Chapter 7 - THE EDGE OF BLACKSTONEBlackstone Quarry had been abandoned for eleven years.
The main pit was nearly three hundred feet deep, filled halfway with dark rainwater. Rusted conveyors crossed the upper ledges, and abandoned processing buildings stood along the cliff like broken teeth.
Police blocked the access road.
Rachel refused to let Ethan pass.
“He has a hostage and possibly a firearm.”
“He took my uncle because of me.”
“He took David because he wanted leverage.”
“Then I’m the leverage.”
Carol seized Ethan’s arm.
“You are not walking into that quarry.”
A loudspeaker amplified Hale’s voice from somewhere inside the processing plant.
“Ethan Walker comes alone!”
Rachel looked toward the building.
“If anyone else enters, David falls.”
Ethan could see a figure near the upper conveyor.
David was tied to a metal support with his hands behind his back. A cable had been looped around his chest and connected to an old loading mechanism above the quarry pit.
Hale stood behind him.
Margaret Hale was nowhere in sight.
“I’m going,” Ethan said.
“No,” Carol replied.
Rachel studied the terrain.
“We need time to position officers.”
“Hale can see the road.”
“Then give him what he expects.”
She fitted Ethan with a small transmitter beneath his shirt.
“Keep him talking. Do not attempt to disarm him.”
Ethan crossed the quarry alone.
Loose stones shifted beneath his boots. Wind moved through the empty buildings, producing low metallic groans.
Hale waited on the upper platform.
He held a handgun.
David’s face was bruised, but he remained conscious.
“I told you not to come,” he called.
Ethan climbed the steel stairs.
Hale motioned with the gun.
“Hands where I can see them.”
“Let him go.”
“You sound like your grandfather.”
Ethan stopped several yards away.
“You don’t get to speak about my family.”
“I knew your family before you were born.”
“You knew how to use them.”
Hale smiled faintly.
“Harold did not require much encouragement. Men like him spend their lives searching for permission.”
David pulled against the cable.
“You murdered Lily.”
“No. Harold lost control.”
“You helped bury her.”
Hale’s expression hardened.
“I protected this town.”
Ethan looked around at the abandoned machinery.
“You stole from frightened families.”
“I transferred failing properties into responsible hands.”
“You blackmailed children.”
“Those girls were leverage.”
David surged forward.
Hale struck him with the gun, knocking him against the support.
Ethan took one step.
The barrel turned toward him.
“Don’t.”
“You already lost,” Ethan said.
“Mercer is talking. Nora is talking. The files are in police custody.”
“Mercer will die in prison, and Nora has spent half her life inventing memories.”
“What about Lily’s tape?”
For the first time, Hale looked uncertain.
“She was fifteen,” Ethan continued. “And she understood exactly who you were.”
“She understood nothing.”
“She frightened you.”
Hale fired.
The bullet struck the metal floor beside Ethan’s foot.
Below, officers moved into position among the rocks.
Hale heard something through the wind.
He pulled a lever beside the conveyor.
The cable around David tightened.
David was lifted from the platform and dragged toward the open edge.
Ethan ran.
Hale fired again.
The shot struck the railing.
Ethan slammed into him before he could fire a third time. They crashed against the control panel.
The gun fell beneath the conveyor.
Hale punched Ethan across the mouth. Ethan grabbed his jacket and drove him into the railing.
David’s boots scraped across the platform as the cable pulled him closer to the drop.
“Ethan!”
Ethan released Hale and reached the control lever.
Hale tackled him from behind.
They rolled beneath the moving chain mechanism. Hale wrapped both hands around Ethan’s throat.
“You should have left the dead buried.”
Ethan caught a loose metal hook and struck Hale’s wrist.
The pressure released.
Ethan turned and drove his shoulder into Hale’s chest. Hale stumbled into the control panel, activating the conveyor belt.
The platform shook.
David reached the edge.
Half his body passed beyond the railing.
Ethan dove and caught the cable.
The machinery dragged both men forward.
David swung above the quarry water.
“Cut it!” David shouted.
“With what?”
Hale crawled toward the fallen gun.
Ethan wrapped the cable around a support beam, slowing the pull.
Hale reached the weapon.
A shot rang out.
The gun spun from his hand.
Rachel stood on the lower staircase, her weapon raised.
“Step away!”
Hale grabbed Ethan and pulled him backward, using him as a shield.
Rachel held her fire.
David’s cable slipped another inch.
Hale pressed a knife against Ethan’s side.
“You’re going to tell them I left.”
Ethan looked at Rachel.
Then he slammed the back of his head into Hale’s face.
Hale staggered.
Ethan turned, caught Hale around the waist and drove him against the railing.
The corroded metal broke.
Hale fell halfway through the gap and caught the edge with both hands.
Ethan stood above him.
For one second, he thought about Harold.
About Lily beneath the shed.
About fourteen empty years.
Hale looked up.
“Help me.”
David shouted from beyond the ledge.
“Ethan!”
Ethan grabbed Hale’s wrist.
Not to save him out of mercy.
To prevent him from escaping judgment.
Rachel and another officer pulled Hale onto the platform and placed him in handcuffs.
Ethan seized the emergency brake.
The conveyor stopped.
Officers hauled David back over the edge.
He collapsed against Ethan.
“You should’ve let him fall,” David whispered.
“No.”
Ethan looked toward Hale.
“He doesn’t get silence.”
As officers searched the quarry building, they found Margaret Hale’s abandoned coat, forged passports and several boxes of documents.
Margaret herself was gone.
Hale refused to reveal where she had gone.
But before being placed in the patrol car, he looked at Carol and smiled.
“You still haven’t found what Lily hid in the organ.”
Carol stepped toward him.
“What did she hide?”
May you like
Hale’s smile faded.
“The one thing that can destroy all of you.”
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