Chapter 13 - THE ARREST
Federal agents entered with rifles raised.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Julian placed his weapon on the floor.
Maya stared at him.
“Julian.”
“Do what they say.”
Derek slowly lowered his gun.
Thomas followed.
Daniel tried to stand.
An agent forced him down.
Maya shouted.
“He’s injured.”
“Ma’am, step back.”
“That man almost drowned.”
“Step back.”
Julian turned toward the agent.
“She is not involved.”
The agent laughed.
“Everybody says that.”
Julian’s expression went cold.
“I said she is not involved.”
Maya moved closer to him.
“I’m not leaving.”
He looked at her.
“Maya.”
“No.”
Agents cuffed Julian.
Something inside Maya snapped.
“He didn’t do this.”
The lead agent looked at her.
“You can tell investigators.”
“Gabriel Croft did.”
The agent paused.
“Who?”
Maya stared.
Of course.
Gabriel had been legally dead for twenty-three years.
Saying his name sounded insane.
Derek spoke.
“We have evidence.”
“You’ll have the opportunity to provide it.”
Agents seized the laptops.
Maya looked at Derek.
“The archive.”
Derek’s face was grim.
“It’s encrypted again.”
“What?”
“Gabriel’s remote access triggered a lock.”
Maya felt sick.
Julian was placed in a federal vehicle.
He turned once.
Their eyes met through the glass.
His hands were cuffed.
But his expression was calm.
Maya hated that calm.
It looked too much like surrender.
She ran toward the vehicle.
An agent blocked her.
“Julian!”
He looked at her.
“I’ll fix this.”
His mouth moved.
She could not hear.
But she understood.
No.
Maya glared through the glass.
“Yes.”
The vehicle drove away.
Derek was detained too.
Thomas disappeared during the confusion.
Nobody knew how.
Maya and Rosa spent six hours giving statements.
Daniel was transferred to a guarded hospital.
By evening, every news station carried the story.
MAFIA FIGURE JULIAN CROFT ARRESTED IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING INVESTIGATION.
Maya stared at the television in horror.
Photographs showed Julian entering federal court.
Reporters called him a crime lord.
A murderer.
A trafficker.
Maya threw the remote.
Rosa looked at her.
“Breaking the television will not help.”
“It might make me feel better.”
“Did it?”
“No.”
Rosa handed her another remote.
Maya almost laughed.
Then the news showed archival images of Black Harbor victims.
Her anger collapsed.
“This is bigger than Julian.”
“Yes.”
“We have to clear his name without burying the victims.”
“Yes.”
Maya looked at her mother.
“How?”
Rosa smiled faintly.
“Now you sound like your father.”
Daniel called from the hospital.
“Maya.”
“Dad.”
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
“Get alone.”
Her expression changed.
Maya stepped into the hallway.
“What?”
“Gabriel has people inside federal law enforcement.”
Maya felt cold.
“How do you know?”
“The Black Harbor list.”
“Derek said forty-three names.”
“There are fifty.”
Maya froze.
“Where are the other seven?”
“Separate file.”
“Why?”
“Because they were active undercover assets.”
Maya’s heartbeat accelerated.
“One is inside the investigation.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I don’t know which identity he uses now.”
“Dad.”
“I know his old name.”
“What?”
“Peter Sloan.”
Maya searched her phone.
Nothing.
Daniel continued.
“He was twenty-six when I knew him.”
“So he’d be around forty-nine now.”
“Yes.”
“Description?”
“Blond then.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“Scar under left ear.”
Maya closed her eyes.
She had seen someone with that scar.
Where?
The bakery?
Hospital?
Federal warehouse?
Then she remembered the lead agent who had questioned her.
He had rubbed his jaw.
A pale line beneath his ear.
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“What does Sloan want?”
“To destroy evidence connecting him to Black Harbor.”
“And Julian?”
“He will let Julian take the blame.”
Maya paced.
“Can we warn Julian’s lawyer?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know who is compromised.”
“Then what do we do?”
Daniel’s voice weakened.
“Find Thomas.”
“Thomas disappeared.”
“He disappeared because he knows.”
“Knows what?”
“Who Sloan became.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“Of course he does.”
Daniel coughed.
“Be careful.”
“You too.”
“Maya.”
“Yes?”
“I am sorry.”
She went silent.
“I know twenty years cannot be repaired with words.”
“No.”
“I also know I have no right to ask you to forgive me.”
Maya swallowed.
“Then don’t.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“All right.”
“But survive long enough to earn it.”
Silence.
Then Daniel laughed softly.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Maya ended the call.
Rosa was waiting.
“What now?”
“We find Thomas.”
“How?”
Maya thought.
Then smiled.
“Julian once complained that Thomas only has one weakness.”
Rosa raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Old bourbon and older women.”
Rosa stared.
“That is your investigative lead?”
