Chapter 9 - The Trap
Claire called Daniel immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
She called his office.
His assistant said Daniel had left twenty minutes earlier.
“For where?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire called Rachel.
Within minutes, Mercer security was tracing Daniel’s company vehicle.
It was heading toward an industrial property outside the city.
Claire knew the address.
Cole Development owned it.
“Call the police.”
Rachel already had.
Vanessa stood near the window.
Claire looked at her.
“You knew where he was going.”
Vanessa nodded.
“My father told him there was another copy of Thomas’s evidence there.”
Claire stared at her.
“You let Daniel go?”
“I didn’t know until afterward.”
Claire grabbed her coat.
Rachel blocked the door.
“You’re not going.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
Claire looked at Vanessa.
“Where exactly?”
Vanessa gave her the address.
Rachel cursed.
“Claire.”
“My father died because everyone waited too long to believe him.”
“This is different.”
“No.”
Claire’s voice hardened.
“It isn’t.”
They didn’t go alone.
Police arrived first.
Daniel’s car was outside the warehouse.
The driver’s door was open.
Claire’s stomach dropped.
Inside, officers found Daniel near the back office.
He was conscious.
A cut marked his forehead.
Two men had fled when police arrived.
Richard wasn’t there.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“What are you doing here?”
She almost laughed from relief.
“Apparently rescuing you.”
“You weren’t supposed to come.”
“Neither were you.”
Daniel looked toward Vanessa.
His expression hardened.
“She warned you?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa stood silently.
Daniel wiped blood from his eyebrow.
Then he looked at Claire.
“There was no evidence here.”
Claire nodded.
“It was a trap.”
Daniel gave a humorless laugh.
“I figured that part out.”
An officer approached.
“We found something.”
He held up a phone.
“Dropped by one of the suspects.”
Vanessa looked at it.
Her face changed.
“That’s my father’s second phone.”
The officer looked at her.
“You’re certain?”
May you like
“Yes.”
And suddenly Richard Cole had made his first major mistake.
