Chapter 15 - THE MAN ABOVE MALCOLM
Harper cut through the first zip tie after nine minutes.
The blade was small, and every movement threatened to slice her wrist.
She worked slowly.
Derek had always mocked her patience.
He called it hesitation.
Tonight it was the reason she still had skin on her hand.
The tie snapped.
Harper freed her right wrist.
Then the left.
She stood carefully.
Her head still swam from whatever had been on the cloth at the warehouse.
The basement corridor outside the room was empty.
She slipped out.
Voices came from somewhere ahead.
Harper followed them until she reached a metal stairwell.
Malcolm and Derek were arguing on the landing above.
"Vale is not going to hand over the boy," Derek said.
"He will."
"You do not know Adrian."
"I know him better than you do."
"He hates Ashford more than he fears you."
Malcolm laughed.
"That is why men like Adrian lose."
Harper remained below the landing, barely breathing.
Derek lowered his voice.
"What happens after Gabriel comes?"
"He dies."
"And Harper?"
A pause.
"She is no longer useful."
Harper's blood turned cold.
Derek did not answer immediately.
Then,
"No."
Malcolm sounded amused.
"Excuse me?"
"She comes with me."
"You still think there is a marriage to save."
"That is not your concern."
"Everything becomes my concern when weakness interferes with business."
Derek stepped closer.
Harper could see his shoes through the railing.
"I did everything you asked."
"Almost."
"I cleaned Thomas's scene."
"Poorly."
"I got into Mara's house."
"Eventually."
"I married Harper because it kept me close."
"Against instructions."
Derek's voice hardened.
"And I found the evidence."
"No."
Malcolm's answer was almost gentle.
"The child found the evidence."
"You found bruises."
Harper heard Derek inhale sharply.
"Be careful."
"Or what?"
A gun clicked.
Harper froze.
Malcolm continued.
"You were always useful because you mistook cruelty for power."
His voice dropped.
"Men like you are easy to point."
Derek said nothing.
"A frightened wife."
"A frightened witness."
"A frightened rookie cop."
"You spent your life waiting for someone to tell you whom you were allowed to hurt."
Harper closed her eyes.
For once, someone had found language sharp enough to wound Derek.
"I am done taking orders," Derek said.
Malcolm laughed.
"No, Derek."
"You are done being useful."
A shot exploded above Harper.
She covered her mouth to stop herself from crying out.
A body hit the landing.
For one terrible second she thought Malcolm had killed Derek.
Then she heard Derek groan.
"Shoulder only," Malcolm said.
"Consider it severance."
Footsteps moved away.
Harper waited.
Then she climbed three steps.
Derek lay against the wall, gripping his left shoulder.
Blood covered his hand.
He saw her.
Shock crossed his face.
"How did you-"
Harper kicked his gun down the stairs.
Derek stared at her.
"Help me."
The request was so absurd she almost thought she had imagined it.
"Why?"
"Malcolm is going to kill you."
"You spent three years doing a slower version."
Derek winced.
"Harper."
"No."
She stepped back.
"You do not get to use my name like a rope anymore."
"Noah is with Vale."
That stopped her.
Derek saw it and immediately tried to use it.
"I know where."
"Tell me."
"Get me out first."
Harper looked at his bleeding shoulder.
"You are negotiating badly."
"If I pass out, you lose the location."
"Then talk quickly."
Derek laughed once through the pain.
"You really have changed."
"No."
Harper crouched just beyond his reach.
"I think this is who I was before you taught me to be afraid of her."
Derek looked away.
"Vale has Noah at the old ferry office on Border Street."
"How many men?"
"Four when I saw him."
"Why there?"
"Adrian wants Morrison."
Harper frowned.
"His sister."
"He thinks she has the original trust documents."
"Does she?"
"I do not know."
Derek's face tightened with pain.
"Malcolm has been playing both families for years."
"You mean Ashford and Vale."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Malcolm does not want to work for either one."
Harper thought of the evidence.
"He wants both organizations."
Derek nodded.
"Thomas figured it out."
"So Malcolm ordered Thomas killed."
Derek looked at her.
"I did not shoot him."
"You said that already."
"Rourke did."
Harper went still.
"Captain Rourke shot Thomas?"
