Chapter 9 - UNIT 317
The storage facility sat outside the city.
Police opened Unit 317 before sunset.
Inside were twelve filing cabinets.
Two computers.
Boxes of deeds.
Medical records.
Marriage licenses.
Photographs.
And files containing women’s names.
Dozens of them.
Daniel’s family had not targeted four victims.
They had targeted thirty-one.
Some had lost homes.
Some had lost businesses.
Several were dead.
Ruiz stood between the cabinets.
“This could take down everyone.”
Marcus opened one box.
Inside were financial ledgers.
Payments to judges.
Doctors.
Notaries.
Police officers.
Daniel’s organization was larger than we imagined.
Then Jenna found a folder marked WALKER.
Inside was Michael’s original investigation.
And photographs from the day he died.
One showed Robert near the construction site.
Another showed Daniel speaking to the safety supervisor twenty minutes before the platform collapsed.
My hands shook.
“They killed him.”
Ruiz didn’t answer.
She didn’t need to.
A burned cell phone lay inside the folder.
A technician recovered one audio clip.
Michael’s voice.
Then Daniel’s.
“You should have sold.”
Michael answered,
“You should stay away from my family.”
Daniel laughed.
“You won’t have one much longer.”
The recording ended.
I pressed my fist to my mouth.
Ruiz said quietly,
“We’ll get him.”
My phone rang.
Daniel again.
“Did you find the unit?”
He knew.
Somehow he knew.
I answered.
“You murdered Michael.”
Silence.
Then Daniel sighed.
“Michael made things difficult.”
I nearly screamed.
“You killed my husband.”
“I didn’t touch him.”
“That’s not the same thing as innocent.”
“No.”
His calmness terrified me.
“Where is Lily?”
“Safe.”
“You keep saying that.”
“She’s safer with me than she was with Michael.”
I couldn’t process the sentence.
“What does that mean?”
“Ask yourself why Michael left evidence everywhere except with you.”
“Because he was protecting me.”
“No.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“He didn’t trust you.”
I knew it was manipulation.
I knew.
Still, it hurt.
Then Lily shouted in the background.
“Mom! Train!”
Daniel cursed.
I heard a crash.
The call ended.
“Train,” Ruiz said.
She pulled up maps.
“There are six active freight lines within the likely radius.”
Marcus looked at the storage key.
“Wait.”
The company name printed on it was Whitmore Industrial Storage.
He typed quickly.
“Whitmore owns an abandoned packaging plant near the north freight yard.”
Ruiz grabbed her radio.
We drove there with sirens screaming.
The plant appeared empty.
Then we heard a child crying.
“Mom!”
I ran toward the sound.
Ruiz grabbed me.
“Stay behind us.”
Officers entered.
A chair lay overturned.
Rope on the floor.
A pink sweater.
Lily’s.
But she was gone.
On the wall, someone had written one sentence in black marker.
BRING CLAIRE ALONE.
Below it was an address.
Marcus recognized it.
May you like
“It’s Hawthorne.”
The psychiatric hospital Daniel had planned to lock me inside.
