Chapter 13 - THE FALSE TRANSFER
Federal agents froze the offshore account.
They created a duplicate banking portal that would appear real to Sloan.
The plan required him to believe he was transferring the money.
Michael would carry a tracking device.
I would remain at a nearby command center.
Lily would be protected at a secure pediatric facility.
At least, that was what we were told.
Two hours before the meeting, Detective Collins received an urgent call.
A social worker had arrived at Lily’s secure location with a federal transfer order.
The order bore Collins’s digital signature.
The social worker took Lily through a rear entrance.
No one verified the vehicle because the paperwork appeared authentic.
The real Collins had signed nothing.
Sloan still had someone inside the system.
I called Lily’s smartwatch.
There was no answer.
The location signal had been disabled.
A security camera captured the transfer vehicle entering the highway.
The driver was Rachel Voss, Sloan’s investigator.
She had escaped custody during a courthouse medical examination.
Judge Keene’s former bailiff had helped her.
My daughter had been taken again by people who intended to turn her into property.
I could barely breathe.
Michael looked at the screen showing the vehicle.
“This is my fault.”
“Yes,” I said.
He flinched.
I did not soften the truth.
“You opened our home to them.”
“You helped create the reports.”
“You gave them access to Lily’s schedule.”
“I know.”
“Then help us bring her back.”
Michael called Sloan.
“You were supposed to wait for the exchange.”
“I no longer trust you,” Sloan replied.
“You have Lily?”
“I have the only person whose face and voice can confirm the transfer after Daniel.”
“She is eight years old.”
“She is worth three million dollars.”
“She is your client’s granddaughter.”
“Evelyn was never my client.”
“She was my doorway.”
Sloan ordered Michael to bring the blue folder to an abandoned courthouse annex near Lake Briar.
No police.
No tracking devices.
If he saw surveillance, Lily would disappear permanently.
Detective Collins knew the building.
The annex had been closed after flood damage.
Old court records remained inside its basement.
Sloan had used the location to store files from manipulated custody cases.
He was returning to the center of his operation.
Michael removed the tracking device from his shoe.
Then he took a pen from Collins’s desk.
It contained a smaller transmitter.
Sloan might search him.
He would not expect the device to be hidden inside an ordinary object.
Before leaving, Michael looked at me.
“If I do not come back, tell Lily I am sorry.”
“You can tell her yourself.”
“I do not know if she will ever listen.”
“That is her decision.”
May you like
Michael nodded.
Then he carried Anna’s blue folder toward the courthouse annex.
