Chapter 11 - THE EXCHANGE
The police told me not to answer.
So I answered.
WHERE?
Three dots appeared.
Then:
EAST RIVERTON.
THE OLD TOWER.
MIDNIGHT.
NO POLICE.
Officer Ramirez read over my shoulder.
“You are not going alone.”
“They’ll see you.”
“We can handle that.”
“What if they hurt Sophie?”
“We’re not sacrificing you.”
I looked at her.
“That’s not your choice.”
Mom grabbed my shoulders.
“No.”
I pulled away.
“You spent four years being afraid.”
She froze.
“I’m done.”
At 11:48 p.m., I entered the abandoned East Riverton construction site wearing a hidden microphone.
Police surrounded the area at a distance.
William insisted on coming.
Ramirez refused.
He came anyway.
The tower had never been completed.
Concrete columns rose against the night sky.
Wind moved through empty floors.
“Emma.”
Sophie’s voice echoed somewhere above.
I ran toward the stairs.
“Emma, slow down,” Ramirez whispered through my earpiece.
I ignored her.
Third floor.
Fourth.
Fifth.
Then I saw Sophie tied to a chair.
Peter Walsh stood behind her.
Beside him was another man I had never seen.
Peter smiled.
“You really are Michael’s daughter.”
“Let her go.”
“Card first.”
I held up an empty envelope.
Peter’s smile disappeared.
“Don’t play games.”
“Sophie first.”
He raised a gun.
My heart stopped.
“Card.”
I tossed him the envelope.
He caught it.
Opened it.
Empty.
Peter laughed.
“That was stupid.”
“No.”
William’s voice came from the darkness.
“That was.”
Peter turned.
William stepped into view.
“What are you doing here?”
William looked at him.
“Cleaning up my company.”
Peter aimed the gun at him.
“You always were sentimental.”
William didn’t move.
“You killed Michael Carter?”
Peter laughed.
“No.”
My breath caught.
“Grant ran him off the road.”
Peter nodded.
“Grant panicked.”
“Then what did you do?”
Peter looked at me.
“I made sure he stayed quiet afterward.”
My stomach turned.
“You killed my father.”
“He was bleeding out.”
“You killed him.”
“He was going to destroy everything.”
Sophie began crying.
I moved toward her.
Peter pointed the gun at me.
“Stop.”
Then the second man suddenly grabbed Sophie’s chair.
“Time.”
Peter looked toward the stairs.
He knew.
Police.
“Move!”
He dragged Sophie toward the unfinished edge of the building.
I screamed.
“Let her go!”
Peter smiled.
“You Carter girls really are expensive.”
Then Grant’s voice came from the stairwell.
“Peter.”
Everyone froze.
Grant stepped onto the floor.
May you like
He wasn’t in handcuffs.
And he was holding a gun.
