Chapter 15 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH|
The message included a location and a deadline.
Midnight.
No police. No additional security. Bring the original ledger.
I read it twice.
"Absolutely not," I said.
Jenna stood across from me, pale but determined.
"We can't abandon her."
"We won't."
"Then stop telling me what we can't do and tell me what we're going to do."
I admired her courage. I hated the circumstances that demanded it.
Marcus laid a map across the table.
"The location is an abandoned rail depot south of the city. There are three access roads and a drainage tunnel beneath the eastern platform."
"Too obvious," I said.
"Agreed. The depot is probably a decoy."
Margaret studied the message.
"Voss likes public places when he wants people to think he has nothing to hide. The real meeting will be somewhere nearby."
"How do you know?" Jenna asked.
"Because your father once tried to negotiate with him at a train station. Voss never arrived. His men ambushed the people waiting there."
Margaret pointed to a nearby industrial district.
"There used to be a maintenance building here. It was connected to the rail line before the city changed the route."
We divided the team into three groups. One would approach the depot. Another would watch the surrounding roads. The third, led by Marcus, would search the maintenance building.
Jenna insisted on joining the operation.
I finally agreed on one condition: she would stay with me unless the plan required otherwise.
She accepted.
Then she reached for my hand.
"Evan, about what you said earlier."
I looked at her.
"I meant it."
"I know."
She took a shaky breath.
"I've spent years being afraid that loving someone means giving them the power to make my life smaller. Ryan taught me that. He called control protection. He called obedience commitment."
"I'm not Ryan."
"No. You're more dangerous."
I almost smiled.
She continued.
"But you're also the first man who has ever told me I can leave if I want to."
I squeezed her hand.
"You can always leave."
She stepped closer.
"That's why I want to stay."
For one suspended moment, the danger outside disappeared.
Then she kissed me.
It was brief, uncertain, and entirely real.
When she pulled away, my heart was pounding harder than it had during any gunfight.
"That wasn't part of our agreement," I murmured.
She smiled faintly.
"Consider it a performance bonus."
I laughed, and she looked delighted to have managed it.
Then the radio crackled.
Marcus had found the maintenance building.
Inside was a room containing a chair, a camera, and a single envelope.
Eleanor was nowhere to be seen.
The envelope contained a photograph of my father and Henry Cole.
On the back, someone had written:
The lawyer did not order the murder. He gave the order to the man who did.
I stared at the words.
Henry was involved, but someone else had made the final decision.
A second page listed a bank account and a meeting time.
The account belonged to a company controlled by Ryan.
The meeting time was midnight.
The location was not the depot.
It was Blackwood Tower.
Jenna looked at me.
"He's going to come to your office."
"No," I said, suddenly understanding.
"Then where?"
May you like
I looked toward the city.
"He's already inside."
