Chapter 4 - Hammer took them to an abandoned motorcycle repair shop outside the city.Nobody had been there in six years.
That was exactly why he chose it.
He locked the doors.
Closed the shutters.
Checked the windows.
Then he put the photograph on a workbench.
Mara stared at it.
“I need you to tell me everything.”
Hammer shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“Then you need to start trusting me.”
“I do.”
“No, you don't.”
Hammer looked at her.
“You've known for nine years that Clara had a child.”
Mara said nothing.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You knew.”
Mara finally looked away.
“Clara told me once.”
“What?”
“That the baby survived.”
Hammer's fists tightened.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because she made me promise.”
“She lied to me.”
“She was trying to keep you alive.”
Hammer laughed bitterly.
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
Ellie sat on an old tire.
“You're both doing it again.”
They looked at her.
“Doing what?”
“Talking about dead people instead of asking about the living.”
Hammer knelt.
“What happened to your mother?”
Ellie looked down.
“She isn't my mother.”
Hammer froze.
“Who is she?”
“My foster mother.”
“What's her name?”
“Rachel Ward.”
Hammer knew the name.
Rachel Ward had been one of the prosecutors connected to the kidnapping case.
His chest tightened.
“She helped with your adoption?”
Ellie nodded.
“She told me never to say her name.”
Mara whispered:
“That woman shouldn't have custody of you.”
Ellie shook her head.
“She isn't the one I'm afraid of.”
“Who are you afraid of?”
Ellie looked at Hammer.
“You.”
Silence.
Hammer slowly stood.
“Why?”
“Because they said you killed my mother.”
Hammer's jaw tightened.
“Who said that?”
Ellie looked toward the locked door.
“Everybody.”
Then there was a knock.
Three slow knocks.
Hammer reached beneath the workbench.
Pulled out a pistol.
Mara whispered:
“Who is it?”
A man's voice answered.
“Ray?”
Hammer recognized it.
Walter Kane.
Hammer opened the door.
The retired detective stumbled inside.
Blood covered his shirt.
Hammer caught him.
“Kane.”
Kane collapsed into a chair.
“They know.”
“Who?”
Kane looked at Ellie.
His eyes widened.
“Oh God.”
He whispered:
“She's alive.”
Ellie stepped closer.
“You remember me.”
Kane stared at her.
“I remember your mother.”
“She said you were kind.”
Kane laughed weakly.
“I was a coward.”
Hammer crouched.
“What happened at Saint Mercy?”
Kane looked at Mara.
Then Hammer.
“Room 17 wasn't a room.”
“What was it?”
“A transfer designation.”
“For what?”
“Children.”
Hammer's expression darkened.
Kane swallowed.
“There were seventeen children.”
Mara covered her mouth.
Kane continued.
“They were moved through the hospital under false names. Nobody knew who they really belonged to.”
Hammer stared at Ellie.
“You were one of them.”
“No.”
Ellie shook her head.
“I was the last one.”
Hammer's blood ran cold.
“The last what?”
“The last child.”
Kane looked at him.
“Clara wasn't trying to rescue you.”
Hammer frowned.
“She was trying to expose them.”
“Who?”
Kane's eyes filled with fear.
“The people who built the system.”
Hammer's voice hardened.
“Names.”
Kane hesitated.
Then he said:
“Judge Samuel Vale.”
Mara stiffened.
The judge presiding over Hammer's trial.
Hammer stared at her.
“What?”
Mara whispered:
“Ray...”
Kane nodded.
“He has been controlling this case from the beginning.”
Hammer looked toward the ceiling.
The same judge who had watched Ellie draw the red heart.
The same judge who had ordered the evidence sealed.
The same judge who had allowed Hammer's prison history into a kidnapping trial.
Kane reached into his bloody coat.
Pulled out a flash drive.
“Eleven seconds.”
Hammer looked at it.
“The helmet camera.”
Kane nodded.
“It's not just the rescue.”
“What is it?”
Kane's face twisted with fear.
“It shows who gave the order.”
“Who?”
Kane looked at Ellie.
Then he whispered:
“The order came from inside the courtroom.”
A gunshot cracked through the window.
Kane's body jerked.
Hammer caught him.
The bullet had entered his chest.
Mara screamed.
Hammer looked outside.
A red laser dot moved across the wall.
Someone was aiming through the broken window.
Hammer shoved Ellie to the floor.
Another bullet struck the workbench.
Then silence.
Kane's fingers tightened around Hammer's wrist.
“Don't trust the judge.”
Hammer leaned closer.
Kane struggled to speak.
“He's not alone.”
Then Kane died.
Hammer closed his eyes.
Ellie crawled toward the flash drive.
She picked it up.
“There are two videos.”
Hammer looked at her.
“What?”
Ellie turned the drive over.
“One is for everyone.”
May you like
She looked into his eyes.
“The other is only for you.”
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