Chapter 13 - Blood on the Dock
Officers moved toward the warehouse while Claire pressed herself against the dock, trying to make her breathing quiet. Thomas clutched his shoulder. Blood seeped between his fingers.
"Dad, you're hit."
"A graze," he said through clenched teeth. "Don't look at me. Look at the boat."
A small speedboat was backing away from the opposite pier. A man in a dark jacket held the steering wheel. Claire recognized Grant's shaved head beneath a baseball cap.
Alvarez radioed the description. A patrol launch swung out from the harbor station and blocked the channel. Grant veered too sharply and struck an empty mooring post. The engine stalled. Within minutes, officers had him handcuffed on the deck.
Paramedics wrapped Thomas's shoulder. He refused to leave until the notebook was signed into evidence.
"What's in it?" Alvarez asked.
"Payments," Thomas said. "And the results from tests Eleanor buried. The water underneath that site is poisoned. If construction begins, the neighborhood on the east bank pays the price."
Claire thought of children playing along the riverwalk, unaware of what lay below the weeds.
"Why didn't you send it anonymously?" she asked.
"I did. Twice. The files vanished. One investigator resigned. The other died."
Alvarez looked grim. "We'll use a different chain of custody."
At the hospital, Sophie finally saw her father. She stood perfectly still before slapping his uninjured arm.
"That's for four years," she said, and burst into tears.
Thomas pulled her close. Claire watched them from the doorway, loving him and not yet knowing how to forgive him.
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Then Alvarez's phone rang. She listened without interrupting.
"Adrian filed a complaint," she said at last. "He says Claire forged the transfer papers herself and stole confidential company records. He's asking a judge to freeze the Bennett Foundation accounts."
