Chapter 9 - The Terminal
Grand Central Terminal remained crowded even near midnight.
Travelers hurried beneath the painted constellations of the main concourse.
Police officers blended among them in plain clothes.
Ruiz had refused Renata’s demand that I come alone.
Instead, she placed surveillance teams at every exit.
Harris monitored the cameras from an unmarked van.
Grant remained at the mansion with Lily.
At eleven fifty-eight, I stepped beneath the central clock.
My phone rang.
Renata’s voice came through an encrypted call.
“Walk toward Track Twenty-Nine.”
“Where is Daniel?”
“Near you.”
I scanned the crowd.
A man in a gray jacket read a newspaper beside the information desk.
A woman pushed a stroller.
Two teenagers took photographs beneath the clock.
Anyone could be watching.
“Show me he is alive.”
A video appeared on my phone.
Daniel Harris stood inside a narrow utility room.
His hands were tied.
A digital clock behind him showed the current time.
“Track Twenty-Nine,” Renata repeated.
I walked.
Ruiz followed from a distance disguised in a dark business coat.
At the entrance to the platform, a maintenance worker bumped into me.
“Sorry.”
He disappeared into the crowd.
My phone was gone.
I turned.
Ruiz moved toward him.
Then the station lights failed.
Darkness spread through the lower corridor.
Passengers shouted.
Emergency lights flickered on.
A hand grabbed my arm and pulled me through a service door.
I struck backward with my elbow.
The person released me.
“Maya.”
Daniel Harris stood in front of me.
His face was thin.
A bruise darkened one cheek.
He was not tied.
He held the black drive.
“You sent the message?”
“No.”
“Renata did?”
“She forced me to come.”
He glanced toward the corridor.
“They are watching.”
“Give me the drive.”
“I cannot.”
“Your father has spent two years trying to find it.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“My father spent my entire life choosing the Hales over me.”
“This is not about him.”
“It is always about him.”
Footsteps approached outside.
Daniel opened another door.
We entered a narrow tunnel running beneath the tracks.
I heard Ruiz calling my name through the service corridor.
Daniel moved quickly.
“Renata told me you had the bank key.”
“She lied.”
“She said the evidence in Claire’s vault could send me to prison.”
“What did you do?”
His silence answered.
“You helped them kidnap Naomi.”
“I drove the van.”
“Where is she?”
“I do not know.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“She may die because of you.”
“She was alive when I left.”
“Where?”
“An old medical clinic in Yonkers.”
I memorized the location.
“Give me the drive.”
Daniel looked at it.
“I watched the footage.”
My heart pounded.
“What does it show?”
“Renata on the bridge.”
“And Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“Did she kill Claire?”
Daniel swallowed.
“The camera did not capture the fall clearly.”
“But?”
“There is audio.”
A door slammed behind us.
A masked man entered the tunnel.
He carried a handgun.
Daniel shoved me behind a concrete pillar.
The first shot struck the wall.
Sparks exploded.
We ran.
The tunnel opened beside an unused platform.
A train roared past on the neighboring track.
Daniel threw the drive toward me.
“Take it.”
The masked man fired again.
Daniel fell.
I caught the drive and dropped beside him.
Blood spread across his jacket.
The gunman approached.
Before he could fire again, Ruiz emerged from the tunnel and shot him in the shoulder.
The weapon skidded across the platform.
Officers surrounded him.
Ruiz rushed toward us.
Daniel struggled to breathe.
“Tell my father…”
“You will tell him yourself.”
He shook his head.
“I am sorry.”
Paramedics arrived.
As they worked, Daniel gripped my wrist.
“The footage is missing twelve seconds.”
“What happened during those twelve seconds?”
“I heard Claire say a name.”
“Whose name?”
His eyes lost focus.
“Not Renata.”
The paramedics lifted him onto a stretcher.
I followed until Ruiz stopped me.
“We have the drive.”
“And the clinic address.”
Ruiz sent a tactical team to Yonkers.
The captured gunman carried no identification.
His fingerprints had been chemically damaged.
His phone contained a single message from Simon Crowe.
DO NOT LET THE NANNY LEAVE WITH THE DRIVE.
Renata’s lawyer was no longer merely defending her.
He was actively involved.
Within forty minutes, police entered the abandoned clinic.
Naomi was found sedated inside a locked examination room.
She was alive.
Grant called me from the mansion.
“Lily has been asking for you.”
“I am coming back.”
“Did you get the footage?”
I looked at the black drive.
“Yes.”
“Does it show what happened?”
“Daniel said twelve seconds were missing.”
A pause.
“Is Daniel alive?”
“I do not know.”
When I returned to the mansion, Harris waited in the atrium.
His face collapsed when he saw the blood on my coat.
“Daniel?”
“He was shot.”
Harris pressed one hand against the wall.
“He gave me the drive.”
“He watched it?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He heard Claire speak a name.”
Harris closed his eyes.
“What name?”
“He did not finish.”
Ruiz entered with a forensic technician.
“We will recover whatever is on the drive.”
The process took three hours.
At four twenty in the morning, the first image appeared.
Claire stood on the east atrium bridge.
Renata faced her.
Adrian emerged from the service corridor.
Claire backed toward the railing.
The video stuttered.
Sound continued.
“You forged Grant’s name,” Claire said.
Adrian replied, “You should have stayed out of it.”
Renata grabbed Claire’s arm.
Claire struggled.
Then she shouted one name.
“Simon!”
May you like
The video cut to black.
Twelve seconds later, Claire was falling.
