CHAPTER 9: THE WAREHOUSE
The blood did not belong to Elena.
Detective Cole’s team identified it as animal blood, likely purchased from a butcher.
The symbol was meant to frighten Maya.
It succeeded.
Elena’s car had been captured by a traffic camera traveling toward Boston Harbor. Lydia Mercer sat in the passenger seat.
“They went without telling anyone,” Maya said.
Cole examined the security footage.
“Your mother probably believed she was protecting you.”
“That is exactly what I used to believe when I kept secrets from her.”
Maya, Cole, and a tactical unit reached Lantern Seven shortly before midnight.
The warehouse stood at the end of a deserted pier.
Most of its windows were broken. Rusted shipping signs moved in the wind.
Elena’s car was parked outside.
The driver’s door remained open.
Inside the warehouse, they found Lydia’s handbag near a staircase and Elena’s scarf caught against a metal railing.
Then smoke appeared beneath a door at the far end of the building.
Someone had started a fire.
Firefighters were called while officers entered through a loading bay.
Maya was ordered to remain outside.
She ignored the order until Cole physically blocked her path.
“Running into that building won’t help your mother.”
“I spent years standing still while someone I loved was being hurt.”
“This is different.”
“It never feels different when you’re the one waiting.”
An explosion shattered several windows.
Flames climbed through the second floor.
Then two figures appeared on the roof.
Elena and Lydia.
They had escaped through a maintenance stairwell but were trapped above the burning section of the warehouse.
Firefighters raised a ladder.
Lydia crossed first.
Elena waited until Lydia was safe before stepping onto it.
Halfway down, part of the roof collapsed.
Maya screamed.
The ladder shook, but Elena held on.
Minutes later, she reached the ground.
Maya wrapped both arms around her.
“You could have been killed.”
Elena’s voice trembled.
“I thought Gregory might be inside.”
“What happened?”
Lydia answered.
She had received a call from a blocked number claiming Gregory was being held at Lantern Seven. The caller warned her not to involve police.
Elena had insisted on going with her.
When they arrived, no one was there.
The doors locked behind them.
Then the fire started.
“It was a trap,” Lydia said.
“Did you find anything?” Cole asked.
Elena reached beneath her coat.
She removed a small metal box.
“The person who set the fire forgot Thomas designed this building’s original accounting office. Lydia knew where he used to hide records.”
Inside the box was a bank key and a cassette tape.
The tape had been damaged by heat, but its label remained readable.
T.M. — If anything happens to me.
Lydia began to cry.
“That’s Thomas’s handwriting.”
The bank key belonged to a private institution in downtown Boston.
Records showed Thomas had rented a safe-deposit box there under an abbreviated name.
The box had remained untouched for fifteen years.
Or so the bank claimed.
At eight the following morning, Maya, Lydia, Elena, Marcus, and Detective Cole entered the vault.
The manager placed the long metal box on a private table.
Lydia inserted Thomas’s key.
Inside were financial ledgers, photographs, and several microcassettes.
Thomas had documented Charles Whitmore’s hospital acquisition scheme in extraordinary detail.
There were payments to Rebecca.
Payments to elected officials.
Payments to doctors who declared hospitals financially unstable.
One ledger contained the name of every institution Charles had secretly targeted.
The final page listed Aster Health Technologies.
Next to Maya’s company was a date.
The following Monday.
“What happens Monday?” Elena asked.
Marcus checked the state calendar.
“The emergency healthcare committee meets. They’re voting on whether Aster should be placed under temporary receivership.”
If the vote passed, Maya would lose control of her company.
Charles’s alliance was expected to be appointed as emergency administrator.
Thomas had predicted the plan years before Aster even existed.
Or someone had added the entry later.
Cole examined the ink.
“This page is newer than the rest.”
A shadow moved beyond the glass partition.
The vault manager stepped outside.
A gunshot cracked through the hallway.
The lights went out.
When emergency power returned, the metal box was empty.
May you like
Every ledger and recording had disappeared.
And Dr. Owen Pierce was standing at the end of the corridor.
