Chapter 14 - The Price of Immunity
Mason would not talk to me directly.
His lawyer would.
We met in a conference room at the harbor police building, where the walls were beige and the coffee tasted like punishment.
"My client wants federal immunity on the financial charges," the lawyer said.
"Your client assaulted Evan, kidnapped Celeste, stole evidence, and may have helped run my father off a road."
"Which is why he has information worth buying."
I hated him immediately.
The federal investigator beside me, Dana Ruiz, remained expressionless.
"What proof?" she asked.
The lawyer placed a small flash drive on the table.
"Dashcam copy. Original was destroyed. Mason kept a duplicate as insurance."
My pulse jumped.
"Insurance against whom?"
The lawyer smiled.
"Robert Sterling Sr."
Dana did not touch the drive.
"We don't negotiate immunity in conference rooms."
"Then watch first."
We did.
The footage was dark, grainy, and terrible.
But it showed my father's SUV ahead on Harbor Road.
Mason's sedan followed.
A voice off-camera gave instructions through a speakerphone.
"Stay close. Make him pull over."
Sterling's voice.
Then my father's SUV accelerated.
Mason followed.
Near Mile 17, a second vehicle appeared from a side road.
It moved into my father's lane.
My father swerved.
The image shook violently.
His headlights vanished over the barrier.
I stopped breathing.
Mason's voice on the dashcam said, "Jesus Christ. That wasn't the plan."
Sterling answered through the phone.
"Then the plan changed. Leave."
The video ended.
I did not cry.
Not there.
Dana Ruiz closed the laptop.
"This changes the case."
My phone buzzed again.
Cross Harbor board vote in thirty minutes.
If they placed me on leave, Sterling could freeze my voting authority at Whitmore long enough to force the merger.
Evan called.
"Ava, you need to get back here. Now."
"Why?"
"Because Celeste just walked into the boardroom."
May you like
He lowered his voice.
"And she says she has evidence that you paid Mason."
