Chapter 11 - THE EMPTY GRAVE
Rain hammered the cemetery as Maya, Julian, Arthur, Gabriel, and Captain Brooks reached Clara Vale’s grave.
The headstone had been pulled aside.
Fresh dirt surrounded an open hole.
The coffin lid lay broken in the mud.
Inside was no body.
Only a steel lockbox.
Arthur stared into the empty coffin.
“Where is Clara?”
Captain Brooks opened the lockbox.
It contained medical files, photographs, and a flash drive.
Gabriel plugged the drive into his laptop.
A video appeared.
Clara sat in Room 814, weak but alive.
Dr. Reed stood behind the camera.
“I can keep you alive,” he told her, “but Eleanor wants you legally dead.”
Clara looked directly into the lens.
“Then tell Arthur the truth. I will disappear if it keeps Julian safe.”
The recording jumped ahead.
Reed and Eleanor wheeled Clara through a service exit at night.
Arthur gripped the edge of the coffin.
“She didn’t die.”
Maya found a recent photo beneath the files.
Clara, older now, stood outside a care facility in Vermont.
On the back was a date from six months earlier.
Julian’s knees nearly gave out.
“My mother is alive?”
A rifle shot struck the headstone.
Everyone dropped.
Reed stood beyond the trees.
He shouted, “Give me the drive!”
Captain Brooks returned fire as Reed ran toward a black sedan.
Julian chased him.
Maya saw another person in the passenger seat.
Eleanor.
May you like
The woman arrested at the hotel had not been Eleanor at all.
She had been her identical twin sister.
