Chapter 10 - THE CHURCH
We reached Saint Michael’s in seventeen minutes.
Rain poured across the church steps.
David grabbed my arm.
“You stay behind me.”
“No.”
“Catherine.”
“He wants me.”
“He wants the card.”
“I’m carrying it.”
Actually, I wasn’t.
Before leaving the hospital, we had made three copies.
Rachel had sent one encrypted package to a judge she trusted.
Alessandro had another.
The card in my pocket was empty.
Mercer didn’t know that.
David looked at me.
“You sure?”
“No.”
It was the truth.
But I walked through the church doors anyway.
Candles burned along the walls.
Mercer stood near the altar.
Two armed men beside him.
Emma sat on one side.
Logan on the other.
When Logan saw me, his whole face changed.
“Mommy!”
“Stay right there, baby.”
Mercer smiled.
“Touching.”
David stepped in.
Mercer laughed.
“The dead husband.”
“You have me,” David said. “Let the kids go.”
“You always were dramatic.”
“Let them go.”
“No.”
Rachel entered behind us.
“Daniel.”
His smile disappeared.
“Rachel.”
“You’re finished.”
“You prosecutors say that a lot.”
“We copied everything.”
A flicker in his eyes.
Good.
He hadn’t expected that.
Mercer recovered.
“You’re bluffing.”
Rachel held up her phone.
“Judge Holloway has the files.”
Mercer’s face tightened.
Alessandro’s voice came from the back of the church.
“And so do several reporters.”
Mercer turned.
Alessandro walked in slowly.
Still pale.
Still injured.
Still somehow terrifying.
“You made one mistake,” Alessandro said.
Mercer laughed.
“Only one?”
“You thought criminals were the only people who hated you.”
Police sirens sounded outside.
Mercer smiled again.
“My police.”
Rachel shook her head.
“Not this time.”
Mercer looked toward the windows.
The smile faded.
Federal internal-affairs vehicles blocked the street.
Baltimore detectives arrived behind them.
Different unit.
Different commander.
Mercer grabbed Logan.
I screamed.
He pressed a gun against my son’s side.
Everything stopped.
“Back away.”
David went white.
“Daniel.”
“BACK AWAY!”
We did.
Logan cried.
“Mommy!”
I forced my voice to remain calm.
“Look at me, sweetheart.”
Mercer backed toward the side door.
“Give me the card.”
I pulled it out.
“Take it.”
“Throw it.”
I threw it halfway across the aisle.
Mercer stared at it.
Greed.
Fear.
Years of crimes sitting inside something smaller than a fingernail.
He shifted his attention for one second.
Logan bit his hand.
Hard.
Mercer screamed.
David lunged.
The gun fired.
May you like
I heard the shot.
Then David fell.
