Chapter 17 - Seventy-Two Hours
The court order looked real.
That was the problem.
Evelyn’s attorney confirmed the judge existed.
The case number existed.
The electronic signature existed.
But the hearing never had.
Somebody had inserted the order into the court system.
Julian had twenty minutes before deputies arrived.
“We run,” Charles said.
“No,” Julian replied.
“They take Leo, Grant wins.”
“If I run with my son after a court order, I prove their story for them.”
Maya knelt beside Leo. “You stay with me. Whatever happens, you tell the truth.”
Leo nodded.
The deputies arrived at 8:06 p.m.
Julian opened the door himself.
“I’m not resisting,” he said. “But before you take my son, call the judge directly.”
One deputy frowned. “Sir, we have an order.”
“Then verify it.”
Rebecca handed him a packet of evidence.
The deputy stepped aside and made the call.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Finally he returned.
“The judge says she did not issue this.”
Julian exhaled.
Leo gripped Maya’s hand.
The deputy’s radio crackled.
Another officer spoke rapidly.
Daniel Pike had been arrested at the airport.
On his laptop investigators found login credentials for a court clerk account.
It should have ended there.
Instead, Pike asked for a lawyer and offered one sentence before questioning stopped:
“Eleanor has the original ledger.”
Julian looked at Claire.
“The ledger Amelia died for?”
Claire nodded.
“Where?”
Pike refused to say.
Then Leo spoke.
“I know.”
Everyone turned.
“When Eleanor pushed me, she had a red book under her coat.”
Maya frowned. “Why didn’t you say that before?”
“I thought it was just a notebook.”
Julian remembered Eleanor being escorted toward the guest wing.
Then the blackout.
Then her escape attempt.
“What happened to her coat?”
Security checked inventory.
The coat was gone.
So was Eleanor.
Federal custody had transferred her to a hospital after she complained of chest pain.
May you like
At 7:42 p.m., she had escaped through a service exit.
And the hospital camera showed her leaving with Grant Cross.
