Chapter 13 - The School Gate
Marcus ripped the IV line from his arm.
Claire grabbed her coat.
Davis was already moving.
“School security has the suspect contained.”
“Who?” Claire demanded.
“No ID yet.”
They rushed downstairs.
Claire called the officer guarding Lily.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Her hands shook.
“Pick up.”
Marcus grabbed her shoulder.
“We’re going.”
They reached the school in eight minutes.
Police cars blocked the entrance.
Parents stood across the street crying.
Claire jumped from the car.
“Where’s my daughter?”
An officer stopped her.
“Ma’am—”
“I am Lily Mercer’s mother!”
The officer recognized her name.
“She’s inside.”
“Is she safe?”
“Yes.”
Claire nearly collapsed.
Marcus caught her.
A man had tried to enter with forged custody documents.
Police detained him.
Claire saw him sitting beside a patrol car.
David Hale.
She stared.
“You?”
Hale’s face was bruised.
“I wasn’t trying to take her.”
Davis stepped forward.
“Then explain the fake papers.”
“Julian sent them.”
Claire laughed in disbelief.
“And you just followed instructions?”
“He said if I didn’t, he’d release everything he has on me.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“You nearly helped him kidnap a child.”
“I stopped.”
“When?”
Hale looked ashamed.
“At the gate.”
“What changed?”
Hale looked at Claire.
“I saw Lily.”
Claire said nothing.
“She looked terrified.”
Hale swallowed.
“I realized I had spent years telling myself Julian was dangerous but manageable.”
He shook his head.
“He isn’t.”
Davis motioned to officers.
“Take him.”
Hale quickly said, “Wait.”
Everyone stopped.
“He has a second location.”
Davis turned.
“What location?”
“A house outside the city.”
“Address?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcus grabbed Hale’s shirt.
“Then you’re useless.”
“I know how to find it.”
Davis pulled Marcus away.
Hale continued.
“Julian uses a private server for blackmail files. I helped set it up.”
Claire stared.
“You helped him.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“I can trace it.”
Davis narrowed his eyes.
“Why should we trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
Hale looked at Claire.
“But I can still help.”
They took him to a police command vehicle.
Hale logged into a secure terminal.
“Server last pinged eighteen minutes ago.”
“Location?”
He entered several commands.
A map appeared.
Marcus leaned forward.
“That’s outside town.”
Hale zoomed in.
A farmhouse.
Claire looked at the address.
She knew it.
“No.”
Marcus looked at her.
“What?”
“That was Dad’s childhood home.”
They drove there immediately.
The house stood alone at the end of a dirt road.
No lights.
No vehicles.
SWAT entered.
Empty.
But the basement was different.
Computer servers.
Hard drives.
Stacks of cash.
Passports.
Weapons.
And photographs.
Dozens of photographs.
Claire.
Marcus.
Lily.
Samuel Reed.
Evelyn.
Judges.
Police officers.
Clients.
Victims.
Davis stared.
“This is the whole operation.”
Claire found a wall covered in timelines.
Her life.
College.
Marriage.
Pregnancy.
Lily’s birth.
Every major event.
Planned.
Tracked.
Manipulated.
Marcus stood behind her.
“He built your life like a case file.”
Claire felt something inside her go cold.
Then she noticed one photograph at the center.
Taken that morning.
Marcus in the hospital.
Claire beside him.
Lily at school.
Fresh ink.
Someone had been inside the farmhouse only hours earlier.
A phone sat on the desk.
It rang.
Claire answered.
Julian’s voice.
“You finally found the real basement.”
Claire stared at the walls.
“This ends today.”
“No.”
Julian laughed.
“Today is when you finally understand.”
A screen across the room turned on.
Live video appeared.
Their mother.
Helen Reed.
Sitting in her kitchen.
Unaware.
May you like
Julian stood behind her.
And pressed a knife against her throat.
