Chapter 11 - THE SHOT THROUGH THE GLASS
Gabriel hit the concrete with Harper on top of him.
The second bullet tore through the steel door where his head had been.
"Down!"
He rolled, pulling Harper behind the solid wall beside the balcony entrance.
Pain flashed across his face as his fresh wound struck the floor.
Harper heard shouting inside.
Elias appeared with two guards.
"Shooter west building!"
A third shot cracked.
One guard fired toward the opposite rooftop.
Gabriel grabbed Harper's face between both hands.
"Are you hit?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
She looked at his side.
Blood soaked through his sweater again.
"You are not."
"Old wound."
"Still blood."
"Harper."
"Do not Harper me."
Elias looked at them.
"We need to move."
They returned to the secure interior stairwell.
Noah was already being taken down with Morrison.
Chen remained at the laptop long enough to copy the microfilm scans to three encrypted drives.
"Where are we going?" Harper asked.
Gabriel answered.
"Somewhere Malcolm does not know."
"Does that place exist?"
He looked at Elias.
Elias grimaced.
"One."
They descended six floors instead of taking the elevator.
Gabriel refused help until the fourth landing.
Then his knees buckled.
Harper caught his left arm.
"You are impossible."
"I have been told."
"By me."
"Repeatedly."
Elias took Gabriel's other side.
They exited through a construction tunnel into a delivery garage.
Two vehicles waited.
Chen stopped before getting in.
"I cannot go with you."
Harper turned.
"Why?"
"Because if I disappear now, Rourke knows I flipped."
"He already knows you helped me."
"He suspects."
Chen looked toward the city.
"Suspicion buys me hours."
"Going back could get you killed."
"Staying with Ashford could get me charged with conspiracy."
Gabriel leaned against the SUV.
"She is right."
Harper looked at him.
"You are agreeing with someone walking back toward the corrupt police captain trying to kill us?"
"I am agreeing that she is more useful inside."
Chen's mouth tightened.
"I appreciate being discussed like furniture."
Gabriel nodded.
"You are welcome."
Chen handed Harper one encrypted drive.
"Keep this on you."
She gave another to Elias.
"The third stays with me."
"If Rourke searches you?"
"He will not find it."
Harper decided not to ask.
Chen lowered her voice.
"There is something else."
"What?"
"The child welfare request was entered by a social worker named Helen Maddox."
"Do you know her?"
"No."
"But?"
"Her employee number belongs to someone who retired three years ago."
Harper understood.
"Fake."
"Yes."
"Can they still take Noah?"
"Not legally."
Chen looked grim.
"But legal is not the game they are playing."
She left.
The new safe location was an old church rectory in Charlestown owned by a foundation unrelated to any Ashford company.
Morrison had not been there in twelve years.
Malcolm had never been there at all.
At least that was what everyone believed.
Noah slept in a room behind the chapel.
Harper checked the windows twice.
Then three times.
Gabriel watched from the doorway.
"They are locked."
"I know."
"You checked."
"I know."
"Three times."
Harper turned.
"Do you have somewhere else to stand?"
"Several places."
"Use one."
He left.
Ten minutes later he returned carrying a mug of tea.
Harper glared at him.
"I thought I told you to go away."
"You did."
He set the tea on the dresser.
"I misunderstood it as a beverage request."
Harper looked at the mug.
"What kind?"
"Chamomile."
"I hate chamomile."
"So do I."
"Then why did you bring it?"
"Morrison says it calms people."
Harper stared at him.
"Has it ever calmed you?"
"No."
She laughed before she could stop herself.
The sound felt foreign.
Noah shifted in his sleep.
Harper immediately quieted.
Gabriel looked at the boy.
"He is brave."
"He is eight."
"Those are not mutually exclusive."
"He should not have to be brave."
Gabriel nodded.
"No."
Harper sat in the chair beside the bed.
"Derek used to scare him."
Gabriel did not speak.
"Never hit him."
Harper hated that she sounded as if she were defending Derek.
"But Noah knew."
"Children always know."
