CHAPTER 22: THE MAN ELIZABETH FEARED
Khloe confronted the demolition supervisor.
“There is a person inside the building.”
“We completed two searches.”
“You missed the underground level.”
“There is no underground level on the approved plans.”
Khloe showed him Elizabeth’s permit.
The supervisor examined it, then shook his head.
“This document was canceled in 1999.”
“By whom?”
He turned the page.
Charles Rourke’s signature appeared at the bottom.
The supervisor agreed to delay demolition for thirty minutes.
No longer.
Khloe, Harrison, Emma and Ava entered the old ambulance bay.
They removed a steel panel from the floor and descended into the service tunnel.
The air smelled of dust and chemicals.
Water dripped from corroded pipes.
Ava used Sloan’s utility codes to open the first security gate.
At support column forty-nine, they found a circular steel door.
Three identification panels were built into the wall.
Khloe placed her hand against the first.
Harrison activated the second.
The third requested witness authorization.
Rebecca was somewhere beyond the door.
“She cannot reach the panel,” Harrison said.
A speaker crackled above them.
Rourke’s voice filled the tunnel.
“Elizabeth always did enjoy complicated locks.”
Khloe looked toward the ceiling.
“You’re listening.”
“I have been listening to your family for twenty-eight years.”
“Where is Rebecca?”
“Close enough to hear you.”
A second speaker activated.
Rebecca cried out.
“Do not open it!”
Rourke continued calmly.
“The room contains documents capable of destroying Cole Urban Development. Your mother understood that. Your father eventually did too.”
“You murdered Samuel Ruiz,” Harrison said.
Silence followed.
Then Rourke laughed softly.
“So you finally remembered his name.”
“Who was he?”
“The engineer who refused to approve the replacement supports.”
Harrison saw another fragment of the forgotten night.
A man bleeding beside Daniel’s car.
Rourke holding a metal tool.
Daniel shouting.
Samuel attempting to stand.
“I saw you attack him,” Harrison whispered.
“You saw your father make a choice.”
“What choice?”
“To protect you.”
Harrison’s breathing changed.
Rourke explained that Samuel had survived the first attack.
Harrison had tried to drive him to a hospital.
Rourke pursued them.
Their cars collided.
Harrison lost control and crashed.
Daniel arrived before the police.
He found Samuel dying in the road and Harrison unconscious behind the wheel.
Rourke gave him a choice.
Report the truth and allow Harrison to be charged in a fatal collision—or hide Samuel’s body and preserve the family.
Daniel chose silence.
“You manipulated him,” Khloe said.
“I understood him.”
“You turned his love into fear.”
“Love is fear when there is enough to lose.”
Khloe looked at the locked door.
“My mother found Samuel’s body.”
“She found the burial records,” Rourke answered. “That was why she built this room.”
The witness panel suddenly activated.
Rebecca’s voice came through the system.
“My name is Rebecca Shaw. I confirm that the conditions of disclosure have been met.”
The third light turned green.
The steel door opened.
Rebecca lay inside an old isolation chamber, her wrists bound.
Harrison ran toward her.
Then Ava noticed a red light blinking above the entrance.
“Stop!”
An ignition wire ran along the ceiling.
Rourke had allowed Rebecca to open the room because he wanted them inside it.
Flames erupted behind them.
May you like
The service tunnel filled with smoke.
And the steel door began closing again.
