Chapter 8 - THE CHILD AT TABLE NINE
Julian made a sound Maya had never heard from him before.
“Sophie.”
His daughter had been sitting with her nanny at Table Nine.
Eleanor’s voice came through the van’s phone.
“Bring Arthur to the ballroom stage with the signed transfer. No police. No tricks.”
Captain Brooks arrived with officers seconds later.
Julian tried to take the phone, but Maya held it away.
“Eleanor wants you angry. Angry people make mistakes.”
“That’s my daughter.”
“And we’re getting her back.”
Gabriel, still weak, pointed at the video.
“The feed has a two-second delay. I can loop it.”
Maya understood.
“If Eleanor sees Arthur approaching on a loop, we can enter from behind.”
Arthur signed a blank sheet and placed it in the Sterling folder.
Julian stared at him.
“You’re using yourself as bait.”
“I used silence to protect this family. It only protected Eleanor.”
In the ballroom, guests had been moved to one side.
Eleanor stood onstage with Sophie.
Dr. Reed watched from the balcony.
Arthur walked down the center aisle carrying the folder.
“You win,” he called.
Eleanor smiled.
“I usually do.”
Behind the stage curtain, Maya crawled beneath lighting cables.
Julian moved along the service corridor.
Gabriel looped the camera feed.
For eight seconds, Eleanor watched a false image of Arthur still twenty feet away.
Maya reached Sophie first.
She pulled the child backward as Julian seized Eleanor’s wrist.
The blade fell.
Arthur tackled Reed’s arm as he fired from the balcony.
The shot missed Arthur.
May you like
It struck the chandelier chain.
Thousands of pounds of crystal began falling toward the crowded ballroom.
