Chapter 8 - REBECCA’S LAST SECRETNatalie refused to believe Rebecca had betrayed us.
“She wouldn't.”
“The camera shows her getting into Raymond’s truck.”
“He must've threatened her.”
“There was no gun visible.”
“Daniel, you don't know what he said.”
She was right.
But after three years of discovering secret upon secret, faith was becoming exhausting.
Hale pulled traffic cameras.
The gray pickup headed east.
Then disappeared on rural roads.
I returned to the safe apartment to be with Lily and Noah.
The second I walked in, Lily hugged me.
“Why did the police ask if I called you?”
I held her tightly.
“Someone played a trick.”
“Uncle Raymond?”
“Yes.”
She was quiet.
“Mom always said he was good at tricks.”
That sentence stayed with me.
At 8:30 p.m., my truck was delivered to the dog-training field exactly as Raymond requested.
Police installed tracking devices.
Hidden cameras watched from nearby buildings.
I wasn't there.
Raymond had no reason to believe that.
At 9:47, a figure approached the truck.
Not Raymond.
Rebecca.
She opened the passenger door and placed something inside.
Then walked away.
Police intercepted her three blocks later.
No resistance.
When Hale called me, I demanded to speak with her.
Rebecca sounded exhausted.
“I'm sorry.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Saving Natalie.”
“She’s already safe.”
“Not from Raymond.”
“What does that mean?”
“He has copies.”
“Of the evidence?”
“Of things that make Natalie look guilty.”
I closed my eyes.
More secrets.
Rebecca explained.
Years earlier, Raymond forced Natalie to sign several financial documents.
Some willingly, before she knew the truth.
Others forged.
But mixed together, the records could make Natalie appear deeply involved in the laundering operation.
“If Raymond disappears,” Rebecca said, “those files get sent automatically to federal investigators.”
“That's bluffing.”
“No. He showed me.”
“He wants you to help him escape?”
“He wants the drive and enough time to leave.”
“He already has the drive.”
Rebecca went silent.
My pulse changed.
“No, he doesn't.”
She whispered:
“No.”
The teddy bear in the nursery had contained a decoy.
Natalie had lied even after being rescued.
The real drive had always been with Rebecca.
Hale overheard through the speakerphone.
His face hardened.
“Where?”
Rebecca began crying.
“I put it in Daniel’s truck fifteen minutes ago.”
The entire field operation changed instantly.
Officers searched the vehicle.
The drive was beneath the passenger seat.
That was what Rebecca had planted.
“Why?” I asked.
“Raymond told me if he didn't have the original by ten, he'd release everything against Natalie.”
“He’ll release it anyway.”
“I know that now.”
A broken laugh escaped her.
“I've spent fifteen years doing exactly what he tells me because I keep thinking one more sacrifice will make him stop.”
Natalie had done the same thing.
That was Raymond’s true power.
He made people believe obedience would purchase peace.
It never did.
Hale examined the drive.
Encrypted.
Natalie gave the password.
LilyNoah2018!
Inside were hundreds of files.
Audio recordings.
Videos.
Financial ledgers.
Photographs.
Enough evidence to make even Hale stare silently.
Then one folder caught his attention.
W.P. EXIT PLAN
Price’s exit plan.
Inside was a document listing offshore accounts and emergency destinations.
And one property in Oklahoma.
A hunting lodge owned through a trust.
Rebecca recognized it.
“Raymond knows this place.”
Hale looked at the clock.
9:26 p.m.
Maybe the dog-training field was never the real rendezvous.
Maybe Raymond intended to use the lodge after collecting the truck.
Officers headed there.
At 10:14, they found the gray pickup hidden in trees a quarter-mile from the property.
The lodge lights were off.
Thermal imaging showed one person inside.
Police surrounded it.
Hale called me from the command vehicle.
“Stay with your children.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
At 10:37, the tactical team entered.
No Raymond.
The thermal image had come from a heated mannequin beneath blankets.
Another diversion.
But on the lodge table sat a laptop.
And the laptop was running a countdown.
00:16:44
Beneath it:
DOCUMENT RELEASE QUEUED
Raymond’s dead-man switch.
If investigators couldn't stop it, incriminating material against Natalie—and potentially dozens of innocent people whose identities had been used—would be distributed.
Cybercrime specialists worked remotely.
Rebecca gave every password she knew.
Nothing.
At four minutes remaining, the countdown abruptly stopped.
Not because police cracked it.
Because someone entered the correct code remotely.
Raymond.
Then the laptop displayed a message:
I still need my sister alive.
Hale stared at it.
“Why?”
Natalie understood.
“The accounts.”
“What accounts?”
“Dad’s estate.”
When their father died, Raymond believed he inherited control of several investment holdings.
But their father had quietly amended the trust.
Because Rebecca was legally alive, control could not pass fully to Raymond.
Certain assets required signatures from both surviving daughters.
Raymond had spent years hiding Rebecca not only to silence her.
He needed her legally dead.
Natalie had discovered the amended trust months earlier.
That was why Raymond escalated.
Millions were at stake.
Not hundreds of thousands.
Nearly $12 million.
And if Rebecca officially reappeared, Raymond’s fraud would unravel.
Hale immediately contacted the estate attorney.
The attorney revealed something even more important.
There was a scheduled trust meeting the next morning at nine.
Raymond knew about it.
If Natalie and Rebecca both appeared, Raymond lost control permanently.
If neither appeared…
he could continue contesting ownership.
I looked at Hale.
“He’s going to the lawyer.”
“Maybe.”
At 8:15 the next morning, law enforcement filled the streets surrounding the attorney’s downtown office.
Natalie attended remotely from the hospital.
Rebecca entered under protection.
I watched from an unmarked vehicle with Hale.
At 8:57, a black sedan pulled into the underground garage.
Raymond stepped out.
He wore a suit.
No disguise.
No visible panic.
He carried a leather briefcase.
“Why would he walk into a building full of cameras?” I asked.
Hale's expression darkened.
“Because he thinks he's still controlling the room.”
Raymond took the elevator upstairs.
Officers moved into position.
At nine exactly, he entered the conference room.
Rebecca was sitting inside.
His face froze.
For the first time, Raymond Cross looked afraid.
Then he smiled.
“Rebecca.”
She stood.
“My name is Rebecca Cross.”
Her voice shook.
“But I'm not dead.”
Raymond slowly set down the briefcase.
Police entered behind him.
“Raymond Cross, put your hands where we can see them.”
His expression didn't change.
“You people really don't understand what you've done.”
Then he looked at Rebecca.
“You think this ends with me?”
Hale cuffed him.
Raymond smiled again.
“No.”
He nodded toward the briefcase.
“It ends when you open that.”
The bomb squad cleared the floor.
The briefcase contained no explosive.
It contained something stranger.
A photograph.
Taken that morning.
Of my house.
On the back, Raymond had written:
YOU MISSED ONE PERSON.
Detective Hale stared at the photograph.
Then his phone rang.
He listened.
His face went pale.
Deputy Chief Warren Price had disappeared from the hospital.
Someone had helped him escape.
May you like
And apparently…
Raymond expected Price to finish what they'd started.
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