CHAPTER 7 — THE SHOT IN THE DARK
CHAPTER 7 — THE SHOT IN THE DARK
The gunshot left my ears ringing.
I dropped to the concrete floor.
Somewhere ahead, metal scraped violently.
A chair crashed.
Then came a low groan.
“Elena!” Wells’s voice sounded faintly through my earpiece.
I pressed one hand against the wire.
“I’m down.”
“Are you hit?”
“I don’t know.”
My body felt numb from shock.
I ran my hands across my chest, stomach, and arms.
No blood.
The emergency lights flickered on.
Dim red illumination flooded the warehouse.
Kerr was no longer beside the table.
Chloe lay on her side, still tied to the chair.
Blood spread across the concrete near her shoulder.
I crawled toward her.
“Chloe.”
“I’m alive.”
Her voice was strained.
The bullet had grazed the upper part of her arm.
Not fatal.
Not yet.
“Where is he?”
She looked toward the northern wall.
“Office corridor.”
A metal door swung slowly in the darkness.
Kerr had escaped deeper into the warehouse.
The blue box was gone.
I pulled the small blade hidden inside my watch clasp and cut the plastic ties around Chloe’s wrists.
Her skin was raw beneath them.
“Can you stand?”
“I think so.”
“Pressure on the wound.”
I tore a strip from the inside lining of my blazer and wrapped it around her arm.
The loading door behind us rattled.
The tactical team was trying to force it open.
Kerr had locked the internal mechanism.
“Why did you tell me not to save you?” I asked.
Chloe’s face twisted.
“Because he planted another dose in your mother’s medication bag.”
“What?”
“He switched one of the bottles before we left the house.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Which medication?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was it labeled?”
“Yes, but the pills weren’t hers.”
My heart started pounding.
The hospital had taken possession of her medications.
If staff gave her the wrong pills—
I pressed the wire.
“Wells, call the hospital. Stop all oral medication immediately. Tell them one bottle may be contaminated.”
“I heard her,” he said. “They’re being notified.”
A burst of static followed.
Then silence.
Chloe leaned against the table.
“I tried to stop him.”
“You helped him for years.”
“I know.”
“You drugged her food.”
Her eyes filled with tears, but I felt no sympathy.
Not yet.
“I did.”
“You hit her.”
“Yes.”
“You forced her to sign papers.”
“Yes.”
Each answer came quieter than the last.
“Why?”
Chloe looked toward the corridor where Kerr had disappeared.
“Because Julian told me she was destroying our future.”
“By keeping her own money?”
“He said the company debt was bigger than anyone knew. He said if we didn’t control her assets, we’d lose everything.”
“So you tortured her.”
“I told myself it was temporary.”
“Rope marks are not temporary.”
She closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“No. You know now because someone put a gun against your neck.”
The loading door bent inward with a loud metallic groan.
The team would enter soon.
But Kerr was getting farther away.
And he had the box.
I picked up the gun he had dropped during the blackout.
Chloe stared at me.
“You know how to use that?”
“Yes.”
It was a standard compact pistol.
One round fired.
Several remaining.
I checked the safety.
Then I moved toward the corridor.
Chloe grabbed my sleeve.
“He wants you to follow him.”
“I know.”
“There are cameras everywhere.”
“I know.”
“He said the warehouse was designed to trap anyone who came through the main entrance.”
That stopped me.
“What kind of traps?”
“Doors that lock remotely. Gas lines. Old refrigeration rooms.”
“Where does the corridor lead?”
“To the control office.”
“And after that?”
“The freezer level.”
A sharp electronic sound came from above.
The loading door stopped moving.
Then an automated voice echoed through the building.
REFRIGERATION SYSTEM ACTIVATED.
Cold air rushed from ceiling vents.
The temperature began dropping immediately.
Chloe’s face drained.
“He turned the old system on.”
“How cold?”
“Below zero.”
The tactical team outside hammered harder against the loading door.
Kerr’s voice came through the warehouse speakers.
“Your father lasted eleven minutes after the drug reached his heart.”
I froze.
“You have less time than that before this room becomes unlivable.”
His laughter crackled through the speakers.
“Come find me, Elena.”
A row of steel shutters dropped over the windows.
The warehouse sealed itself.
I looked at Chloe.
“Where is the control office?”
She pointed toward the corridor.
“Second door on the left.”
“Can you open the loading door from there?”
“If Kerr hasn’t disabled it.”
I handed her the gun.
She stared at it.
“You trust me?”
“No.”
“Then why give me this?”
“Because I need both hands free.”
I pulled a metal bar from the floor and moved toward the dark corridor.
Behind us, the temperature alarm began counting down.
Ten minutes until emergency lock.
Chloe followed.
The corridor smelled like rust and frozen meat.
At the first corner, we found the blue box.
It lay open on the floor.
Empty.
Except for my father’s envelope.
I picked it up.
The paper was damp.
The seal had been broken.
Inside was one handwritten page.
I recognized Dad’s writing immediately.
Elena, if you are reading this, Julian found out.
May you like
Below it was one final sentence.
Do not trust your mother.
