Chapter 13 - The Farmhouse
Ross wanted a sniper position.
Noah wanted to tear the farmhouse apart with his bare hands.
Marlene texted again.
NO POLICE OR I LEAVE WITH HER.
Ross whispered, "She's watching the road."
"Then she'll see your cars."
"We'll pull back."
Noah grabbed my wrist.
"You are not walking in there."
"I have to."
"No."
"Noah, she wants control. She wants me scared. She wants me alone."
"Exactly."
I touched his face.
"If Sofia cries, she'll get angry."
"Don't say that."
"I know her."
Ross fitted a tiny transmitter beneath my shirt.
"If we hear a weapon, we move."
I walked the last half mile alone.
"Sofia?"
My mother sat at the table.
Sofia was in a car seat beside her.
Alive.
Awake.
"Give her to me."
Marlene smiled.
"You always were impatient."
"She's a baby."
"So was Emily."
I stopped.
"What do you want?"
"The steel case."
"The police have it."
"Copies."
"No."
Her face sharpened.
"Then you made this harder."
A man stepped from the kitchen.
I recognized him from family Christmas parties.
Gordon Price.
My grandfather's old accountant.
He held a pistol.
Marlene wasn't protecting a dead man's reputation.
She was protecting a living network.
Gordon placed a document on the table.
"Sign."
"What is it?"
"A disclaimer of trust interest."
I laughed.
"You kidnapped my child to make me give up money?"
"Not money," Marlene said.
"Then what?"
"Records."
Gordon tapped the paper.
"If you control the holding company, auditors get access to archived ledgers."
"And people go to prison."
His eyes went flat.
"People who still have influence."
Sofia whimpered.
I moved toward her.
Gordon raised the gun.
"Don't."
Marlene reached down and touched Sofia's cheek.
That tiny reaction told me everything.
She was already afraid of my mother.
"Take your hand off her."
Marlene smiled.
"Sign first."
I picked up the pen.
Then I heard three faint knocks inside the wall behind me.
May you like
The signal Ross had given me.
Police were already inside the house.
