Chapter 13 - The Last FileI had one chance to turn his own trap against him
Voss led me through the tunnel.
I kept my face expressionless.
Inside my coat was the original case file.
I needed to get it somewhere safe.
But there was another problem.
Voss had planted cameras throughout the building.
I could hear him talking behind me.
“You know what I admire about your father?”
I said nothing.
“He always believed evidence could save people.”
“He was wrong.”
“No.”
Voss smiled.
“He was incomplete.”
He pushed open a metal door.
We entered an underground control room.
Monitors covered every wall.
My life appeared on one.
My childhood.
My marriage.
The basement.
Robert hitting me.
Diane watching.
My own father arriving.
Every moment.
Recorded.
Voss had cameras in the house.
For years.
I stared at the screen.
“You watched.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were valuable.”
He stepped closer.
“Your father spent his entire career collecting evidence against men like me.”
He pointed toward the monitors.
“But he never understood that people make better weapons than evidence.”
The door behind us opened.
Robert stepped inside.
Voss looked pleased.
“You came.”
Robert said nothing.
Voss handed him a gun.
“Kill her.”
Robert stared at the weapon.
“No.”
Voss smiled.
“I expected hesitation.”
“I said no.”
Voss turned cold.
“You belong to me.”
Robert shook his head.
“No.”
He dropped the weapon.
Voss moved instantly.
He shot Robert in the shoulder.
I screamed.
Robert collapsed.
Voss grabbed my arm.
“You made the wrong choice.”
Then Dad's voice came through the speaker.
“No.”
Voss looked toward the cameras.
Dad had hacked the system.
“You made yours.”
Every monitor changed.
Instead of my face, they showed documents.
Bank accounts.
Judge Avery's orders.
Thomas Reed's payments.
Voss's transactions.
Forty-three names.
And the video of Robert confessing.
Voss stared.
“What did you do?”
Dad's voice came through.
“You forgot one thing.”
“What?”
“I retired.”
Silence.
“You assumed that meant I stopped working.”
Voss looked at me.
Then he realized.
The original file.
“You gave her the file.”
“Yes.”
Voss raised his weapon.
A shot cracked through the room.
The monitor exploded.
I ducked.
Then the lights went out.
Sirens sounded outside.
Voss ran.
I dropped beside Robert.
Blood covered his shirt.
“You idiot,” I whispered.
He smiled weakly.
“Probably.”
I pressed a hand against the wound.
“You're going to live.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I need someone alive to testify.”
He laughed.
Then coughed.
Footsteps thundered.
Dad entered with federal agents.
Voss was gone.
Marianne crouched beside Robert.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She almost smiled.
“Good. Stay awake.”
Dad looked at me.
“Where's the file?”
I held it up.
“Safe.”
He nodded.
Then something crashed upstairs.
A voice shouted:
“Judge Avery is here.”
We all froze.
The judge had come personally.
He entered the room.
And behind him stood Diane.
She was holding a gun.
For one terrible second, I thought she was protecting him.
Then Diane turned the weapon toward the judge.
“Enough.”
Judge Avery stared at her.
“You don't know what you're doing.”
Diane's hands shook.
“Yes, I do.”
She looked at me.
May you like
“I should have done this three years ago.”
Then she pulled the trigger.
