Chapter 7 - The Wrong Siren

The men wore no badges. One carried a stretcher; the other carried a roll of silver tape. Grant waved them toward the doorway as if he'd ordered groceries.

"Private medical transport," he told Evelyn. "Safer than an emergency room."

"For whom?" she asked.

Owen ran back into the building, breathing hard. "The ambulance is still ten minutes out. That siren came from their car."

Grant lunged for his phone. Owen dodged. The larger man caught the boy by his vest and slammed him against the frame. Evelyn heard Owen grunt and saw his phone skid across the floor.

Mara moved first. She hit the man with a heavy tackle box. Hooks scattered everywhere. He let go of Owen with a curse.

"Run!" she shouted.

Owen scrambled away, but Grant grabbed Mara's coat. "What are you doing?"

"Something I should've done on the dock."

For the first time, his controlled expression broke. He shoved her against the wall. Daniel tried to rise and fell to one knee. Evelyn put herself in front of him, gripping the oar.

Vale looked at the shattered syringe. "We need to leave. Now."

"Not without the paperwork," Grant said.

"Forget the paperwork."

"You said they'd be declared incompetent!"

The doctor turned toward Evelyn, and she understood the shape of the scheme: false diagnosis, altered trust, a convenient accident. But what paperwork could be worth killing two people?

A bright pulse lit Owen's phone on the floor. It was an incoming call, the name MAYA flashing across the screen.

"My sister," Owen said. "She's a deputy."

Grant stomped on the phone. A crack split the glass. He seized Daniel by the cardigan and hauled him upright. "Tell me where it is, Dad."

"Where what is?" Evelyn demanded.

"The original trust. The recording. Whatever you've hidden."

Daniel's jaw hardened. "You sound just like your grandfather."

Grant went white. Then he dragged his father toward the water.

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"Maybe," he said, "that's because you never told Mom what happened to him."

Evelyn watched Daniel's face. It was fear she saw there, but not fear of drowning. It was recognition.