"He started sleeping with headphones when Derek came home late."
Her eyes burned.
"I told myself he could not hear us."
Gabriel leaned against the wall.
"You were surviving."
"He was surviving me surviving."
"Those are different things."
Harper looked at him.
"You keep saying things like that."
"Like what?"
"Things I want to believe."
"That does not make them false."
Silence settled between them.
Harper picked up the tea.
It was terrible.
She drank anyway.
After the balcony shooting, Gabriel insisted on inspecting every window himself at the rectory.
Harper watched him test the chapel latch twice.
"Now who is checking things three times?"
He looked at her.
"This is different."
"Of course it is."
"I am being rational."
"And I was what?"
Gabriel sighed.
"Walking into that sentence was a tactical error."
Harper sat on the end of a pew.
"You are scared."
"I am alert."
"You are scared."
Gabriel looked toward the stained glass.
"Fine."
"Of what?"
"Someone reaching you before I can stop them."
Harper's expression changed.
"That is not entirely comforting."
"I know."
Gabriel sat several feet away.
"I keep thinking protection means reducing risk to zero."
"You cannot."
"I know."
"Do you?"
He looked at her.
"Intellectually."
"Emotionally, I would prefer to put you and Noah in a room under a mountain until every threat is gone."
Harper raised an eyebrow.
"That sounds exactly like a kidnapping with better architecture."
Gabriel laughed quietly.
"Yes."
"Which is why I am not doing it."
Harper studied him.
"Does that frustrate you?"
"Enormously."
"Good."
"You enjoy this."
"A little."
The humor faded.
Gabriel looked down at his hands.
"Thomas hated the way my father protected people."
"How?"
"By deciding for them."
"Where they lived."
"Who they spoke to."
"What they knew."
Harper looked toward the room where Noah slept.
"Sounds familiar."
"Yes."
Gabriel's voice was quiet.
"The difference between protection and control is sometimes only visible to the person being protected."
Harper turned toward him.
"That is the smartest thing you have said."
"Do not sound so surprised."
"I am trying to encourage growth."
He smiled.
Then Harper grew serious.
"If I tell you to stop, stop."
"Even if I think you are wrong?"
"You can tell me I am wrong."
"You can argue."
"You can be furious."
"But if the decision is mine, it stays mine."
Gabriel nodded.
"Agreed."
Harper did not know whether he could keep that promise in every crisis.
But for the first time, he knew exactly what promise she required.
At 2:07 in the morning, Chen called.
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"I found the original transfer log."
Harper put the phone on speaker.
Gabriel woke Elias.
"Malcolm logged into the city system through a contractor portal," Chen said.
"He had access?"
"Someone gave it to him."
"Rourke?"
"Probably."
Keyboard clicks sounded in the background.
"But there is a bigger problem."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"There is always a bigger problem."
"The transfer that paid Derek four hundred thousand dollars did not originate from your father."
Gabriel opened his eyes.
"The microfilm says William Ashford."
"The handwritten list does."
Chen's voice sharpened.
"The bank routing does not."
"Where did it come from?"
A pause.
"A trust controlled by Eleanor Vale Morrison."
Every eye in the room turned toward Morrison.
She had entered silently behind them.
Her face went white.
"That is impossible."
Chen continued.
"The trust authorized payment at 8:14 the morning after Thomas died."
Gabriel looked at Morrison.
"Did you pay Derek?"
"No."
"Did you know the account existed?"
"Yes."
"Who had access?"
Morrison's lips trembled.
"My brother."
"Adrian."
She nodded.
"And Thomas."
Gabriel went still.
Harper stared at her.
"Thomas was dead by then."
Morrison whispered.
"Yes."
Chen spoke again.
"There is one more authorized user."
"Who?"
"A name added six months before the shooting."
The line crackled.
Then Chen said it.
"Malcolm Pierce."
A loud sound exploded through Chen's end of the call.
The phone dropped.
Harper heard Chen curse.
Then a man's voice said,
"Detective, step away from the computer."
May you like
Rourke.
The call went dead.
