Chapter 16 - Warehouse Nine
Fire ran faster than people think.
It climbed plastic wrapping, cardboard, old oil residue. Within seconds, black smoke rolled across the ceiling.
"Stay low," I told Noah.
"Vanessa has Grandma's bag."
"I don't care about the bag."
"Mom did."
That stopped me for half a second.
Then I heard Vanessa coughing somewhere ahead.
We followed the sound.
She was trapped behind a fallen rack, one ankle pinned beneath metal. The green handbag lay beyond her reach.
"Daniel!"
I could have left her.
The thought came clean and cold.
She had lied about Claire for thirteen months. She had helped hide my sister's death. She had threatened Noah and used Lily as leverage without ever saying the words.
Then Noah moved toward the rack.
"Help me."
I stared at him.
"She's still a person," he said.
Claire had raised him right.
We lifted the rack enough for Vanessa to drag her leg free.
She grabbed the handbag.
"Give me the token," I said.
"No."
Even now.
Even choking on smoke.
A figure appeared through the haze.
Elliot.
Gun in hand.
"Vanessa, give it to me."
Her face changed. "You tried to shoot me."
"I tried to end a problem."
"I'm the problem now?"
"You always were."
He aimed.
Noah kicked a loose metal pipe across the floor. The noise made Elliot glance down.
I hit him.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
We crashed into a stack of crates. Elliot drove his elbow into my jaw. I fell hard.
Vanessa ran.
Elliot raised the gun toward Noah.
I grabbed his ankle and pulled.
He hit the floor.
Ruiz burst through a side door with two firefighters behind her.
"Gun down!"
Elliot reached for it.
Ruiz kicked it away and cuffed him.
Outside, paramedics treated my mother and Vanessa.
A detective opened the green handbag.
No proxy token.
Vanessa laughed through a coughing fit.
"Claire was smarter than all of you."
I grabbed her shoulder. "Where is it?"
She looked at Noah.
"Ask him what his mother gave him the day she disappeared."
May you like
Noah's face went blank.
Then his hand moved slowly to the leather bracelet on his wrist.
