Chapter 5 - PIER 19
Rain turned Pier 19 into black glass.
At 11:37 Thursday night, Ronan's sedan rolled between shipping containers while Sadie watched from a surveillance van two blocks away.
She had won one argument.
Lost another.
Ronan absolutely refused to let her enter the pier.
“Your definition of letting me help is strangely restrictive,” she'd complained.
“My definition includes you remaining alive.”
Now Mara sat beside her wearing headphones.
Police frequencies murmured through speakers.
Not local police.
Evelyn Shaw had contacted federal investigators she trusted after examining Carl's evidence.
Sadie's condition had been simple.
Everything had to be documented.
No disappearances.
No bodies dumped in rivers.
No mysterious accidents.
Ronan had agreed.
Reluctantly.
At 11:41, Declan arrived.
Sadie recognized him immediately.
He resembled Ronan around the eyes but lacked his stillness.
Declan smiled too often.
Even in the rain.
Thomas emerged from a warehouse.
Then Carl.
Sadie's lungs stopped working.
He wore plain clothes beneath a waterproof jacket.
Even through the grainy monitor, she recognized his posture.
Her body remembered before her mind did.
Mara noticed.
“Look at me.”
Sadie did.
“You're in a locked van with me. He doesn't know where you are.”
Sadie nodded.
On-screen, Ronan exited his sedan alone.
Declan opened his arms.
“Brother.”
Ronan stopped twenty feet away.
“You always were theatrical.”
Declan laughed.
“You always were impossible to surprise.”
“Yet you keep trying.”
Carl moved behind Ronan.
Sadie grabbed Mara's arm.
“He has something.”
A metallic flash appeared near Carl's hand.
Not a gun.
A remote.
Sadie's memory detonated.
Three months earlier Carl had come home smelling like diesel fuel.
He had complained about a “dead zone” beneath the west crane where radios failed.
“Stop Ronan,” she said.
Mara frowned.
“What?”
“The west crane. Get him away.”
“Why?”
“I don't know. Carl talked about wiring there.”
Mara transmitted immediately.
Ronan touched his earpiece.
Then casually stepped sideways.
Declan's smile disappeared.
Carl pressed the remote.
The explosion came from beneath the pavement.
Not where Ronan stood.
Twenty feet behind him.
Fire punched upward.
Everyone scattered.
Federal vehicles surged from both entrances.
Thomas ran.
Carl did not.
He raised a pistol.
Sadie saw it.
So did Ronan.
For one horrifying second the two men faced each other across the rain.
Ronan had a weapon beneath his jacket.
Sadie knew it.
He could have drawn.
Instead, he remembered his promise.
He raised his empty hands.
Carl's gun moved toward him.
“Don't,” Sadie whispered.
A federal agent shouted.
Carl turned.
Gunfire cracked.
The monitor shook.
Sadie screamed Ronan's name.
Then everything became movement.
Agents swarmed.
Mara ordered Sadie to remain inside and disappeared through the van doors.
Sadie watched helplessly.
Thirty seconds.
A minute.
Two.
Then someone knocked.
She jumped.
“Sadie.”
Ronan.
She unlocked the door.
He climbed inside, rain streaming from his hair.
Blood marked his collar.
Her face drained.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“Then whose blood is that?”
“Declan's.”
Sadie stared.
“What happened?”
“Carl fired. Declan was behind me.”
“Is he dead?”
“No.”
“And Carl?”
“Alive.”
Sadie closed her eyes.
Relief surprised her.
Not because she cared whether Carl lived.
Because now he could answer for what he'd done.
Ronan sat opposite her.
“You saved my life.”
“I remembered something.”
“You remembered the exact location of an explosive device.”
“Lucky guess.”
Ronan almost laughed.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
Sadie asked.
“Carl wasn't aiming at me.”
She stared.
“What?”
“He aimed past me.”
“At Declan?”
Ronan nodded.
The implications settled.
Carl had betrayed Declan.
Why?
Mara entered.
“We know.”
She held Carl's phone.
“He's been cooperating with somebody else.”
“Who?” Ronan asked.
Mara looked at Sadie.
“Thomas.”
Sadie frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“Thomas wasn't working for Declan. Declan was working for Thomas.”
Silence.
Mara explained.
For years Thomas had quietly gathered information from the Continental's elite customers.
Politicians.
Judges.
Businessmen.
Criminals.
He sold secrets.
Declan had become buried in gambling debt and Thomas recruited him.
Carl provided police intelligence.
But recently Declan wanted out.
So Thomas planned to eliminate both Hayes brothers and disappear with financial records worth millions.
“Where is Thomas?” Sadie asked.
Mara's expression answered first.
“He escaped.”
Sadie's stomach dropped.
Ronan stood.
“We'll find him.”
Mara shook her head.
“He left something in the warehouse.”
She handed Sadie a photograph.
A wooden chair.
Rope.
A newspaper.
And taped to the chair was a picture of Sadie.
On the back Thomas had written four words.
SHE KNOWS WHERE IT IS.
Sadie stared at them.
“Where what is?”
Ronan looked at her.
“I was hoping you knew.”
She didn't.
Then she remembered the envelope beneath her floor.
Not the money.
The floorboard itself.
Carl had always forbidden her from replacing it.
May you like
Because the hiding place had never really belonged to Sadie.
And suddenly she knew exactly what Thomas was looking for.
