Chapter 18 - Claire's Last Trap
Emergency lights flashed red.
Julian spun toward the opening vault.
"What did you do?"
Claire had used the real encryption key remotely through Daniel's old corporate disaster-recovery network.
She had not opened the vault for Julian.
She had opened it for the federal evidence team waiting in the service tunnel beneath it.
Agents poured out.
"FEDERAL AGENTS! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"
Chaos exploded.
Julian fired once.
Daniel tackled Evelyn to the floor.
The bullet hit a steel beam.
Julian ran upstairs.
Daniel followed before anyone could stop him.
They reached the roof.
Rain hammered the river.
Julian stood near the edge.
"You ruined everything."
Daniel stopped ten feet away.
"No. You built everything on people staying afraid."
Julian laughed.
"Your mother stayed afraid. Arthur stayed quiet. Vanessa wanted money. Voss wanted status. Your wife thought she could save everyone."
"She saved herself."
"Barely."
Daniel's anger rose.
Then Claire's voice came through his earpiece.
"Daniel. Don't give him another victim."
He breathed.
Julian raised the gun.
"You were always your father's weak son."
Daniel did not move.
"Maybe."
Sirens screamed below.
"But I'm not standing here alone."
Morris appeared behind Julian.
"Drop it."
Julian turned.
That hesitation ended it.
Morris knocked the gun away.
Officers pinned him to the roof.
For the first time in seven months, Daniel felt the future open instead of close.
In the vault, investigators found decades of financial records.
Proof of Julian's fraud.
Proof of Voss's falsified psychiatric evaluations.
Payments to private security contractors.
And a file labeled CARTER SUCCESSION.
Inside were draft death certificates for Daniel, Claire, and even Evelyn.
One more document was clipped behind them.
A guardianship petition for Noah, Lily, and Emma.
Proposed guardian:
VANESSA HALE.
Evelyn stared at it.
"She knew they planned to kill all of us."
Daniel shook his head.
"Maybe. Or maybe Julian planned to kill her too."
Then Morris found a handwritten note in Julian's desk.
VANESSA AFTER TRANSFER -- REMOVE.
Daniel closed his eyes.
May you like
Every person Julian used had eventually become another problem to erase.
Including Vanessa.
