Chapter 16 - The River Garage
Ortiz said absolutely not.
I went anyway, with a tracker taped beneath my belt and officers two minutes behind me.
The river garage was an abandoned concrete structure beneath the old Sterling freight terminal.
Water dripped from the ceiling. My footsteps echoed between empty loading bays.
Victor stood beside a black sedan.
Calvin was ten feet behind him.
Three archive boxes sat on the hood.
"You look like Claire," Victor said.
My skin crawled.
"Don't say her name."
"She loved me."
"You hid her son and destroyed Henry's life."
"Henry stole my son."
I almost laughed.
"You mean he raised the child you were too ashamed to claim."
Victor's face hardened.
There it was.
Not love.
Ownership.
"Sign this," he said.
He held out a document transferring my voting rights into a temporary holding trust.
"In exchange, you get every original record. Henry stays alive. Your wife and child stay untouched."
"You already tried to take my son."
"Calvin misunderstood instructions."
Behind him, Calvin's jaw tightened.
I looked at Calvin.
"He'll blame you when this collapses. You know that, right?"
Victor snapped, "Shut up."
Calvin's eyes moved toward him.
I kept going.
"Eleven years of cleaning up his crimes. You think he's taking you with him?"
Victor reached inside his coat.
Police lights suddenly flashed at both entrances.
"Don't!" Ortiz's voice thundered.
Calvin stepped away from Victor.
Victor froze.
Then he grabbed one of the archive boxes and kicked it toward the river drain.
Papers spilled across the wet concrete.
I lunged for the box.
Victor ran.
Calvin didn't follow.
Officers tackled Victor at the ramp.
I dropped to my knees among soaked files.
One small black memory card had slid under the sedan.
I picked it up.
Victor saw it from the ground.
And for the first time, he looked terrified.
May you like
"Noah," he shouted. "Don't watch that."
So of course I did.
