Chapter 15 - When the Doors Finally Opened

"Drop it! Police!"

The command came from beyond the driveway gate. White beams cut across the yard. Simone spun toward the sound, and Elise threw the unlit flare at her arm. It struck the sleeve of her coat, just hard enough to spoil her aim.

The gun went off.

The sound tore across the lake. Elise fell behind the rain barrel beside the boathouse and covered her head. For one blinding second she thought of Poppy knocking on walnut doors, counting the pause between taps.

"Hands where we can see them!" Marisol shouted.

Kent dropped to his knees. Simone backed toward the water, clutching the gun. An officer moved behind a parked utility truck. Another covered the boathouse.

"They'll believe me," Simone yelled. "They always do!"

"Maybe people used to," Marisol said. "Put the gun down."

Simone glanced toward Elise's hiding place. "You think this ends with the police coming for you? She has copies. She has everything!"

"Then you shouldn't have stolen it," Elise answered.

Simone lunged toward the dock. The wet boards betrayed her. She slipped, struck the railing, and lost her grip on the gun. It slid into the lake. Two officers closed the distance and restrained her before she could stand.

Marisol stayed beside Elise until the paramedics reached them. Her wrist was swollen; the ankle she'd injured escaping the house had finally given way. A shallow cut ran along her shoulder where a splinter had caught her during the fall. There was no gunshot wound. But she was exhausted beyond speech.

"Poppy?" she managed.

"She's safe," Marisol said. "Your daughter is safe."

"Adrian?"

"He's waiting at the hospital."

Elise shook her head. "Tell him I heard our girl. Tell him that door wasn't enough to keep me from her."

Marisol squeezed her hand. "You can tell him yourself."

At the ambulance, Kent asked to speak to a detective before anyone took him away. He said there was one recording Simone didn't know existed. His body camera, privately purchased and used to log her orders, had been uploading footage to an off-site account.

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"It caught the hotel," he said. "The door. The girl. Everything."

Then his face crumpled. "It caught what I did, too."