Chapter 13 - The Church in Camden
Vincent said no before Grace finished reading the address aloud.
Grace looked at him.
“I wasn’t asking.”
“You are not going.”
“There it is again.”
“This time I do not care.”
Grace sat straighter.
“You don’t care that you’re ordering me around?”
“I do not care if you are angry at me.”
Vincent’s voice sharpened.
“You are thirty-one weeks pregnant with severe preeclampsia and someone who has been surveilling you wants you at an abandoned church.”
“So obviously I’m not walking in there alone.”
Vincent stopped.
Grace held up the phone.
“But whoever sent this thinks I might.”
Detective Blake’s expression changed.
Maya looked at Grace with new interest.
“You want to use the invitation.”
“Yes.”
Hannah folded her arms.
“No.”
Grace looked at her.
“I’m not leaving the hospital.”
Hannah paused.
“That was the correct answer.”
Grace continued.
“But someone can make them think I am.”
Marco, standing near the door, finally spoke.
“Decoy vehicle.”
Blake nodded slowly.
“We can work with that.”
Vincent looked at both of them.
“No.”
Grace stared at him.
“You just said I’m not going.”
“You aren’t.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“The problem is whoever sent that message expects you.”
“Yes.”
“And if they realize it is a trap, they may change tactics.”
Grace’s voice became quiet.
“They are already changing tactics.”
She placed one hand over her daughter.
“They bought my medical records.”
“They watched my apartment.”
“They sabotaged my appointment.”
“They leaked my identity.”
“What would you prefer?”
“That I lie here and wait for them to find a better idea?”
Vincent said nothing.
Grace leaned back against the pillows.
“You taught me something yesterday.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“People like this count on everyone else reacting to what they do.”
Vincent frowned.
“I did not teach you that.”
“You didn’t have to say it.”
Teresa almost smiled.
Vincent did not.
Detective Blake took the phone.
“We can spoof location data.”
“We can send a vehicle matching the one Ms. Miller has been seen using.”
“She does not have a vehicle,” Vincent said.
Grace raised a hand.
“Thank you for announcing my financial situation again.”
Blake ignored both of them.
“We can use one of the hospital’s patient transport vans.”
Maya looked at her.
“That seems unethical.”
“Then we use one of Caruso’s cars and make a show of hiding it.”
Marco nodded.
“That will be more believable.”
Vincent stared at the group.
Grace could see the moment he realized he was losing the vote.
He hated it.
Finally, he looked at her.
“If this happens, you stay in this room.”
“Yes.”
“You answer no unknown calls.”
“Yes.”
“You do not leave the floor without Hannah.”
Grace glanced at Hannah.
“That feels excessive.”
Hannah smiled sweetly.
“It is now a medical order.”
Grace sighed.
“Fine.”
The operation began at dusk.
A black sedan left Hawthorne’s underground garage with a woman in the back seat wearing a hooded coat similar to Grace’s.
Two unmarked police cars followed at a distance.
Marco rode in the front passenger seat.
Vincent was not supposed to go.
He went anyway.
Grace discovered that after seeing a traffic camera feed on Blake’s tablet.
“That is him.”
Blake looked at the screen.
“Yes.”
“He promised to stay here.”
“No.”
Maya corrected her.
“He promised you would stay here.”
Grace stared at the lawyer.
“You are enjoying this.”
“A little.”
The convoy reached Camden forty minutes later.
The abandoned church stood behind a rusted iron fence.
Its windows were boarded.
The stone steps were black with rain.
Grace watched through a live police feed.
Her hands were cold.
Teresa sat beside her.
“That side door.”
Grace looked at her.
“What?”
“That is where Rebecca came in with you.”
Teresa’s voice shook.
“You were wearing a yellow coat.”
Grace stared at the screen.
“I had a yellow coat in pictures.”
“I remember.”
“You hated the hood.”
Grace looked at her aunt.
For a second, the criminal investigation disappeared.
