Chapter 13 - THE LAST DEBT
Sadie almost laughed.
Mick O’Shea had threatened her brother, stolen her money, and watched her suffer for years.
Now he wanted mercy.
Victor kept his gun trained on Anthony.
“Move away from the elevator.”
Anthony tightened his grip on Mick.
“The drive.”
The timer dropped to eighty seconds.
Sadie looked at Mick.
“Where are the backup files?”
“If he shoots me, you’ll never find them.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Mick swallowed. “A warehouse near the East River.”
“Which warehouse?”
“Pier Nineteen. Unit Four.”
Anthony’s eyes hardened.
“You fool.”
He pulled the trigger.
The gun clicked.
Empty.
Mick twisted free and knocked Anthony from his wheelchair.
Victor pushed Sam’s gurney into the elevator. Sadie and Mick jumped inside.
Anthony grabbed Victor’s ankle.
“You owe me everything!” the old man shouted.
Victor looked down at his father.
“You taught me what kind of man I never wanted to become.”
He kicked free as the elevator doors closed.
The building exploded before they reached the surface.
The elevator stopped violently.
Darkness swallowed them.
Sam’s monitor beeped in the black.
Sadie found the emergency hatch.
“We climb.”
Victor forced the hatch open. A ladder ran up the shaft.
Mick went first. Sadie secured Sam in an emergency evacuation harness while Victor climbed beneath him.
Smoke filled the shaft.
Another explosion shook the cables.
Mick reached the top and pushed open the exterior hatch.
Cold morning air poured in.
Sadie climbed out after Sam.
Victor was ten feet below when the ladder tore away from the wall.
He caught a cable with one hand.
“Victor!”
Mick grabbed the drive from Sadie’s pocket and ran.
She had a choice.
Chase the evidence or save Victor.
Sadie dropped to the edge of the shaft.
“Give me your hand!”
“I’m too heavy.”
“Stop arguing!”
She wrapped the evacuation strap around her wrist and lowered the other end.
Victor grabbed it.
The metal edge cut into Sadie’s injured hands. Her bandages turned red.
Sam, barely conscious, reached out from the gurney and grabbed her belt.
Together, brother and sister pulled Victor up.
They collapsed on the grass as flames consumed Hopewell behind them.
Victor looked at Sadie’s hands.
“You let Mick take the drive.”
“I wasn’t going to let another Costello leave me with a dead man and unanswered questions.”
Sirens approached.
For one second, she thought they were safe.
Then black police SUVs surrounded the grounds.
Commissioner Warren stepped out.
Sadie had seen his photograph inside the facility.
He was one of Hopewell’s illegal patients.
“Victor Costello,” Warren announced, “you’re under arrest for the Hopewell murders.”
Victor looked at the burning building, then at the armed officers.
Mick had taken the evidence.
Anthony was buried beneath the ruins.
And every surviving witness could be made to disappear.
Commissioner Warren pointed at Sadie.
“Take her brother back into medical custody.”
Sadie stepped in front of Sam’s gurney.
“No one touches him.”
Warren smiled.
“You still don’t understand, Miss Hayes.”
May you like
He raised his gun.
“The hospital owns your brother.”