"He fired first."
"First?"
Derek swallowed.
"Thomas's driver fired back."
"Then what did you do?"
Derek stared at the blood on his hand.
"I changed the scene."
"How?"
"Moved the weapon."
"Deleted a call log."
"Told the ambulance crew he was already dead."
Harper felt sick.
"But he was alive."
"Yes."
"And you followed him to the hospital."
"Yes."
"You threatened my mother."
Derek closed his eyes.
"Yes."
Harper stood.
"Then you helped kill him."
"I did not pull the trigger."
"You made sure the trigger disappeared."
Derek looked at her.
For the first time, he had no argument.
Harper started down the stairs.
"Wait."
She turned.
"Malcolm has another partner."
Harper stopped.
"Who?"
"Someone above Rourke."
"Name."
"I never met him."
"Then how do you know?"
"Payments."
Derek struggled to sit straighter.
"Malcolm called him the Judge."
Harper's skin prickled.
"A real judge?"
"I do not know."
"What did he do?"
"Made warrants disappear."
"Moved cases."
"Protected Rourke."
"Protected me."
Derek looked almost ashamed of admitting it.
"Every complaint against me landed in the same administrative channel."
Harper stared.
"So you knew someone was burying them."
"Yes."
"And you kept hurting people because you knew you could."
Derek did not answer.
Harper's voice went cold.
"I hope the shoulder hurts."
She left him there.
Harper paused at the bottom of the stairwell after leaving Derek wounded above her.
She could hear him breathing through clenched teeth.
For years, the sound of his pain would have pulled her back automatically.
Derek could hurt her and still become the injured one five minutes later.
He would punch a wall, split his knuckles, and make Harper bring ice.
He would shove her, then sit on the edge of the bed saying he hated himself until she comforted him.
His remorse had often demanded more care than her injuries received.
Harper put one foot on the next stair down.
Derek called her name.
She stopped.
"Please."
The word was new.
Harper looked back.
"What?"
"Do not leave me here."
His face was pale.
For one dangerous second, memory tried to make him smaller than he was.
The man who brought soup when she had the flu.
The man who danced badly at their wedding.
The man who once carried Noah home after the boy fell asleep at a fireworks show.
Those things had happened too.
That was what made abuse so difficult to explain to people who wanted villains to be cruel every minute.
Harper gripped the railing.
"I am calling an ambulance when I reach a phone."
Derek stared at her.
"That is all?"
"That is more than you gave me when my ribs were broken."
His eyes dropped.
"I said I was sorry."
Harper felt no triumph.
Only exhaustion.
"You said sorry after deciding I would stay."
"Those apologies were part of the cage."
Derek looked as if she had struck him.
Harper continued down the stairs.
Compassion did not require returning to the cage just because the person who built it was bleeding inside.
Upstairs, she found an office with a working landline.
She called the only number she could remember besides Derek's.
Gabriel's.
He answered after half a ring.
"Harper?"
She almost broke at the sound of his voice.
"I am at St. Brigid's."
"Where inside?"
"Basement west stairwell."
"Are you hurt?"
"Noah is at the old ferry office on Border Street with Adrian Vale."
Gabriel's breathing changed.
"How do you know?"
"Derek told me."
"Where is Lawson?"
"Bleeding on a stairwell."
A pause.
"Did you shoot him?"
"No."
"Disappointing."
Harper almost laughed.
"Malcolm did."
"Stay where you are."
"I need to get Noah."
"Elias is already moving."
"How?"
"Chen found Vale's vehicle on traffic cameras."
Harper closed her eyes in relief.
"Gabriel."
"I am here."
"Malcolm has someone above Rourke."
"Who?"
"Derek only knows a name."
"What name?"
"The Judge."
Silence.
Then Gabriel said,
"I know who that is."
Harper gripped the phone.
"Who?"
"Deputy Commissioner Charles Hale."
"That is not a judge."
"No."
Gabriel's voice turned hard.
"But his father was."
Harper remembered the forged transfer order.
Signed by Deputy Commissioner Hale.
The circle closed.
Then a floorboard creaked behind her.
Harper turned.
Malcolm stood in the doorway.
May you like
He smiled at the phone in her hand.
"Thank you for finding the last name for me."
