Chapter 9 - AGENT HAYES
“Why are you in this picture?”
Hayes didn’t answer immediately.
Julian held it up.
“You knew my mother.”
“I knew your family.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Hayes sighed.
“I was twenty-four. Junior investigator. Your father helped fund a law-enforcement fellowship.”
“And Victor?”
“Former military contractor.”
“Thomas?”
“Foundation counsel.”
“Convenient.”
Hayes stepped closer.
“I’m not your enemy.”
“Thomas told me not to trust you.”
Her face changed.
Only for a second.
But Julian saw it.
“You said he barely spoke.”
“He spoke enough.”
Hayes looked away.
“Your father asked me to investigate Eleanor eighteen years ago.”
Julian stared.
“What?”
“Off the books.”
“Why?”
“He believed she was stealing.”
“You found proof?”
“I found more than theft.”
Hayes lowered her voice.
“Bribery. Blackmail. Judges. Contractors. Politicians.”
Julian felt sick.
“Why wasn’t she arrested?”
“Because my supervisor shut the investigation down.”
“Who?”
Hayes looked toward the ambulance.
“Robert Sloane.”
Julian remembered the mysterious payment code.
R.S.
“Sloane.”
“Former Deputy Attorney General.”
Julian’s eyes widened.
“He’s retired.”
“No,” Hayes said. “He disappeared from public life.”
“Same thing.”
“Not even close.”
Hayes pulled out her phone.
A photo appeared.
An older man getting out of a black SUV three days earlier.
Outside Eleanor’s townhouse.
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“You’ve been watching her.”
“For six months.”
“And you didn’t stop tonight.”
“We didn’t know Lily was in immediate danger.”
Julian wanted to hit something.
Hayes continued.
“Sloane is the reason cases against your mother vanished.”
“Why?”
“Because she owned him.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“No. Eleanor doesn’t own people.”
Hayes raised an eyebrow.
“She does until they become inconvenient.”
Julian looked toward Victor’s body.
A professional execution.
Loose ends.
Then an agent ran toward them.
“Hayes!”
“What?”
“We checked the perimeter cameras.”
“And?”
“The shooter never left.”
Hayes went still.
“What do you mean?”
“The shooter is still inside the mansion.”
Julian immediately looked toward Lily.
The ambulance doors were open.
May you like
The blanket was there.
Lily wasn’t.
