For one impossible moment, I saw every lie of my life arranged in one room.
Thomas looked at me.
His eyes filled.
“Rachel.”
I stared back.
I wanted to run to him.
I wanted to hit him.
I did neither.
Then I saw Gabriel.
My biological father.
He looked older than Anthony but carried himself differently.
Rougher.
Harder.
His gaze stayed on me.
“Laura’s eyes,” he whispered.
That made me angry immediately.
“You don’t get to say that.”
Pain crossed his face.
Good.
Raymond smiled.
“Family reunion.”
Nicholas stepped slightly in front of me.
“Let them go.”
“Key first.”
I pulled the locket from beneath my shirt.
Raymond’s eyes sharpened.
“Take it off.”
Nicholas said, “Release one person.”
Raymond laughed.
“You don’t negotiate well when your girlfriend is involved.”
I stared at Nicholas.
Girlfriend?
He ignored it.
“Release Camille.”
Camille looked surprised.
So did I.
Raymond smiled.
“Your fiancée?”
“Former.”
Camille flinched.
Nicholas continued.
“She’s the least useful hostage.”
Cruel.
Strategic.
Raymond thought about it.
Then cut Camille’s restraints.
“Walk.”
Camille moved toward us.
Halfway across the warehouse, Raymond raised his gun.
“Stop.”
She froze.
“Locket.”
I removed it.
Camille looked at me.
Her eyes were red.
“Rachel, don’t.”
Raymond struck Gabriel.
I moved forward.
Nicholas caught my hand.
I looked at him.
He whispered, “Trust me.”
I released the locket.
It slid across the concrete.
Raymond picked it up.
Opened it.
Found the fake key.
He smiled.
“Finally.”
Gabriel looked at Anthony.
Something passed between them.
Raymond walked toward an old steel locker built into the floor.
He inserted the fake key.
Nothing happened.
His smile vanished.
He tried again.
Then slowly turned.
“You lied.”
Nicholas shrugged.
“I learned from family.”
Raymond raised his gun toward me.
Gabriel lunged sideways, knocking Raymond’s arm.
The shot hit the ceiling.
Everything exploded.
Nicholas tackled Raymond.
Anthony rushed toward Gabriel.
Camille dropped behind a crate.
Thomas kicked one of Raymond’s men.
Michael’s team entered through two side doors.
Gunfire cracked.
I crawled behind machinery.
Within twenty seconds, Raymond’s men were down or disarmed.
Raymond himself slammed Nicholas against a steel beam.
Nicholas hit him back.
Hard.
Anthony shouted, “Nick!”
Raymond pulled a knife.
I saw it before Nicholas did.
“Nicholas!”
He turned.
The blade sliced his side instead of his chest.
Nicholas grunted.
Gabriel hit Raymond from behind with a metal bar.
Raymond collapsed.
Police stormed in seconds later.
Then silence.
Real silence.
Raymond lay handcuffed on the concrete.
Nicholas pressed a hand to his bleeding side.
I ran to him.
“You’re hurt.”
“It’s shallow.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know where my organs are.”
“Congratulations.”
He almost smiled.
Across the warehouse, Thomas and Gabriel were freed.
Camille knelt beside Victor.
Victor was alive but weak.
Anthony stood between his brother and son.
Nobody seemed to know what to say.
Then Raymond laughed from the floor.
All of us looked at him.
“You idiots.”
Nicholas stepped toward him.
“What?”
Raymond smiled through blood.
“You think that key opens this locker?”
Anthony looked at the steel compartment.
Raymond shook his head.
“Gabriel moved the evidence years ago.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“I never told you that.”
“No.”
Raymond’s smile widened.
“Laura did.”
My heart stopped.
Gabriel turned pale.
“That’s impossible.”
Raymond laughed.
“She told me the night she died.”
I stepped forward.
“What did she tell you?”
Anthony grabbed my arm.
Raymond looked directly at me.
“That the key doesn’t open a box.”
“What does it open?”
“A safe-deposit vault.”
“Where?”
Raymond’s eyes gleamed.
“The bank your mother worked in.”
Gabriel said, “Laura never worked at a bank.”
Raymond looked delighted.
“Not Laura.”
He pointed at me.
“Susan.”
Thomas’s face changed.
I saw it.
“You knew,” I whispered.
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Rachel…”
“What did Susan do?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Your mother wasn’t just protecting you.”
“What was she protecting?”
“The evidence.”
My pulse raced.
“Where?”
Thomas swallowed.
“First Philadelphia Trust.”
Nicholas frowned.
“That bank closed fifteen years ago.”
Thomas nodded.
“But the vault didn’t.”
Anthony stared.
“What?”
Thomas looked at all of us.
“It was purchased privately when the bank liquidated.”
“By whom?” Nicholas asked.
Thomas turned toward Victor.
Victor lifted his head weakly.
“Evelyn DeLuca.”
Nicholas went still.
His mother.
Again.
Thomas continued.
“She bought the entire underground vault through a shell company.”
“Why?”
“To control what Susan hid there.”
“Did she find it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because she never had the key.”
I looked at Anthony’s watch.
The real key.
Nicholas said, “Then we go now.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the vault has a second requirement.”
“What?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Rachel.”
I hated how often my name had become the answer to terrible questions.
“What requirement?”
“Your fingerprint.”
I stared.
“That makes no sense. I was a baby.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Not your fingerprint now.”
“Then what?”
He looked toward my right hand.
A small white scar crossed my thumb.
I had had it all my life.
Thomas whispered:
“Laura pressed your infant thumb into wax the night before she died.”
My stomach turned.
“The vault requires the original wax seal and the key.”
“Where is the seal?”
Thomas looked at me with tears in his eyes.
“I gave it to Susan.”
“And where did she put it?”
“She never told me.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
I answered.
A woman’s voice spoke.
Old.
Familiar.
“Rachel?”
I stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
Susan Hayes.
The mother who had supposedly died eighteen months ago.
She whispered:
“Don’t go to the vault.”
I gripped the phone.
“You’re alive too?”
Then she began crying.
“Rachel, the evidence isn’t protecting you.”
“What is it?”
May you like
A long silence.
“It proves Nicholas’s father ordered Gabriel’s death.”
