Chapter 7
Fire crews pulled Vanessa from the boat.
She was alive.
Her hands had been tied.
Burns covered her left arm, but the smoke had done more damage.
She was rushed to the same hospital as Ryan.
Mark refused to speak.
Margaret did not.
She sat inside a police vehicle with a blanket around her shoulders and confessed in pieces.
Eight years earlier, Ryan’s business had already been failing.
Margaret borrowed money from people Mark represented.
At first, they demanded repayment.
Then they discovered who I was.
The debt changed into favors.
My travel dates.
Copies of mail.
Names mentioned at family dinners.
Thomas learned what she was doing.
He threatened to contact military investigators.
The next day, he died.
Margaret insisted she had not killed him.
She admitted she gave Mark access to his room.
That was enough to destroy whatever sympathy I had left.
“You let him in,” I said.
“I thought they would frighten Thomas.”
“You knew what they were capable of.”
“I was scared.”
“So was Emma.”
Margaret lowered her head.
“Ryan never knew about Thomas.”
“But he knew about the plan against me.”
“Not at first.”
“Stop protecting him.”
“He’s my son.”
“And Emma is your granddaughter.”
Her face crumpled.
But tears did not change facts.
At the hospital, surgeons removed the bullet from Ryan’s shoulder.
Vanessa was placed under guard.
When she regained consciousness, she demanded immunity.
The district attorney refused.
Then she offered a name.
Commander Victor Kane.
I knew him.
Everyone in my professional circle did.
Kane had retired from the Navy five years earlier.
He now ran a private security and logistics company with government contracts.
He had attended my promotion ceremony.
He had eaten dinner in my home.
He had given Emma a silver bracelet on her seventh birthday.
The memory made me sick.
NCIS and federal agents moved quickly.
Kane’s offices were searched before dawn.
Empty.
Computers gone.
Files shredded.
Employees claimed he left the country two days earlier.
Flight records showed him traveling to Singapore.
Brooks did not believe it.
Neither did I.
“Why target me?” I asked Vanessa through the glass of her hospital room.
Her burned arm was bandaged.
Oxygen tubes rested beneath her nose.
Her eyes remained sharp.
“You noticed discrepancies in shipping reports last year.”
“I reported them.”
“Yes.”
“The investigation found clerical errors.”
“Kane controlled the investigation.”
“What was really happening?”
“Equipment was disappearing.”
“What kind?”
“Communications systems. Drone components. Weapons parts.”
“Where were they going?”
“I never asked.”
“You expect a deal while pretending ignorance?”
Vanessa turned her face away.
“We were supposed to discredit you. That was all.”
“You tied up my daughter.”
“She found the documents.”
“So you abused her.”
“She wouldn’t stop screaming.”
My hands curled beneath the table.
I forced them open.
“Why was Mark taking her to Mexico?”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
“He wasn’t supposed to.”
“He had airline tickets.”
“That was Kane’s idea.”
“Why?”
“To control Ryan.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It wasn’t about Ryan.”
The answer came before she said it.
They wanted to control me.
If the false charges failed, they would use Emma.
“Did Kane order you to kill me?”
“No.”
“Did he order Mark?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“He told Mark the problem had to end before Thursday.”
Two days after my scheduled return.
“What happens Thursday?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know.”
“I heard something about a shipment.”
“Where?”
She closed her eyes.
“Ask Ryan.”
Ryan was still recovering.
The doctors allowed only a short conversation.
He looked small in the hospital bed.
For the first time, there was no anger in his face.
Only exhaustion.
“Emma?” he asked.
“Safe.”
“Can I see her?”
“No.”
Pain crossed his face.
I felt nothing.
“Vanessa says you know about a shipment.”
Ryan looked toward the guard outside.
“She kept documents at our house.”
“Where?”
“In Emma’s room.”
My blood ran cold.
“You let her hide criminal records in our daughter’s room?”
“She said it was the safest place.”
“Where are they?”
“Inside the dollhouse.”
Emma’s dollhouse had been a gift from Thomas.
She had refused to leave it behind when we moved.
The surviving house was still a crime scene.
Ortiz obtained authorization to search the bedroom.
Inside the dollhouse roof, investigators found a flash drive wrapped in plastic.
Most files were encrypted.
One was not.
A shipping manifest listed medical generators bound for disaster relief.
The containers were scheduled to leave San Diego Thursday morning.
The declared weight was wrong.
Each container was nearly four thousand pounds heavier than it should have been.
At the bottom of the manifest was my electronic approval.
I had never seen it.
If the shipment was discovered, the trail would lead to me.
If it passed through, Kane would complete whatever he had planned.
Colonel Hayes suspended the shipment and secured the containers.
The first held drone guidance systems.
The second held military-grade communications equipment.
The third was empty.
Its seal had been broken.
“What was supposed to be inside?” I asked.
Brooks checked the coded inventory.
His expression darkened.
“Portable missile control components.”
“Portable?”
“Small enough for two people to carry.”
“Where are they?”
“We don’t know.”
A base-wide security alert followed.
Roads closed.
Vehicles were searched.
Aircraft were grounded.
Kane had likely removed the components before we found the manifest.
My phone rang from an internal number.
I answered.
Emma was crying.
“Mom?”
I stood so quickly my chair fell.
“Where are you?”
“In the room.”
“What happened?”
“The guard left.”
Brooks was already signaling agents.
“Lock the door,” I said.
“It won’t lock.”
A man’s voice came through the phone.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Hello, Emily.”
Victor Kane.
“Stay away from her.”
“You’ve caused an extraordinary amount of trouble.”
“If you touch my daughter—”
“You’ll do what? Call security?”
A camera feed appeared on Brooks’s screen.
The hallway outside Emma’s quarters was empty.
The guard lay unconscious near the stairwell.
Kane had entered a secured military base.
“Emma,” I said, “move toward the window.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
May you like
Kane answered.
“Because I’m holding a gun.”
