Chapter 14 - THE MAN WHO CAME TO THE FUNERAL
Ben Hall reached Madison before Rachel did.
He hooked one arm around the child and pressed a gun against her shoulder.
“Back up!”
Lorraine froze.
Madison made one small sound.
“Mom.”
Rachel stopped breathing.
Hall dragged Madison toward the side door while Ruiz kept her weapon on him.
“Ben, don’t do this.”
“You think Vivian was the top?” he snapped.
“Shut up,” Vivian said from the floor.
Hall laughed. “Even in handcuffs, rich people think they own the room.”
Rachel forced herself to focus.
“Take me instead.”
Hall looked at her.
“Why would I trade leverage?”
“Because I can get you the ledgers.”
Thomas had told Rachel where copies were hidden at Clarke Development. Hall’s eyes sharpened.
“You know where they are?”
“Yes.”
“Rachel, don’t,” Ruiz said.
Rachel ignored her.
“You want the evidence, you need me.”
Hall hesitated.
Madison suddenly bit his hand.
He shouted.
She dropped to the floor.
Ruiz fired.
Hall’s gun flew from his hand.
Rachel ran to Madison and pulled her close.
Hall collapsed against a pew, bleeding from the forearm.
Ruiz cuffed him herself.
“Seven years,” she said. “Seven years I trusted you.”
Hall smiled through the pain.
“That’s why it worked.”
Vivian joined Mercer in custody, but Marla remained missing. By midnight, police believed the immediate threat was over. Rachel wanted to believe them.
Then Thomas called from the hospital.
“Rach, where’s Madison?”
“With me.”
“Good.”
His voice sounded strange.
“What?”
“I remembered something else from the funeral home.”
Rachel’s hand tightened around the phone.
“What?”
“When I was drifting in and out, before the coffin… I heard two people arguing.”
“Neil and who?”
“No.”
Thomas swallowed.
“Marla and someone else.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see them.”
“But you heard them?”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
Thomas paused.
“One of them said, ‘If he wakes up, the girl goes too.’”
Rachel looked down at Madison.
“Which girl?”
May you like
Thomas’s answer came quietly.
“They weren’t talking about you.”
