Chapter 13 - THE COLLAPSE
“OUT!”
Police screamed the word.
Everyone moved.
Concrete dust rained from the ceiling.
Trevor had started an old mobile crane positioned beside the warehouse and swung its boom into one of the rusted roof supports.
The building groaned.
Madison clung to me.
Ryan was half-conscious.
Two officers grabbed him.
Evelyn was still upstairs.
I looked toward the catwalk.
She was trying to stand.
“EVELYN!”
Her leg buckled.
Trevor appeared behind her.
He grabbed her coat.
“You ruined everything.”
She looked at him.
“No.”
Blood covered one side of her face.
“I finally stopped helping you.”
Then she grabbed the railing.
And kicked him.
Trevor stumbled.
Police reached the upper walkway.
He ran again.
Evelyn stayed behind.
I should have hated her.
Part of me did.
Maybe part of me always would.
But when another support beam cracked above her, I ran back inside.
Claire screamed my name.
I ignored her.
I climbed halfway up the stairs.
“Evelyn!”
She looked down.
“Go!”
“MOVE!”
She crawled toward me.
A section of ceiling crashed behind her.
Madison screamed from outside.
I reached Evelyn.
She grabbed my hand.
For one second, our eyes met.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Save it.”
I pulled her down the stairs.
We made it outside seconds before part of the roof collapsed.
Dust rolled through the parking lot.
Police surrounded Trevor near the far loading dock.
He still had the gun.
Detective Miller’s corruption had already been exposed.
The financial records existed.
The recording existed.
Daniel’s video existed.
Trevor had nowhere left to go.
He still refused to surrender.
He grabbed a young officer by the vest.
Gun against the officer’s neck.
“Back up!”
Everyone froze.
Trevor’s eyes moved across the crowd.
Then he saw Madison.
He smiled.
That smile made my blood run cold.
“Your father should’ve stayed quiet.”
Madison stared back.
Then said:
“He wasn’t scared of you.”
Trevor’s smile twitched.
“Yes, he was.”
“No.”
She pointed at him.
“He was scared for us.”
The difference hit even Trevor.
His attention shifted for half a second.
The officer slammed an elbow into Trevor’s ribs.
A tactical officer fired.
Trevor dropped.
His gun skidded across the pavement.
Police rushed him.
Alive.
Hit in the leg.
Screaming.
Handcuffed.
For the first time in seven days, I could breathe.
Then I turned.
Ryan was being loaded into an ambulance.
Evelyn sat on the pavement under a blanket.
Madison stood beside me.
She looked so small.
Too small for everything she had seen.
She reached into her pocket.
“Mom.”
“What?”
She opened her hand.
The silver key.
I stared at it.
“I thought the police took that.”
“I got it back from the table at the funeral home.”
“Why?”
She looked toward the ambulance.
“Because Daddy told me there were two things the key opened.”
I froze.
“What’s the second thing?”
Madison looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
Then she turned the key over.
There was something engraved on the back that none of us had noticed.
May you like
A single word.
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