Chapter 7: The Fire
Smoke filled the storage unit faster than we could move.
Thomas used a metal shelf to break through the thin wall separating our unit from the next one. Michael helped Mrs. Alvarez crawl through first.
My lungs burned.
The baby kicked sharply, as if warning me not to stop.
Thomas wrapped his shirt around my mouth and guided me through the opening. Seconds after we reached the adjoining corridor, flames swept across the room we had just escaped.
Outside, firefighters were already arriving.
Someone had called them before the fire began.
Federal Agent Rachel Monroe stepped from an unmarked vehicle and identified herself.
“Nathan Vance contacted me three weeks ago,” she said.
She had received the second collection of evidence, but Eleanor’s political connections had delayed the investigation.
“Where is my husband?” I asked.
Rachel hesitated.
“We believe he is being held somewhere connected to the Vance family.”
I gave her Charles’s will and Nathan’s recording.
For the first time, we had someone with enough authority to challenge Eleanor.
But Rachel warned us that the investigation had been compromised. Captain Mercer was not acting alone.
Someone inside the federal task force had been feeding Eleanor information.
That was how she had found us at the storage facility.
Michael gave Rachel the names of every official photographed on Nathan’s wall. She promised to move us to a protected location.
Before we left, Thomas noticed something among the firefighters’ equipment.
A blue medical transport tag.
The name printed on it was Rebecca Hall.
The destination listed beneath it was Saint Margaret’s Continuing Care Center.
Rebecca Hale.
Rebecca Hall.
The names were close enough to be deliberate.
We drove to the facility before dawn.
The administrator denied ever treating anyone named Rebecca Hale, but Rachel produced a warrant.
Room 312 was empty.
The sheets were still warm.
A nurse finally admitted that an unconscious woman had been transferred less than an hour earlier.
“Transferred where?” I asked.
The nurse looked toward the security camera in the corner.
Then she slipped a folded note into my hand.
North River Clinic. Ask for Dr. Bennett. Do not trust Agent Monroe.
I looked up sharply.
May you like
Rachel was standing directly behind me.
And she had seen the note.
