Chapter 18 - The Third Light
Rosie's street was blocked by a white moving truck when they arrived with a federal investigator and a local patrol supervisor outside Price's command. Two men were carrying her dining chairs to the curb.
“Put that down,” Rosie said.
A man in a branded jacket waved a document. “We have an order for removal.”
Rebecca read it once and held it to the light. “The court number doesn't exist.”
The man glanced toward the truck. “I'm just doing my job.”
“Then stop doing somebody else's crime,” Rosie snapped.
The supervisor took the paperwork and instructed the movers to leave the premises untouched. One of the men ran. An officer followed him without drawing a weapon.
In the attic, Mara found her mother's sewing machine beneath a faded sheet. The task light had three switches. She clicked the first, then the second. The third wouldn't move until Evan slid the base forward and pressed a hidden latch.
A narrow compartment opened under the machine's arm. Inside sat a small metal cylinder wrapped in yellow fabric, faded from years in the dark. Mara recognized a piece of the raincoat her mother had bought her that last summer.
The cylinder contained microfilm and an original signed agreement. Helen had made duplicate records of BRIDGE's safeguards, including a clause requiring two independent approvals for transfers above a specified amount. Beside that clause were Greer's initials and a handwritten instruction to bypass it.
There was also a letter.
My babies, it began. If you're reading this, I couldn't make the world as safe as I promised. You must never mistake powerful people for good people. Look for the ones who stay when telling the truth costs them something.
Mara couldn't finish aloud. Evan sat beside her on the dusty floor, his head bowed.
Lena photographed each page while Rebecca cataloged the originals. For once they had documents created before anyone knew they would be accused.
Then Lena's phone rang. She listened, her expression going hard.
“Greer's lawyers filed an emergency petition,” she said. “They're asking a judge to exclude everything from the warehouse.”
May you like
“And the attic?” Mara asked.
“That evidence may be our only way through.”
