Chapter 10 - Pier Nine
Mason smiled when he saw me.
“You always did love dramatic entrances.”
“Lower the cage.”
“Give me the key.”
“I do not have it.”
His smile disappeared.
Deputy Briggs adjusted the rifle.
“Wrong answer.”
I lifted the evidence case.
“I brought the laboratory report and Dad’s recording.”
“Those are copies,” Mason said.
“You do not know that.”
Dr. Raymond pressed the needle closer to Grandma’s skin.
She looked exhausted.
Still, her eyes remained clear.
“Do not trade anything for me,” she called.
Mason struck the cage with a metal bar.
It swung over the water.
“Quiet.”
Grandma stared at him.
“Your mother raised a coward.”
His face twisted.
I almost smiled.
Even suspended above the Gulf, Margaret Sterling refused to become small.
“What does the key open?” I asked.
Mason looked toward Briggs.
The deputy answered.
“A private deposit box.”
“At which bank?”
“No questions.”
“You are holding an old woman above the ocean because you cannot open a box.”
Mason’s jaw tightened.
Dad had chosen a lock Conrad could not bypass.
The brass key must have required a second form of authentication.
Perhaps my presence.
Perhaps Grandma’s.
I needed time.
“You killed my father,” I said.
Dr. Raymond looked away.
Mason did not.
“He was dying already.”
“No.”
“You poisoned him.”
“He discovered the shipments.”
“He wanted to destroy everything.”
“Seventeen people died.”
“People die every day.”
Grandma closed her eyes.
The words were enough.
My transmitter carried them to Reed.
I took one step forward.
Briggs aimed at my head.
“Stop.”
I looked at him.
“You intercepted Dad’s DEA complaint.”
“He was confused.”
“You helped abduct Grandma.”
“She is a witness.”
“To your crimes.”
His trigger finger tightened.
A shot cracked across the pier.
Briggs dropped the rifle.
Reed’s marksman had struck his shoulder.
The tactical team emerged from behind stacked containers.
Dr. Raymond stabbed the syringe toward Grandma.
She caught his wrist through the cage bars and bit his hand.
He screamed.
Mason hit the crane release.
The cage dropped.
I ran.
The cable caught after ten feet, leaving Grandma swinging inches above the water.
Mason fled toward a speedboat.
I reached the crane controls.
The panel had been disabled.
Deputy Briggs crawled toward his rifle.
Lena kicked it away and restrained him.
Reed’s agents arrested Dr. Raymond.
I climbed the crane ladder.
The metal shook beneath me.
Grandma looked up.
“You always hated heights.”
“I still do.”
The cable began tearing.
I reached the arm above the cage and clipped my tactical line around the chain.
The main cable snapped.
The cage dropped another foot before my line caught it.
Pain ripped through my shoulder.
Below, the speedboat’s engine roared.
Mason escaped toward open water.
Then a helicopter appeared beyond the pier.
Conrad Vale sat inside it.
May you like
He had somehow escaped federal custody.
And he was flying toward the estate.
