Chapter 14 - The River
Grace screamed her daughter’s name.
Everyone turned.
Emily was no longer beside her.
In the confusion of the evacuation, she had vanished.
The agent enlarged the dock camera feed. Charles Bellamy dragged Emily onto the boat by the back of her sweater.
“How did he get her?” Vincent demanded.
Grace was sobbing. “She was right here.”
Sofia’s face went hard. “He took the phone too.”
Vincent looked at the prosecutor. “You can arrest me now, or you can help me get that child back.”
The man’s expression did not change. “You’re not going anywhere armed.”
“Fine.”
Vincent held out his hands.
“Then come with me.”
Ten minutes later, a federal river unit tore south through black water while rain hammered the deck.
Vincent sat cuffed to a steel rail, furious enough to chew through it.
Sofia was beside him under an emergency blanket. Dominic had been detained at the estate. Grace stayed with Nico.
The prosecutor, Aaron Hale, watched the boat radar.
“Bellamy’s heading toward an old marina near Newburgh.”
Sofia leaned forward. “No. He wants you to think that.”
Hale looked at her.
“There’s an abandoned cement dock two miles north. Rocco used it years ago for off-book shipments.”
Vincent stared. “You knew about that?”
“I spent three years learning everything you never bothered to ask.”
He flinched.
She saw it.
“Not now,” she said quietly.
The radio crackled.
A patrol helicopter had visual contact.
Then the pilot shouted, “Suspect vessel changed course. Northbound. Child visible on aft deck.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
The cuffs came off five seconds later.
Hale handed Vincent a life jacket, not a gun.
“Do exactly what I say.”
Vincent put it on. “That has never been one of my strengths.”
They reached the cement dock as Bellamy’s boat slammed against the old pilings.
Charles dragged Emily onto the platform.
Another figure waited there.
Rocco.
And beside him, Michael Moretti.
Rocco held a pistol in one hand and a gasoline can in the other.
He shouted across the water, “Where is the key?”
Vincent stepped to the bow.
“Let the girl go.”
Rocco smiled.
Then Emily lifted the cracked blue phone high over her head.
“I recorded everything you said,” she yelled.
Charles’s face twisted.
May you like
He slapped the phone from her hand.
It hit the concrete, bounced once, and slid over the edge into the Hudson.
