Chapter 18 - The Mill
Everything happened at once.
Gavin grabbed Lily.
Lily dropped her weight and screamed.
Nora ran up the metal stairs.
Daniel lunged for the catwalk from the opposite side.
“Stay back!” Gavin shouted.
He pulled a handgun from his coat.
Daniel froze.
Lily was crying now, but she kept twisting her free hand against the weakened restraint.
Nora reached the platform.
“Gavin, stop.”
“You stop.”
“She’s a child.”
“So was the plan, Nora. You knew the plan.”
“No. The plan was Daniel. Never Lily.”
Gavin laughed without humor. “There is no plan anymore. There’s only what gets us out.”
Daniel took one slow step.
“Take me instead.”
“Do you hear yourself? You still think this is a movie where you get to be the father who fixes everything.”
Gavin kicked the evidence bag toward Nora. “Check it.”
She opened it and pulled out the decoy card.
Her eyes flicked to Daniel.
She understood.
“It’s real,” she lied.
Gavin’s grip on Lily loosened for half a second.
Lily drove her heel down on his foot.
He cursed.
Nora slammed into him from the side.
The gun fired.
The shot tore into an overhead pipe. Steam burst across the catwalk.
Daniel ran through it blindly.
He reached Lily first, pulled her against his chest, and dropped behind a steel support.
Nora and Gavin struggled near the railing.
“You ruined everything!” Gavin shouted.
“You ruined me!” Nora screamed back.
He shoved her.
Nora struck the railing and nearly went over.
Daniel handed Lily down the stairwell to Mara, who had entered the building the moment the gunshot was heard.
Police flooded the floor.
“Drop it!”
Gavin looked around and realized there was nowhere left to go.
He raised the gun once.
Then Nora hit his arm with both hands.
The weapon clattered through the railing and fell to the concrete below.
Officers tackled Gavin.
Nora collapsed against the wall, bleeding from a cut above her eye.
Daniel did not go to her.
He held Lily so tightly she complained she could not breathe.
“Sorry,” he whispered, loosening his arms.
Lily buried her face against his neck. “I knew you’d see the ribbons.”
“I saw every one.”
As paramedics lifted Nora onto a stretcher, she caught Daniel’s sleeve.
“There’s one more copy,” she whispered.
He stared at her.
“Of what?”
“Evelyn’s proof.”
May you like
Nora’s eyes fluttered.
“She mailed it before she died.”
