CHAPTER 7 – SHE CAME FOR MY DAUGHTER ONE LAST TIME
CHAPTER 7 – SHE CAME FOR MY DAUGHTER ONE LAST TIME
The moment Detective Rachel Monroe heard Vanessa had disappeared, every officer in the room moved.
"Lock the building down," Rachel ordered.
"Alert every patrol unit."
"I want roadblocks within five miles."
Emily was still asleep in the next room, clutching the stuffed rabbit that detectives had already replaced with a new one after discovering the hidden tracker.
She looked so peaceful.
Too peaceful.
I prayed she would never know how many people were fighting to keep her alive.
An FBI agent hurried inside.
"We've located Victor Sloan's vehicle."
"Where?"
"Three blocks away."
Rachel's face hardened.
"He's here."
Every hallway was immediately filled with armed officers.
They escorted Emily and me through a secure exit into an armored SUV.
We hadn't driven more than two blocks when a black pickup truck sped through a red light and slammed directly into the side of the police escort.
The impact echoed like an explosion.
Glass shattered.
Police vehicles spun across the intersection.
Someone screamed.
Our SUV rocked violently but stayed upright.
"Stay down!" an agent yelled.
Gunfire erupted outside.
I wrapped my entire body around Emily.
She woke crying.
"Mommy!"
"It's okay."
Even as I said it, I knew it wasn't.
Outside, officers exchanged fire with two masked men.
Victor Sloan stepped from the pickup holding a handgun.
He wasn't trying to escape.
He was walking toward our vehicle.
Toward Emily.
Rachel fired first.
Victor dove behind another car.
The street became chaos.
Sirens.
Smoke.
Breaking glass.
People running in every direction.
Then another voice echoed across the intersection.
"DROP THE WEAPON!"
More federal agents poured in from both ends of the street.
Victor looked around.
For the first time, he realized he had been trapped.
Instead of surrendering...
He pointed his gun toward our SUV.
Before he could fire, a single shot rang out.
Victor collapsed onto the pavement.
The weapon slid from his hand.
Within seconds officers surrounded him.
He was still alive.
Barely.
As paramedics rushed in, Victor grabbed Rachel's sleeve.
Blood filled his mouth.
He whispered only four words.
"It wasn't my idea."
Then he lost consciousness.
Less than an hour later, agents arrested Vanessa at a private airfield thirty miles outside the city.
She had dyed her hair.
Changed her clothes.
Purchased a one-way ticket to Belize using a fake passport.
When officers handcuffed her, she reportedly screamed the same sentence over and over.
"My father promised he'd fix this!"
He couldn't.
Not anymore.
That evening, Rachel visited us at the secure federal safe house.
"They're both in custody."
"And my father?"
She nodded.
"He isn't talking."
"I expected that."
"But someone else is."
She handed me another folder.
Mark.
My brother had agreed to testify.
Against everyone.
My father.
My mother.
Vanessa.
The attorneys.
The accountants.
Every executive involved in Harper Development's crimes.
Rachel smiled faintly.
"Your brother just dismantled forty years of corruption."
For the first time since Emily fell into that pool...
I cried.
May you like
Not from fear.
From relief.
