Chapter 9 - THE LAST CHARGEPolice surrounded the SUV.
Nobody was inside.
But the trunk contained a laptop.
And on the laptop was a live map.
My house.
Monica's house.
Every property on the street.
Then the system displayed:
FINAL TEST — TONIGHT.
The detective looked at me.
“What happens tonight?”
I didn't know.
Then Frank noticed the map.
“Look.”
A red line connected every house.
“Power grid.”
The system wasn't targeting one house.
It was targeting the entire neighborhood.
The Tesla charging scheme had been a test.
They had used residential vehicles and outlets to gather data.
Tonight, they intended to overload the local system.
Not enough to cause catastrophic damage.
Enough to create a major outage.
Enough to prove their model worked.
And my house was the control point.
I looked at Monica.
“Can you help?”
She nodded.
“I know where the equipment is.”
We moved quickly.
The authorities shut down the external devices.
Monica identified the hidden connections.
Ryan helped investigators locate the warehouse.
And I went to the garage.
The original outlet was still there.
The same place where everything had started.
I touched the wall.
Thomas had stood here.
Maybe many times.
Maybe he had noticed things I never saw.
Then I remembered his note.
Watch the person who benefits.
Who benefited?
Not Monica.
Not Richard.
Not even Mr. Harris.
Someone higher.
Someone who could profit from infrastructure failures.
The detective suddenly shouted from the driveway.
“We found the financial records!”
I ran outside.
The records revealed a corporation hidden behind several shell companies.
The owner was anonymous.
But one document listed a trustee.
A name.
THOMAS BROOKS.
I froze.
“My husband?”
The detective shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed to another page.
“Someone used his identity after his death.”
Then we found the real name.
ELIZABETH BROOKS.
I stared.
My husband's sister.
My sister-in-law.
I hadn't seen her in eight years.
She had disappeared after a family argument.
I remembered Thomas telling me:
“Ellie, don't ask where she went.”
I had never understood.
Now I did.
Elizabeth had been the person above Richard.
The person who had access to Thomas.
The person who knew the neighborhood.
The person who had watched me.
And she had been manipulating Monica.
The detective picked up his phone.
“Where is Elizabeth now?”
An officer answered.
May you like
“Airport.”
We had twenty minutes.
