Chapter 12 - The Trap at Hawthorne Airfield
Elena called Richard immediately.
No answer.
She called Detective Ruiz.
No answer.
The signal near Hawthorne Airfield was notoriously weak.
Elena showed the message to the officer stationed inside the mansion.
Within seconds, state police were notified.
But Richard was already ten miles away.
At the airfield, rain hammered the windshield.
Ruiz’s vehicle stopped near an abandoned hangar.
No aircraft were visible.
No lights.
Richard stared through the glass.
“This feels wrong.”
Ruiz checked his phone.
“No signal.”
They exited carefully.
Two state troopers moved toward the opposite side of the building.
Ruiz and Richard entered through a side door.
Inside stood a black sedan.
Its driver’s door was open.
Richard recognized it.
Gerald’s car.
“Gerald.”
No answer.
Then someone stepped from behind an aircraft tug.
Richard stopped.
The man was tall.
Gray had begun appearing in his dark hair.
A scar ran beside his right eyebrow.
Richard forgot how to breathe.
“Daniel.”
The man stared at him.
Seven years disappeared in one second.
Richard moved forward.
Daniel raised a hand.
“Don’t.”
Richard stopped.
“Is it really you?”
Daniel’s eyes filled with something he refused to let become tears.
“Yes.”
Richard laughed once.
Then anger arrived.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let us bury you.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I know.”
“You let me stand beside an empty coffin.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked toward Ruiz.
“Because Gerald said he would kill Richard if I came back.”
Ruiz stepped closer.
“Where is Gerald?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
Daniel reached into his coat slowly.
Ruiz’s hand moved toward his holster.
Daniel removed a small recorder.
“This is what he wants.”
Richard frowned.
“What is it?”
“Charles confessing.”
“To what?”
“Everything.”
A metallic sound came from the darkness.
Ruiz shouted.
“Down.”
The hangar lights died.
Richard dropped behind the sedan.
A vehicle engine roared outside.
State troopers shouted.
Ruiz moved toward the door.
Seconds later, tires screamed across the wet runway.
By the time emergency lights came on, Gerald’s backup vehicle was disappearing through a maintenance gate.
He had never intended to meet Daniel.
He had intended to lure the police away from somewhere else.
Ruiz’s phone regained signal.
It exploded with missed calls.
He answered the first one.
His face changed.
“What?”
Richard stood.
“What happened?”
Ruiz listened.
Then looked directly at him.
“Gerald was never coming here.”
“Where did he go?”
Ruiz’s expression turned grim.
“The mansion.”
Richard’s blood went cold.
“Elena.”
At the Howard estate, every exterior light suddenly switched off.
Elena stood inside the nursery.
The backup generator should have activated.
It did not.
From downstairs came the sound of glass breaking.
The officer outside Elena’s door drew his weapon.
“Stay inside.”
He stepped into the hallway.
A second later, the fire alarm began screaming.
Elena moved toward the crib.
Something slid beneath the nursery door.
A white envelope.
Her name was written across the front.
She opened it.
Inside was one sentence.
May you like
YOU BUILT A COURTROOM.
NOW LET’S SEE WHO SURVIVES THE VERDICT.
