Chapter 6
Nora was still in county custody.
At least, that was what everyone believed.
Marcus called the jail.
A guard claimed Nora had suffered chest pain and been transferred to a secure hospital.
No federal agent had approved the transfer.
The ambulance transporting her never arrived.
Commissioner Crane had arranged the escape before his arrest.
Nora and Conrad were heading for the coast.
Federal agents raced toward the private airfield.
The red book remained with a protected evidence team.
I stayed beside Lily at first.
Then she squeezed my hand.
“Go stop them.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You’re not leaving. You’re coming back.”
Marcus assigned six agents to guard her.
I kissed her forehead and joined the pursuit.
Conrad’s jet was already moving when we reached the airfield.
Federal vehicles blocked the runway.
The aircraft stopped.
Its door opened.
Nora emerged with a gun pressed against a woman’s neck.
The hostage was Julian’s wife, Rebecca.
Nora had kidnapped her during Julian’s transfer from London.
“Move the vehicles!” Nora shouted.
Rebecca trembled.
Blood ran from a cut near her eye.
Conrad remained inside the plane.
I stepped onto the runway.
“Let her go.”
Nora laughed.
“You always arrive too late.”
“Not today.”
“You were late for Amelia. You were late for Lily. You will be late for Rebecca.”
Julian arrived in a federal vehicle.
He saw his wife and tried to run toward her.
Agents held him back.
“Nora!” he screamed. “Take me instead.”
“This is what happens when you betray me.”
Conrad appeared in the doorway.
“Stop talking and get inside.”
Nora looked over her shoulder.
That moment was enough.
Rebecca drove her elbow into Nora’s stomach.
The gun fired into the air.
Agents tackled Nora.
Conrad ran back inside the jet and locked the door.
The engines roared.
The aircraft turned toward an unblocked service road.
A federal vehicle struck the landing gear before it gained speed.
The jet spun across the pavement and stopped in the grass.
Agents dragged Conrad from the cockpit.
He stared at me as they handcuffed him.
“You have no idea what I built.”
“You built graves.”
“I advanced medicine.”
“You tortured children.”
“History forgives necessary cruelty.”
“No,” I said. “Power simply taught you that victims could be ignored.”
Nora lay on the runway with her hands restrained.
She looked at me.
“You still would have married me.”
The truth made me feel sick.
I had trusted the woman who killed my wife.
I had nearly placed a ring on her hand while my daughter served our dinner.
“You drugged me.”
“I gave you peace.”
“You gave me blindness.”
She smiled.
“You chose not to see.”
Her words followed me back to the hospital.
They contained enough truth to hurt.
I had accepted every explanation because challenging Nora would have forced me to face grief.
I allowed her to remove Amelia’s photographs.
I stopped entering Lily’s old room.
I traveled constantly and ignored staff members who seemed afraid.
Nora created the prison.
But my absence helped hide it.
Lily listened as I admitted this.
“I should have searched harder.”
“You thought I was dead.”
“I should have questioned Crane.”
“Daddy, stop.”
She touched my face.
“Nora always made me apologize for things she did. Don’t do that to yourself.”
“You sound like your mother.”
“Is that good?”
“It is the best thing you could be.”
Federal prosecutors charged Conrad, Nora, Victor, Crane, Elise, and several company directors.
Julian remained under investigation for conspiracy and obstruction.
He asked to see Lily.
I left the decision to her.
She agreed.
Julian entered the hospital room wearing handcuffs.
He could barely look at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily studied him.
“Why didn’t you open the door?”
His face crumpled.
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
“I thought Nora would kill my sons.”
“She told me she would kill Daddy.”
Julian began crying.
Lily did not comfort him.
“You brought me food,” she said. “But you left me locked inside.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t get to call that saving me.”
“No.”
As guards led him away, Julian turned toward me.
“Conrad has someone on the Vale board who hasn’t been arrested.”
“Who?”
“I never learned the name. Conrad called that person the Heir.”
The next morning, the board voted to sell Vale Industries before federal authorities could freeze it.
May you like
The deciding vote came from Lily’s trust.
Someone had used my daughter’s fingerprint again.
