Chapter 12 - What Claire Found
The standoff lasted nine minutes.
It felt like nine years.
Voss claimed my father had covered up a fatal warehouse fire eighteen years earlier. Three workers died. According to him, my father blamed Voss to protect the company.
I wanted to dismiss it as another lie.
Then Vanessa spoke.
“Claire found the original inspection report.”
Voss’s jaw tightened.
“She found proof the fire started because Voss ordered a disabled sprinkler system to save money,” Vanessa continued. “Your father discovered it afterward. He bought out Voss and gave the report to a lawyer.”
“Shut up,” Voss said.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You’re going to kill me anyway.”
Lucas looked between them.
“You said nobody died because of that fire.”
Voss’s voice turned cold.
“People die in business.”
That sentence changed Lucas.
I saw it.
His gun lowered half an inch.
Then Emma moved.
She kicked a loose metal bucket from the mezzanine.
It crashed to the floor.
Voss turned instinctively.
Lucas swung the gun toward him.
Vanessa grabbed Emma and ran.
Everything exploded at once.
Police rushed the side doors.
Voss fired.
Lucas fired back.
I threw myself behind a steel column.
Someone screamed.
Then Ortiz shouted, “Police! Drop it!”
When the noise stopped, Lucas was on the floor clutching his shoulder.
Voss had disappeared through a rear loading door.
Vanessa was on her knees, arms around Emma.
My daughter saw me and ran.
I dropped the backpack and caught her.
“I knew you’d come,” she sobbed.
“I will always come.”
Ortiz’s officers chased Voss into the yard.
They found his abandoned SUV beside the train tracks.
But no Voss.
Vanessa surrendered without resistance.
As officers handcuffed her, she looked at me.
“There’s something you still don’t know.”
May you like
I almost walked away.
Then she said, “Claire wasn’t the first person we locked in that room.”
