Chapter 15 - The Packing Plant
Police surrounded the abandoned packing plant without lights or sirens.
Emma remained in a command vehicle across the street, exactly where Keene ordered her to stay.
For once, she obeyed.
The building was a rusted maze of old refrigeration rooms, conveyor belts, and loading tunnels. Thermal cameras showed three people inside.
Larkin.
Linda Carter.
Marissa Lane.
A fourth heat source appeared intermittently near the rear wall.
“Could be equipment,” Grant said.
“Or another person,” Keene replied.
Emma watched the monitors until her eyes hurt.
Her mother sat in a chair near the center of the main floor. Marissa was several yards away, hands visible, talking to Larkin.
Larkin held a small device.
Keene’s bomb technician whispered, “Possible remote trigger.”
Emma’s stomach twisted.
Then Marissa did something strange.
She started yelling.
Even through the distant microphone, Emma could hear pieces.
“You said nobody would get hurt!”
Larkin shouted back, “You should’ve thought of that before keeping copies!”
Marissa threw her handbag at him.
Larkin flinched.
Linda kicked the chair backward.
At the same instant, the lights inside the plant went out.
“Move!” Keene ordered.
Officers breached two doors.
Gunshots cracked from inside.
Emma gripped the edge of the desk.
“Mom…”
The monitor flickered to night vision.
Figures moved through green darkness.
One officer reached Linda and dragged her behind a concrete pillar.
Marissa crawled toward a side door.
Larkin disappeared behind an old conveyor.
Then the fourth heat source moved.
A man stepped from a maintenance tunnel and attacked an officer from behind.
Grant stared at the screen.
“That’s Darren Cole.”
Emma’s mouth opened. “He was in the hospital.”
“Apparently not anymore.”
Darren had escaped before police formally placed him under guard.
But he wasn’t helping Larkin.
He tackled him.
Both men crashed into the conveyor frame.
The trigger device skidded across the floor.
An officer kicked it away.
Keene’s team swarmed them.
Thirty seconds later, Larkin was face down in handcuffs.
Darren sat against the wall, bleeding through the bandage on his shoulder.
When Keene approached, he raised his hands.
“I came to get Linda out,” he said.
“Why?”
Darren looked toward Emma’s mother.
“Because I already ruined enough lives.”
The bomb squad found two crude explosive devices wired to fuel drums.
Neither detonated.
Linda came out wrapped in a blanket.
Emma ran to her.
They collided in the rain and held each other so tightly neither could speak.
For one precious minute, the nightmare felt finished.
Then Detective Keene stepped outside carrying a sealed evidence bag.
Inside was the silver drive.
Marissa had brought it after all.
Keene looked at Eleanor.
“There’s one more problem.”
“What?”
“The drive doesn’t just contain evidence against Pierce and Larkin.”
May you like
She held it up.
“It contains evidence that someone in the Whitmore family knew about the scheme two years ago.”
