Chapter 7 - What Happened on the Pacific Mariner
The Pacific Mariner had burned 4 years earlier.
Officially, the cargo ship suffered an electrical fire while anchored outside Vancouver Harbor.
Unofficially, Victor said, the ship carried records.
Mercer had used Lacombe shipping routes to move illegal cash without Victor’s authorization.
Victor’s younger brother Daniel discovered it.
Bridget stopped breathing.
“Daniel knew?”
Victor nodded.
“He was collecting evidence.”
“And the car crash?”
Silence.
Bridget understood before Victor spoke.
“Mercer.”
“We could never prove it.”
Victor’s voice had become almost emotionless.
That frightened Bridget more than anger would have.
“Daniel gave a copy of the shipping manifest to a dock supervisor. Mercer found out. The supervisor disappeared. The Mariner burned 2 days later.”
“And October 17?”
“The date Daniel scheduled a meeting with federal investigators.”
Bridget looked at him.
“You said it while you were injured.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I thought I was dying.”
The room went quiet.
“What else did you say?”
Victor looked at her.
“Luca.”
Bridget’s throat tightened.
Of course.
He had not been confessing business secrets.
He had been talking to the dead.
Mercer simply did not know how much she remembered.
That gave them leverage.
Bridget wanted to use it.
Victor absolutely refused.
“No.”
“Judge Shaw is alive because Mercer thinks I know something.”
“That is exactly why you stay here.”
“He asked for me.”
“No.”
“Victor—”
“No.”
She slammed both hands onto the table.
“You do not get to lock me away while someone dies protecting information connected to your family.”
“I get to keep you alive.”
“By sacrificing Evelyn?”
“By finding another way.”
“You have less than 24 hours.”
“I’ve survived worse.”
“So have I.”
Victor’s eyes flashed.
“This is not overdue rent or nursing school.”
Bridget recoiled.
He regretted it instantly.
“That was cruel.”
“Yes.”
She walked away.
“Bridget.”
She stopped at the doorway.
Victor’s voice softened.
“I cannot lose another child.”
She turned.
“This isn’t only about Pippa.”
“No.”
The admission silenced her.
Victor looked directly at her.
“I cannot lose you either.”
For the first time, Bridget understood what his anger actually was.
Fear.
The same fear she carried every time Pippa crossed a street without holding her hand.
Bridget returned slowly.
“Then don’t lose us.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Work with me.”
By evening, they had a plan.
Bridget would speak to Mercer by video and convince him she remembered enough to be useful.
She would claim Victor had told her where Daniel’s backup evidence was hidden.
Mercer would reveal a meeting location.
Victor’s security team would track him.
It worked too easily.
Mercer called at 8:17.
Bridget sat before the laptop.
Victor stood outside camera range.
“You wanted me.”
Mercer smiled.
“Ms. Carone.”
“Let Judge Shaw go.”
“When I have what I need.”
“I remember Pacific Mariner.”
Mercer’s smile weakened.
“October 17.”
Nothing.
“Daniel Lacombe.”
Now Mercer stopped smiling.
Bridget continued.
“Victor told me where Daniel hid the copy.”
Victor had told her to stop there.
She improvised.
“In a safety deposit box.”
Victor’s eyes widened.
Mercer leaned toward the screen.
“Which bank?”
“Let Evelyn go.”
“Which bank?”
“Exchange first.”
Mercer stared at her for a long time.
Then smiled.
“You’re much more interesting than Victor’s usual women.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Bridget ignored both men.
“Location.”
Mercer gave her an address.
An abandoned cannery near the harbor.
Midnight.
Then he said something unexpected.
“Come without Victor.”
Bridget laughed.
“You know he won’t allow that.”
“Exactly.”
The screen went black.
Victor paced.
“He knows.”
“Knows what?”
“That we’re tracing him.”
Gabriel entered.
“No signal.”
Victor swore.
Bridget stood.
“So what now?”
Victor stared at the address.
“We assume the cannery is a trap.”
At 11:40, Victor’s team surrounded it anyway.
Empty.
A single chair stood inside.
On it was Judge Shaw’s coat.
And a phone.
Victor answered when it rang.
Mercer laughed.
“You never learned patience.”
“Where is she?”
“Closer to your heart than you think.”
Victor froze.
Bridget saw understanding strike him.
He turned toward Gabriel.
“The penthouse.”
They were 35 minutes away.
Victor called security.
No answer.
Then Bridget’s phone rang.
Her mother’s rehabilitation center.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A nurse spoke quickly.
Bridget’s face drained.
Her mother was safe.
That was not the problem.
Someone had arrived claiming to be Bridget’s authorized representative.
They had been denied access.
Before leaving, the stranger had handed the receptionist a package.
Inside was Pippa’s teddy bear.
Bridget looked down.
Pippa’s teddy bear should have been at the lodge.
She turned.
“Where’s Pippa?”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
The answer arrived through his radio.
The lodge had been attacked.
2 guards injured.
Pippa missing.
Bridget made a sound Victor would remember for the rest of his life.
Not a scream.
Something worse.
Victor caught her before she fell.
Her hands gripped his shirt.
“Bring her back.”
Victor’s face became stone.
But his eyes did not.
“I will.”
“No.”
Bridget shook her head violently.
“We.”
She forced herself upright.
May you like
“We bring her back.”
And this time Victor did not argue.
