Chapter 10 - The Wrong Enemy
Police reached the hangar in eleven minutes.
Ryan arrived in nine.
Ortiz nearly had him arrested for interfering.
The hangar doors were partly open.
Inside sat a Mercer Alpine corporate helicopter.
No rotor movement.
No pilot.
A black SUV stood nearby.
The rear door was open.
“Emma!” Ryan shouted.
Ortiz grabbed him.
“Stay behind us.”
He ignored her.
Then a child cried from inside the hangar office.
“Dad!”
Ryan broke free.
Emma was sitting beneath a desk.
Alive.
Unhurt.
Celeste stood three feet away holding a fire extinguisher.
Victor Hale lay on the floor.
Blood ran from his temple.
Ryan stopped.
Nothing made sense.
Emma ran to him.
He dropped to his knees and crushed her against his chest.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Did he touch you?”
“He grabbed me.”
Ryan looked at Victor.
He wanted to kill him.
Ortiz entered with officers.
“Hands where I can see them!”
Celeste raised both hands.
“I called you.”
Ryan stared at her.
“You?”
“He was taking her out of state.”
Celeste’s face was pale.
“I followed him.”
“How did you know?”
“I tracked his company phone.”
“You said you didn’t know where he was.”
“I lied.”
Ryan almost lunged at her.
Ortiz stepped between them.
“Everyone stops talking.”
Victor groaned.
Paramedics moved in.
He was arrested before leaving the hangar.
The unconscious protection officer later confirmed Victor had struck him.
Security footage showed Victor carrying Emma from the chalet wrapped in a blanket.
Celeste’s appearance complicated everything.
She had indeed tracked him.
She had indeed stopped the helicopter from leaving by disabling its fuel cutoff and confronting him.
She had struck Victor when he moved toward Emma.
For one brief, confusing moment, Celeste had saved the child she had abused.
Emma clung to Ryan.
“Aunt Celeste said hide.”
Ryan looked at his sister.
Celeste did not meet his eyes.
At the station, Ortiz separated everyone.
Victor asked for a lawyer.
Celeste did too.
Ryan sat with Emma in an interview room.
“What happened?”
Emma spoke slowly.
“Mr. Victor came upstairs.”
“Did you know he was there?”
“No.”
“He said you got hurt.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
“He told you I was hurt?”
“He said we had to go to the hospital.”
“Then what?”
“I got scared because Mrs. Palmer was yelling downstairs.”
“Did he show you a weapon?”
Emma shook her head.
“He said if I screamed, you might die.”
Ryan’s hands trembled.
He forced them still.
“And Aunt Celeste?”
“She opened the car door at the airport.”
“What did she say?”
“She told Mr. Victor, ‘You were never supposed to touch her.’”
Ryan stared at Emma.
“What else?”
Emma frowned, remembering.
“He said, ‘You started this.’”
Ryan felt cold.
“Did Celeste answer?”
Emma nodded.
“She said, ‘Nora was different.’”
The room seemed to shrink.
Ryan asked quietly, “What did Victor say?”
Emma looked at him.
“He said, ‘Tell yourself that.’”
Ryan sat back.
Celeste had saved Emma.
Not because she was innocent.
Because even she had a boundary Victor had crossed.
Later, Ortiz joined Ryan in the hallway.
“Victor’s lawyer wants to discuss cooperation.”
Ryan laughed bitterly.
“Of course he does.”
“He knows he’s facing kidnapping charges for Emma on top of whatever happened to Nora.”
“What does he want?”
“Protection.”
“From Celeste?”
“And Douglas.”
Ryan looked through the glass toward his daughter.
“Give it to him.”
“That’s not your decision.”
“Then tell the prosecutor I want the truth more than I want revenge.”
Ortiz studied him.
“That may be the first useful thing you’ve said all week.”
Maya arrived with another development.
Thomas Keene had waived extradition.
His attorney was negotiating.
“Everyone is running toward the lifeboats,” Maya said.
“Good.”
“Not necessarily. They’ll blame each other.”
“Then we follow the evidence.”
Maya nodded approvingly.
“That sounded almost like a lawyer.”
Ryan ignored her.
“What did Keene say?”
“Nothing formal. But his attorney asked whether prosecutors would consider cooperation if Keene can authenticate the trust signing.”
Ryan looked at Ortiz.
“Authenticate how?”
“He claims Nora signed while restrained.”
Ryan’s chest tightened.
“And Celeste?”
“Present.”
“Victor?”
“Present.”
“Douglas?”
Maya hesitated.
“Possibly connected by video call.”
Ryan remembered the Snowcap payment to Douglas.
The control fight.
The vanished codicil.
“What did they want from Nora?”
Maya answered carefully.
“Not just Emma’s voting shares.”
Ryan frowned.
“What else?”
She handed him an old corporate document.
A stock purchase option.
“If Nora successfully removed Celeste from future trust authority and reported Snowcap, the board’s audit committee could have triggered a clawback provision.”
“How much?”
“Celeste’s entire thirty-five-percent equity position was exposed if fraud was proven.”
Ryan stared.
“That’s worth over sixty million dollars.”
“Yes.”
Nora had not threatened Celeste with embarrassment.
She had threatened her fortune.
Her control.
Her identity.
Ryan looked toward the room where Celeste sat with her attorney.
For the first time, her motive was no longer abstract.
Celeste had been facing financial ruin.
Then Ortiz’s phone buzzed.
She read the update.
“Victor is ready to talk.”
Ryan stood.
“What did he say?”
Ortiz looked at him.
“One condition.”
“What?”
“He wants Ryan Mercer kept out of the interview.”
Ryan laughed once.
Then Ortiz added:
“And he says before he tells us what happened to Nora, we need to know that Celeste wasn’t the person who ordered her taken.”
Ryan stopped smiling.
“Who was?”
May you like
Ortiz glanced toward the conference room where Douglas Vane waited with his own attorney.
“Victor says it was Douglas.”
