CHAPTER 10: THE LITTLE GIRL'S CALL
Daniel stared at the GPS coordinates.
They pointed to an abandoned motel on the outskirts of Phoenix.
He looked at the brass key marked 214 lying on his father's workbench.
The storage locker.
The crying child.
The ledger.
Three different paths.
Only one choice.
His phone rang again.
This time it was Natalie.
"Daniel?"
"I'm here."
"I just got another message."
His stomach tightened.
"What did it say?"
She took a shaky breath.
"'Tell your husband to stop digging.'"
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I'm coming home."
"No."
Natalie's voice surprised him.
"They want you to stop."
"If you come back now..."
"...they win."
Daniel was silent.
She continued,
"Find the little girl."
"If they're hurting another family..."
"...don't let them do what they did to us."
The Desert Motel
Thirty-five minutes later, Daniel parked across from the abandoned Desert Star Motel.
Most of the windows were boarded shut.
The faded neon sign no longer worked.
Only Room 12 showed signs of life.
A curtain moved.
Then became still.
Daniel approached carefully.
He knocked once.
No answer.
Twice.
Still nothing.
The door creaked open by itself.
Inside...
Furniture lay overturned.
A lamp flickered.
Fresh blood stained the carpet.
But the room was empty.
Almost.
A pink stuffed rabbit sat in the corner.
Daniel picked it up.
Tucked inside one floppy ear was a folded note.
Too late.
A loud crash echoed from the room above.
Daniel sprinted upstairs.
Room 22.
The door hung open.
Inside, a terrified woman clutched a little girl behind an overturned mattress.
The same little girl whose voice had been on the phone.
The woman screamed when she saw him.
"No!"
"We're not with them!"
Daniel immediately stepped back and raised both hands.
"I'm Daniel Carter."
"I got a phone call."
The little girl peeked around her mother.
"You answered?"
Daniel nodded.
"You called me?"
The child slowly held up an old cell phone.
"My grandpa said only call this number."
Daniel frowned.
"What grandpa?"
The woman burst into tears.
"My father..."
"He worked for Victor Hale."
Rebecca Lawson
Her name was Rebecca Lawson.
The little girl was Emma.
Rebecca's father...
Harold Lawson...
had disappeared three days earlier.
Before vanishing, he'd left Emma a prepaid phone.
Only one number was saved.
Daniel Carter.
"I've never met your father."
Rebecca nodded.
"I know."
"He said if anything happened..."
"...you were the only person who wouldn't ignore us."
Daniel felt the weight of responsibility settle over him.
"Did he leave anything else?"
Rebecca pointed toward a duffel bag.
Inside...
Accounting files.
Property deeds.
Photographs.
And another black notebook.
Not the ledger.
A journal.
Harold Lawson had documented everything he'd seen during fifteen years working under Victor Hale.
The Journal
Daniel opened the first page.
The handwriting was hurried.
Uneven.
As if Harold expected someone to interrupt him at any moment.
Victor doesn't choose greedy people.
He creates them.
Daniel kept reading.
Victor's method was chillingly simple.
First, he identified the strongest person in a family.
Then the weakest.
The strongest became isolated.
The weakest became dependent.
Money flowed only through the dependent family member.
Arguments followed.
Distrust grew.
Eventually...
The family destroyed itself.
Victor merely collected the profits afterward.
Daniel looked up slowly.
"My mother wasn't the mastermind."
Rebecca shook her head.
"No."
"She was recruited."
Detective Morris Makes a Discovery
At the crime scene from Samuel's murder, forensic technicians finally recovered the sniper's bullet.
It hadn't deformed on impact.
Inside the hollow point...
A microscopic tracking chip.
The technician stared in disbelief.
Detective Morris frowned.
"Why would anyone put a tracker inside a bullet?"
The technician looked at her.
"Not to track the victim."
"To track the evidence."
Silence filled the lab.
"If police recover the bullet..."
"...someone knows exactly where it is."
Morris immediately ordered the evidence locker evacuated.
Five minutes later...
A small explosion ripped through the forensic lab.
The evidence locker was destroyed.
Had they waited another minute...
Half the building would've collapsed.
Victor's Mistake
Victor Hale watched the news coverage of the explosion.
He smiled.
Then his assistant entered.
"Sir..."
Victor didn't look away from the television.
"What?"
"We found Harold Lawson."
Victor turned.
"Alive?"
The assistant nodded nervously.
"Where?"
The answer made Victor's smile disappear.
"Police protective custody."
Harold Speaks
Daniel arrived at the safe house just before midnight.
Detective Morris met him outside.
"Harold insisted on seeing you."
Inside, an elderly man sat in a wheelchair.
His face was bruised.
One arm rested in a sling.
But his eyes remained sharp.
"You came."
Daniel nodded.
"You saved my daughter."
Harold smiled weakly.
"I knew you would."
Daniel sat beside him.
"Why me?"
Harold looked directly into his eyes.
"Because your father once saved my life."
Daniel froze.
"My father knew you?"
Harold nodded.
"Jonathan Carter discovered Victor's fraud years ago."
"He warned me."
"He tried to expose everything."
Daniel's voice barely worked.
"My father died before he could."
Harold slowly shook his head.
"No."
"He was killed before he could."
The room became deathly quiet.
Detective Morris stopped taking notes.
Even Rebecca held her breath.
Harold whispered,
"I was there."
Daniel felt the world tilt beneath him.
"You saw it?"
Harold nodded once.
"I saw who poisoned your father."
Daniel leaned forward.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"Who?"
Harold opened his mouth to answer.
A deafening BANG!
The safe house windows exploded inward.
Gunfire erupted from outside.
Agents shouted.
Rebecca threw herself over Emma.
Daniel pulled Detective Morris behind a concrete pillar.
Harold's wheelchair tipped backward.
Smoke filled the room.
Emergency lights flashed red through the chaos.
Then, through the haze...
A masked gunman walked calmly through the shattered front entrance.
He wasn't aiming at the police.
He wasn't aiming at Daniel.
He was walking directly toward Harold Lawson.
May you like
As if he had come for only one witness.
End of Chapter 10
