Chapter 12 - THE FARMHOUSE
Chief Hale didn’t knock.
He used a bullhorn.
“Daniel Cole, come outside with your hands visible.”
Cole looked around the room.
“Back exit?”
Mrs. Alvarez pointed toward the pantry.
“Cellar.”
Rocco grabbed the laptop.
Maeve grabbed the ledger.
Nora took Patrick’s recorder.
Outside, Hale spoke again.
“You are wanted in connection with the shooting of a police officer.”
Cole laughed bitterly.
“Which officer?”
A gunshot shattered the kitchen window.
Everybody dropped.
Rocco pulled Maeve behind the counter.
“They’re done talking.”
Mrs. Alvarez opened the cellar door.
“Move.”
Nora went first.
Maeve followed.
Rocco pushed the laptop into her hands.
“Don’t drop this.”
“What about you?”
“I’m behind you.”
Cole and Mrs. Alvarez stayed at the top of the stairs.
Maeve stopped.
“Come on!”
Cole looked at her.
“I’ll slow them down.”
“No.”
“Maeve.”
“No more people sacrificing themselves and calling it protection.”
Cole almost smiled.
“You sound like your father.”
Another shot hit the wall.
Mrs. Alvarez fired back through the broken window.
“That is a lovely family moment, but we need to go.”
They ran down.
The cellar connected to an old storm tunnel leading toward the tree line.
Above them, the front door crashed open.
Men shouted.
Maeve crawled through mud.
Her dress was still streaked with flour.
Now dirt covered the flour.
She almost laughed at the insanity of it.
Nora crawled behind her.
Rocco came next.
Gunshots echoed through the tunnel.
Maeve turned.
“Cole?”
No answer.
Then Mrs. Alvarez appeared.
Alone.
Maeve’s heart sank.
“Where is he?”
“He’s coming.”
“That means he’s not coming.”
Mrs. Alvarez grabbed her shoulders.
“Keep moving.”
They reached the woods.
Rocco pulled them behind a fallen tree.
Police lights flashed through the farmhouse windows.
Then the building exploded.
The blast knocked Maeve flat.
Heat rolled through the woods.
Nora screamed.
Rocco dragged Maeve up.
“What happened?”
Mrs. Alvarez stared at the flames.
“They destroyed it.”
Maeve searched the tree line.
“Cole!”
A figure stumbled from the darkness.
Cole.
His face was covered in blood.
Maeve ran to him.
“You made it.”
“Barely.”
He collapsed.
Rocco caught him.
Cole grabbed Maeve’s wrist.
“Hale knows about the files.”
“We still have them.”
“He knows about the locker.”
Mrs. Alvarez said, “Doesn’t matter.”
Cole shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
He coughed.
“He wasn’t looking for Patrick’s files.”
Maeve knelt beside him.
“Then what?”
Cole looked directly at her.
“He was looking for the original tape.”
Maeve frowned.
“What original tape?”
Cole struggled to breathe.
“The recording of the night your father died.”
Nora whispered, “There’s a recording?”
Cole nodded.
“Patrick called 911 from his truck.”
Rocco’s eyes narrowed.
“There was no 911 call in the report.”
“Hale erased it.”
Maeve leaned closer.
“But not completely?”
Cole shook his head.
“Dispatch backups.”
Mrs. Alvarez’s face changed.
“County archive.”
Cole nodded.
Then he said the part that made them all go silent.
“The recording includes the voice of the man who ran Patrick off the road.”
Maeve stared at him.
“Chief Hale?”
Cole swallowed.
“No.”
May you like
He looked at Nora.
“It was Dominic Vale.”
