Chapter 17 - The Old Mill
“Absolutely not,” Detective Kim said.
Ethan ignored her and read the message again.
Daniel stood. “They want the phone because Rachel recorded something they can’t afford to have released.”
“Then we give them a copy,” Ethan said.
Kim shook her head. “You do not walk into an abandoned mill with a murderer because they sent you a threat.”
Ethan looked at Sophie sleeping in Mara’s arms—Mara had been released thirty minutes earlier after police found evidence the laptop had been planted.
He lowered his voice. “Whoever this is has reached my daughter, my mother, my house, and my wife.”
“Which is exactly why you don’t go alone.”
He met Kim’s eyes. “I won’t.”
At 11:54 p.m., Ethan’s black SUV rolled through the rusted gates of the abandoned Cole Textile Mill outside Newark.
He appeared alone.
He wasn’t.
Detective Kim’s team waited two blocks away. Daniel lay hidden in the rear cargo space with a vest and radio. Rachel’s real phone remained with police. Ethan carried a cloned device loaded with copied files.
The mill smelled like oil, rain, and old dust.
A single work light glowed inside.
Ethan stepped through the broken loading door.
“Hello?”
A woman emerged from behind a steel column.
Elena Mercer.
She was older than in Daniel’s childhood photos, but her eyes were the same.
“Put the phone on the floor,” she said.
Ethan did.
“Why did you kill Rachel?”
Elena’s face twisted. “I didn’t.”
“Her blood was in your network’s SUV.”
“I tried to save her.”
Ethan stared.
Elena stepped closer. “Rachel called me that night. She had found the money trail. She knew who had restarted Martin Vale’s scheme.”
“Who?”
A metal sound echoed behind Ethan.
Elena looked past him.
Fear flashed across her face.
“Get down!” she shouted.
The overhead light shattered.
Daniel burst from the darkness and pulled Ethan behind a concrete barrier as a heavy object slammed into the wall nearby.
Police sirens exploded outside.
Someone ran across the upper catwalk.
Daniel looked up.
Ethan saw the silhouette too.
May you like
A man in a dark coat sprinted toward the rear stairs.
Harold Price.