“It’s all I have.”
Maya called Mrs. Callahan.
The eighty-two-year-old answered instantly.
“Did the handsome criminal propose?”
Maya closed her eyes.
“Not yet.”
Rosa looked amused.
“I need help finding someone.”
“Is he single?”
“Mrs. Callahan.”
“What?”
“Thomas Rourke.”
A pause.
“Oh.”
Maya straightened.
“You know him?”
“He brought me groceries last winter when the elevator broke.”
Maya stared.
“What?”
“Very polite.”
“Do you know where he goes?”
Mrs. Callahan lowered her voice conspiratorially.
“He likes that terrible jazz bar on Grand.”
Maya blinked.
“How do you know?”
“He took me dancing there.”
Maya covered her face.
“Of course he did.”
Rosa was silently laughing.
They found Thomas at 11:00 PM.
He sat in the back corner of a basement jazz club.
One glass of bourbon.
No security.
He saw Maya and sighed.
“I knew Callahan would betray me eventually.”
“You dated my neighbor?”
“One evening.”
“She’s eighty-two.”
“Your point?”
Maya sat opposite him.
“Who is Peter Sloan?”
Thomas’s expression changed.
“Daniel told you.”
“Yes.”
Thomas looked around.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Everyone says that.”
“It keeps being true.”
“Who is Sloan?”
Thomas drank.
“Federal agent now.”
“Name?”
“Arthur Kell.”
Maya’s blood ran cold.
The lead investigator.
“The man who arrested Julian.”
“Yes.”
Maya leaned back.
“Can you prove it?”
Thomas placed a photograph on the table.
A much younger Arthur Kell stood beside Gabriel Croft.
Scar beneath his ear.
Maya stared.
“Where did you get this?”
“Daniel gave it to me years ago.”
“You knew Dad was alive?”
“Yes.”
Anger exploded.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You sat in Julian’s penthouse for Christmas dinner while my father was alive.”
Thomas’s face tightened.
“I gave Daniel my word.”
“My mother mourned him.”
“I know.”
“I mourned him.”
“I know.”
Maya hit the table.
“Stop saying that.”
Thomas absorbed her anger.
Then he said quietly.
“Daniel believed Gabriel would kill you if anyone knew he survived.”
Maya stared.
“And everyone just agreed?”
“No.”
Thomas’s eyes darkened.
“I told him he was a coward.”
Maya froze.
“He agreed.”
Thomas looked down.
“He cried for an hour after seeing your high school graduation photographs.”
Maya’s anger cracked.
“You showed him?”
“Yes.”
“He saw me graduate?”
“Yes.”
“College?”
“You dropped out when Rosa got sick.”
Maya looked away.
“He knew that too?”
“Yes.”
Thomas reached into his coat.
“He asked me to give you something if Gabriel ever found him.”
A letter.
Maya stared.
“Not now.”
Thomas nodded.
He put it away.
“First we get Julian out.”
“How?”
“Kell is holding the investigation together.”
“So expose him.”
“Not enough.”
“Why?”
“He’ll claim the photo is fake.”
Maya frowned.
“What would be enough?”
Thomas looked at her.
“A confession.”
Maya laughed.
“Wonderful.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“Gabriel trusts Kell.”
“So?”
“So Kell trusts Gabriel.”
Maya slowly understood.
“You want to turn them against each other.”
Thomas smiled.
“Now you’re thinking like a Croft.”
Maya glared.
“Never say that again.”
Thomas laughed.
They created the plan before dawn.
Maya hated it.
Which meant Julian would hate it even more.
At nine the next morning, Maya walked into the federal building and asked to speak with Arthur Kell.
He entered the interview room twenty minutes later.
Same calm face.
Same scar.
“Maya.”
She smiled.
“Agent Kell.”
“What can I do for you?”
“I want immunity.”
His eyes sharpened.
“For what?”
“For helping Julian Croft hide Black Harbor money.”
A lie.
A dangerous one.
Kell leaned forward.
“You were involved?”
Maya lowered her voice.
“More than Julian thinks.”
Interest appeared.
“Tell me.”
Maya looked toward the mirror.
“I will.”
She smiled.
“But only if you can protect me from Gabriel Croft.”
Kell froze for less than a second.
It was enough.
Maya saw it.
He knew Gabriel.
Kell recovered.
“Gabriel Croft is dead.”
Maya leaned forward.
“Then why did you meet him last night?”
Kell’s face changed.
Maya had invented the claim.
But his reaction told her she had accidentally hit the truth.
Kell slowly stood.
Maya realized she had pushed too hard.
The interview room door locked.
Kell removed his jacket.
Then his shoulder holster.
He placed the gun on the table.
Maya’s heart hammered.
“You should have stayed a maid.”
May you like
He reached toward her.
And behind the mirrored glass, the recording equipment Thomas had secretly activated captured every word.
