Chapter 14 - The Parking Garage
The location was a downtown parking garage under a closed courthouse annex.
Rachel told me to stay in the car.
I didn’t.
Daniel stood on level four beside a concrete pillar.
He looked terrible.
One eye swollen. Hospital bandage around his ribs. No coat.
“You came,” he said.
Rachel raised her weapon. “Hands where I can see them.”
Daniel obeyed.
“I didn’t escape to run.”
“You assaulted an officer.”
“I panicked.”
“That’s not a defense.”
“I know.”
He looked at me.
“Anna’s crash wasn’t supposed to kill her.”
Rage flashed through me so fast my hands curled into fists.
“What did you just say?”
Daniel backed against the pillar.
“Marcus wanted her scared. He told a mechanic to damage a brake line enough to fail inspection later, not on the road. The mechanic did more.”
“You knew?”
“Afterward.”
“And you stayed silent for three years.”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
I stepped toward him.
Rachel blocked me with one arm.
Daniel pulled a flash drive from his pocket.
“I recorded Marcus confessing to the order.”
“Why?” Rachel asked.
“Insurance.”
“Against prosecution?”
“Against being murdered.”
Fair enough.
Rachel took the drive.
Then headlights swept across the garage.
A black SUV accelerated toward us.
“Move!”
We dove behind parked cars.
The SUV clipped a pillar and kept coming.
Daniel froze in the open.
I grabbed his shirt and yanked him down a second before the mirror shattered against the concrete.
Rachel fired at the tires.
The SUV swerved, crashed through the exit arm, and vanished down the ramp.
Daniel was shaking.
“Marcus knows,” he whispered.
“Knows what?”
“That I gave you the key.”
I stared at him.
“What key?”
Daniel’s eyes widened.
“The brass key from Anna’s storage unit.”
“We already used it.”
He shook his head.
“No. That key doesn’t open the storage unit.”
My skin went cold.
“Then what does it open?”
May you like
Daniel swallowed.
“Anna’s safe at Vale headquarters.”