There was only a woman who remembered Grace as a toddler.
Then Blake raised one hand.
“Movement.”
Everyone looked at the feed.
A figure entered the church through the rear door.
Tall.
Male.
Hood up.
Vincent and Marco waited outside while tactical officers entered through two sides.
The decoy woman approached the altar.
A voice echoed through the building.
“Grace?”
Grace’s blood turned cold.
She knew that voice.
Not well.
But she had heard it.
At the hospital.
Through the intercom.
“Eric?”
Teresa looked at her.
“What?”
Grace leaned closer to the tablet.
The hooded man stepped into view.
It was Eric Dalton.
Blake swore.
Eric raised both hands.
“I’m unarmed.”
Officers surrounded him.
Marco entered.
Vincent followed.
Eric looked at the decoy.
“That’s not Grace.”
“No,” Vincent said.
Eric’s face drained.
“I told you not to come.”
Vincent stopped.
“You sent the message?”
“Yes.”
Grace stared at the feed.
Eric continued quickly.
“I needed to get Grace away from the hospital without Daniel seeing.”
Vincent’s voice hardened.
“Why would Daniel see her in the hospital?”
“Because he still has someone inside.”
Grace’s eyes snapped toward Hannah.
Hannah went pale.
Vincent stepped closer to Eric.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You seem to know enough to arrange this.”
Eric reached slowly inside his coat.
Officers raised weapons.
“Easy.”
He removed a small flash drive.
“This was in my safe-deposit box.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“Marco said the box was emptied.”
“I moved this before I came to the hospital.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t trust anyone.”
Grace whispered at the screen.
“That makes two of us.”
Eric held out the drive.
“Daniel gave me access to a secure portal when he paid me.”
“I downloaded everything I could.”
“What is on it?”
“Emails.”
“Payments.”
“Medical records.”
Eric’s face tightened.
“And a file called R.M. CONTINGENCY.”
Vincent took the drive.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“I couldn’t open it.”
“Why bring Grace here?”
Eric looked around the ruined church.
“Because Daniel mentioned this place in one of the emails.”
“He said Rebecca hid something here.”
Teresa stood abruptly beside Grace.
“The church.”
Blake looked at her.
“What did Rebecca hide?”
Teresa’s face had gone white.
“I don’t know.”
Then she looked at Grace’s necklace.
“No.”
Grace followed her gaze.
“What?”
Teresa stepped closer.
“The pendant.”
Grace touched it.
“What about it?”
“When Rebecca brought you here, she took the pendant off.”
Grace stared.
“She gave it to the priest for ten minutes.”
“Why?”
“She said she needed him to make a copy of something inside.”
Grace’s fingers tightened around the oval pendant.
“Inside?”
Teresa reached for her own matching half.
“Grace.”
Her voice shook.
“These were never solid.”
She pressed a fingernail into a nearly invisible seam along the edge.
The pendant clicked open.
Inside Teresa’s half was empty.
Grace stopped breathing.
Her hands trembled as she pressed the same seam on Rebecca’s pendant.
For years, she had thought the scratch was damage.
It was a latch.
The oval opened.
Something tiny and dark slid into her palm.
A microfilm strip.
Hannah leaned closer.
Grace stared at it.
Her mother had carried evidence around her neck.
Then placed it around Grace’s neck before she died.
Blake’s phone rang.
She listened for three seconds.
Then her face changed.
“What hospital employee?”
Grace looked at her.
Blake ended the call.
Hannah spoke first.
“What?”
Blake looked toward the hallway.
“Security found a nurse trying to access Grace’s medication cabinet with someone else’s badge.”
Hannah went rigid.
“Who?”
Blake showed her the photograph.
Hannah’s face drained of color.
“That’s not a nurse.”
Grace looked at the image.
The woman wore hospital scrubs and a surgical cap.
Hannah whispered.
“That’s Daniel Shaw’s wife.”
May you like
Lucia Caruso Shaw.
