Chapter 16 - No Way Back
Miriam refused to let Claire meet Collins privately.
Detective Ruiz refused too.
Collins remained in custody, so the conversation occurred through prosecutors in a monitored interview room.
He looked smaller without his suit.
Older.
Claire had imagined this moment many times.
She expected rage.
What she felt was colder.
“You locked my son in a freezer.”
Collins looked down.
“Yes.”
“Say it while looking at me.”
He raised his eyes.
“I locked Noah in the freezer.”
“Why?”
“He saw the recorder.”
“So you tried to kill him?”
“No.”
“You left him in there.”
“I panicked.”
“You blocked Emma.”
“I know.”
“You stopped Jake.”
“I know.”
Claire leaned forward.
“How long would you have left him?”
Collins’s face collapsed slightly.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s the answer you get to live with.”
He looked away.
Ruiz intervened.
“Tell us about Daniel’s recorder.”
Collins swallowed.
“Grant gave it to Marcus after K-17 recorded us.”
“When?”
“Later that afternoon.”
“Why?”
“He wanted it destroyed.”
“Was it?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Marcus told me.”
“Why would Marcus keep it?”
“Insurance.”
Claire almost laughed.
Of course.
Everyone had evidence against everyone.
“Where is it?”
Collins hesitated.
“Marcus keeps a private evidence cache.”
“Where?”
“Blackpine.”
Ruiz frowned.
“We searched his office.”
“Not his office.”
Collins described an abandoned summit security station inside an older section of the resort.
Before a renovation, it had housed emergency radio equipment.
Marcus retained access.
“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”
Collins’s mouth tightened.
“Because if Grant thought I was cooperating, I wouldn’t survive long enough to testify.”
Claire stared.
“You’re afraid of him.”
“Yes.”
“Were you afraid when Noah was crying?”
Collins said nothing.
Ruiz asked, “What is on the recorder?”
Collins rubbed his hands.
“I heard one file.”
“What file?”
“The night Daniel died.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“What did it say?”
“Grant and Marcus arguing.”
“About?”
“Daniel.”
“Be specific.”
Collins looked at Claire.
“Grant said, ‘I told you to stop him from reaching Eleanor.’”
Claire’s pulse thundered.
“And Marcus?”
“He said, ‘I stopped him.’”
Silence.
“Anything else?”
“Grant asked what Marcus had done.”
Claire leaned closer.
“What did Marcus say?”
Collins swallowed.
“‘Enough that he won’t make the meeting.’”
Claire closed her eyes.
There it was.
Not necessarily a murder order.
But intent to interfere.
And an admission.
“What happened after Daniel died?” Ruiz asked.
“Grant called me.”
“What did he say?”
“Destroy anything linking Copper Ridge to Daniel.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Did Grant tell you Daniel’s death was planned?”
“No.”
“Did Marcus?”
“No.”
Collins’s cooperation was useful but incomplete.
The summit security cache became critical.
Ruiz obtained a warrant.
Before deputies could execute it, the resort reported a fire alarm at the old summit wing.
No fire.
But the security cabinet had been forced open.
Empty.
Someone had arrived first.
Only four people had known exactly where the recorder might be.
Collins.
His attorney.
Investigators.
And whoever had monitored them.
Internal corruption became a possibility.
Ruiz changed tactics.
She isolated the case team.
Meanwhile Northstar announced it would terminate the acquisition if unresolved criminal issues were not cleared within seventy-two hours.
Grant’s entire financial scheme was collapsing.
That made him more dangerous.
At 8:14 p.m., Claire received a text from an unknown number.
A photograph.
Daniel’s silver recorder lying on a wooden table.
Then a message.
YOU WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR HUSBAND?
COME TO BLACKPINE TOMORROW NIGHT.
ALONE.
Miriam immediately said, “No.”
Ruiz said, “Absolutely not alone.”
Claire stared at the photograph.
A small scratch ran across the recorder’s side.
She recognized it.
Daniel had dropped it while repairing their garage door.
It was real.
Another message arrived.
BRING THE KITCHEN COPY.
Grant wanted the microSD.
Claire looked at Ruiz.
“He thinks I have the only duplicate.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“That gives us leverage.”
They planned a controlled operation.
Claire would respond.
Agree to the meeting.
Police would monitor.
Jake would stay away.
Emma and Noah would spend the night with Rosa at an undisclosed location.
“No,” Emma said when Claire told her.
“You’re staying with Rosa.”
“I want to stay with you.”
“This isn’t negotiable.”
Emma’s eyes filled.
“Daddy left without telling you.”
Claire froze.
Emma continued.
“Don’t do that to us.”
The words struck harder than anything Grant had done.
Claire knelt.
“I’m not disappearing.”
“You don’t know that.”
Emma was right.
Claire took both children’s hands.
“Then I’ll tell you the truth.”
Noah watched her.
“I’m going to help the police get Daddy’s recorder from someone who may know what happened to him.”
“Is it dangerous?” Emma asked.
“Yes.”
Jake looked at Claire from across the room.
She continued.
“But police will be nearby. I am not doing what Daddy did. I am not going alone without telling anyone.”
Emma cried silently.
Claire hugged her.
“I promise I am coming back.”
“You can’t promise.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Another lesson from Daniel.
“No,” she whispered. “I can’t.”
So she changed it.
“I promise I will do everything I can to come back.”
Emma accepted that.
At midnight, Claire received one final message.
Location changed.
Not the summit security room.
The closed restaurant at Blackpine’s upper lodge.
11:00 p.m.
Then another line appeared.
COLLINS TALKED.
Claire’s blood chilled.
Ruiz read it.
“Grant knows.”
Miriam whispered, “Then tomorrow isn’t a meeting.”
Claire looked toward the dark outline of Blackpine Summit through the window.
“What is it?”
Ruiz answered.
May you like
“A confrontation.”
And for the first time since Noah’s hand appeared behind the freezer glass, there was nowhere left for anyone to retreat.
