Chapter 7 - THE FIRE ESCAPE
Claire pulled Lily from the bed and carried her into the hall.
The bedroom window rattled. Atlas planted himself between it and them. Detective Ellis drew her gun and called for backup.
“Bathroom,” she told Claire. “Lock the door.”
Claire obeyed. Lily trembled against her shoulder.
“Atlas will come?”
“He’s with Detective Ellis.”
The window broke.
Claire heard a man stumble inside, followed by Atlas’s bark and Ellis shouting, “Hands up!”
There was a thud. Then silence.
Ellis knocked on the bathroom door. “It’s me. You can come out.”
A man in a gray jacket sat handcuffed on the bedroom floor. He claimed he was there to take photographs. His camera held pictures of the estate, the safe house, and Lily’s bedroom window.
“Who hired you?” Ellis asked.
The man glanced at Claire and said nothing.
At the station, he finally gave them a name. He worked for an investigator hired through one of Rourke’s companies. He had taken the photographs outside Grant’s gates too.
“He told me the kid was important,” the man said. “I figured he wanted to scare Whitmore.”
“Who told you?” Ellis pressed.
“Victor.”
Grant arrived at the station with the metal case. He gave Ellis the drive and watched her sign it into evidence.
“Is that everything?” she asked.
“It’s everything I kept.”
The records connected Rourke to years of payments, threats, and property transfers. Ellis began preparing warrants. Then a technician called her into the hall.
The drive had been opened three days earlier.
Grant frowned. “That case hasn’t left my study.”
“Someone accessed it,” Ellis said. “The system recorded the date.”
Grant thought of Victor entering his office with the gate report. He had stood by the desk while Grant answered a call.
“What did he copy?”
Ellis’s face was grim. “We’re checking.”
Her phone rang before she could say more. A warehouse listed in the records was on fire.
Grant had one more call to make. It was to Claire.
“Victor knew about the drive,” he said. “I think he copied it.”
Claire looked through the station window at Lily and Atlas sitting together on a bench.
“If he already has the records, why is he still after her?”
Grant had no answer.
May you like
Then Ellis returned with one.
“The files include a witness statement,” she said. “Claire, it has your name on it.”
