Chapter 7 - Sixty Seconds

The timer started at fifty-nine. Ethan smashed the speaker with a boat hook. It kept counting through a second hidden unit.

"It isn't a pressure switch," Mara said, studying the chair legs. "It's a weight sensor with a wireless trigger. Whoever set it wants us scared enough to run."

"Can you stop it?" Olivia asked.

"I'm a former lab technician, not a bomb expert. No touching wires. We move together."

Mara slid a heavy tackle box under the seat. Ethan steadied Olivia while Mara eased her weight onto the box. The timer dropped to twenty-three. From outside came the rattle of an engine.

"They're coming," Ethan said.

Olivia forced herself to stand. The sensor chirped. They ran through a side door as the timer reached eight.

The blast blew the boathouse windows into the lake. Heat rolled over them. Ethan covered Olivia with his body in the wet grass. Mara crawled beside them, coughing.

"Everybody here?" she asked.

"I can't feel my hand," Olivia said, then managed a bleak smile. "Other than that, great wedding."

A black SUV swung toward the lakeside road. Ethan caught a glimpse of the driver: Dr. Vale. Beside him sat a woman in a dark green gown, holding a silver medical case.

"That woman was at the reception," Olivia said. "Nadine Cross. She runs the foundation's accounts."

"And Lily saw her take the silver box," Mara added.

Ethan pulled out his phone to call the police. No signal. The explosion had knocked out the local repeater—or someone had jammed the area.

Olivia leaned against him. "I have to tell you something about Daniel."

"I saw the video."

"Not that." Tears filled her eyes. "The night he died, I was at St. Agnes. I saw him alive after the crash was reported."

Ethan stepped back as though she'd hit him. "You knew my brother?"

"I was a nurse there. I tried to get him out."

"And you never told me?"

Olivia lowered her head. "Because the person who stopped me was my own mother."

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Her phone, miraculously still working, rang once. A recorded child's voice came through: "Uncle Ethan, please help me."

Then the line went dead.