Chương 10
Shaw nodded.
“That is sensible.”
Pike looked mildly irritated.
I looked directly at him.
“See?”
He sighed.
“I didn’t say it wasn’t.”
The phone vibrated again.
This message was different.
COME ALONE.
Shaw’s expression changed.
A second followed.
UNIT 314.
Pike said, “Now we know what they want.”
“No,” I said.
“We know where they want me.”
Noah gripped my arm.
“You’re not going.”
“I know.”
The third message arrived.
IF POLICE OPEN IT FIRST, ERIN DIES.
All four of us stared at the screen.
Noah whispered, “But they already found her.”
Shaw reached for his phone.
“That may mean whoever sent this doesn’t know.”
Pike was already calling the Riverside scene.
He turned away.
“Confirm Vale’s transport status.”
A few seconds passed.
“What?”
His voice sharpened.
“Repeat that.”
Shaw looked at him.
Pike covered the microphone.
“Ambulance left seven minutes ago.”
“So?”
“It hasn’t arrived.”
The hospital was twelve minutes from Riverside under normal traffic.
Shaw said, “Where is it?”
“They lost radio contact.”
Noah’s fingers dug into my sleeve.
I said, “You’re kidding.”
Pike did not answer.
Shaw was already moving.
“Get county dispatch on it.”
Pike relayed instructions.
I stood so quickly the IV line pulled tight.
The nurse entered at almost the same moment.
“Absolutely not.”
I pointed toward the phone.
“A woman may have been taken from an ambulance.”
“That still does not make you medically cleared.”
Shaw said, “She’s right.”
I looked at him.
“Which part?”
“The medically cleared part.”
I almost threw something at him.
Instead I sat because the room had begun to tilt.
The nurse checked the IV.
“Congratulations on making the sensible choice after the bad one.”
Noah said, “She does that a lot.”
“Traitor.”
“Alive traitor.”
The word alive silenced us.
Pike ended his call.
“They found the ambulance.”
“Where?”
“Two miles from Riverside.”
Shaw asked, “Crew?”
“One paramedic injured, conscious.”
“And Erin?”
“Gone.”
My skin went cold.
Noah whispered, “They took her.”
Pike nodded.
“Looks that way.”
Shaw looked at the message again.
“Then whoever sent this knew exactly when to make the threat.”
I said, “Or they caused it.”
“Yes.”
The nurse stopped pretending not to listen.
“Do I need security in here?”
Pike looked toward the hallway.
“You already have it.”
She frowned.
“I mean more.”
He thought about that.
“Yes.”
She left immediately.
Noah stared at the phone.
“So they want Mom at unit 314, but if police open it, they kill Erin.”
Shaw said, “That is what they want us to believe.”
“What if it’s true?”
“We don’t send civilians into controlled situations.”
“I’m not asking if you send her.”
Noah’s voice cracked.
“I’m asking what happens to Erin.”
No one answered.
I touched his shoulder.
He shrugged me off.
“Don’t.”
The rejection hurt more than it should have.
He looked at me with wet, angry eyes.
“You keep touching me like everything is okay.”
“I don’t think everything is okay.”
“Then stop acting like you can fix it.”
I pulled my hand back.
He turned toward the wall.
For a moment, he was not a brave teenager making sarcastic remarks under pressure.
He was just my son, exhausted and scared and furious at both of his parents.
I let him be angry.
Shaw stepped closer to Pike.
“We need to know whether 314 contains a live threat before the sender knows we’re delaying.”
Pike said, “Warrant is signed.”
“Then controlled entry.”
I stood again.
The nurse was not there to stop me this time.
“If you open it, Erin dies.”
Shaw looked at me.
“If we do nothing, the sender controls the situation.”
“And if the threat is real?”
“We evaluate the evidence.”
“That is a person.”
“I know.”
“You don’t sound like you know.”
His jaw tightened.
“Because I cannot make this decision based on the wording of a text from someone who just abducted a witness.”
The bluntness hit me hard.
He continued.
“They want urgency to replace judgment.”
I looked at the red words in the photograph.
CLAIRE KNOWS WHERE THE REST IS.
“What if they don’t actually want me?”
Pike frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“What if they want you to believe I know something?”
Shaw said nothing.
“Daniel was being framed with Erin’s scarf and Marcus’s death.”
“Yes.”
“Now my name is on a storage unit.”
“Yes.”
“My phone is getting messages.”
“Yes.”
“So maybe I’m next.”
Noah turned back from the wall.
Pike’s eyes narrowed.
“Next for what?”
“To look guilty.”
The room became very quiet.
Shaw took the transfer pages from the evidence sleeve and studied the names again.
“Daniel Mercer.”
He pointed.
“Marcus Bell.”
Then Erin.
“Three authorizers.”
I said, “And someone wrote that three signatures were required.”
Pike’s expression shifted.
“What if those weren’t the only people with access?”
Shaw looked at him.
“Administrative override.”
Pike nodded.
“Harker executives.”
Shaw immediately pulled out his phone.
I said, “Who?”
He did not answer at first.
Then he looked at me.
“Harker’s managing partner had emergency override authority.”
“Name.”
Shaw hesitated.
Pike answered instead.
“Graham Harker.”
I knew that name.
Not from Daniel.
From a Christmas party two years earlier.
A tall man with white hair had cornered me beside the coatroom and spent ten minutes explaining why people who worried about money were usually bad at making it.
He had laughed when Daniel came over and said, “Your wife asks better questions than my board.”
I had thought it was a compliment.
I suddenly remembered something else.
At dinner three weeks ago, Daniel had asked whether I still had Graham Harker’s business card.
I had laughed because I throw business cards away almost immediately.
“What?” Shaw asked.
I told him.
“When was this?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Why did Daniel want it?”
“He said he needed Harker’s personal number.”
“Did you have it?”
“No.”
“Did Daniel say why he didn’t?”
“No.”
Noah said, “Dad works for him.”
“Not directly,” I said.
Shaw looked at me sharply.
May you like
“What do you mean?”
“Daniel’s consulting firm contracts with Harker.”
