Chapter 16 - The Door Beneath the Warehouse

Julian worked the lock while Graham's footsteps and a boat engine sounded below.

Elara appeared through the smoke at the side entrance, with Renee and two officers behind her. She had found a second way in through the loading bay. When she saw Maisie, she ran to the cage and wrapped both arms around her daughter through the mesh.

"I'm here, baby. I'm right here."

"He said you weren't coming," Maisie whispered.

"He was wrong."

Renee cut the padlock with a bolt cutter. Maisie rushed into Elara's arms, clutching the teddy bear so tightly its button eye pressed into her cheek. Julian held them both for one brief second, then turned toward the basement stairs.

"Graham has the key," he said. "He's going for the river."

"Let the officers handle him," Renee ordered.

Julian heard the engine and ran toward the dock before Graham could escape.

Graham was climbing into a motorboat, clutching a leather case and holding a gun.

"Don't make me do this," he shouted.

Julian stopped several feet away. "You already did it. You killed my father, stole from a children's charity, and tried to take my daughter. Put the gun down."

"Your father was going to destroy all of us!"

"He was going to stop you from hurting people."

Graham's finger tightened. Renee stepped out from behind a concrete pillar, weapon trained on him.

"Drop it, Graham. Now."

For a second, he seemed ready to fire. Then the boat drifted from the dock, the rope slipped from his hand, and he stumbled. The gun clattered across the boards.

Renee kicked it away and pinned him to the dock until the other officers reached them.

Lydia sat against the wall as officers cuffed her.

"You think this makes you a better man than me," she said.

Julian looked at the woman who had raised him and taught him to fear shame more than cruelty.

"No," he answered. "It makes me responsible for what I do next."

As the police took Lydia away, Renee's phone rang. The district attorney had reviewed the ledger and the recording.

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Warrants were being issued for every person named in the accounts.

But there was one more name on the list, and Julian had never heard it before.