Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN IN THE FIRE
Smoke swallowed the east side of Saint Alder.
Fire crews had not yet reached the remote property, so agents entered the building with emergency breathing equipment.
Laura’s room was empty.
Her restraints had been cut.
Blood marked the floor.
Security cameras showed Eleanor dragging her through a rear corridor minutes before the explosion.
She had taken Laura alive.
The fire was a diversion.
Diana immediately ordered roadblocks around Blackstone Lake.
Daniel insisted Eleanor would not use the main roads.
“There’s an old service tunnel,” he said from the ambulance. “It begins beneath the greenhouse and exits near the lake’s southern shore.”
Agents searched the greenhouse and found the tunnel entrance concealed beneath a steel planting table.
Eleanor had planned every escape route years earlier.
At the hospital, my doctors refused to let me leave.
Grace was stable but still required respiratory support. My incision had begun bleeding after too much movement.
I could do nothing except watch events unfold through screens.
It was a terrible kind of helplessness.
Julian arrived by helicopter and underwent emergency surgery for a stab wound near his liver. He was placed under guard in the same hospital.
I did not visit him.
Not immediately.
Preston did.
Although Preston was still recovering from the gunshot wound, he asked to see Julian as soon as he learned Laura was alive.
The two men had spent years pretending to serve Eleanor while secretly working against different parts of her operation.
Yet neither had succeeded in rescuing Daniel, Laura, or Lily.
Fear had made them cautious until caution became complicity.
When Julian regained consciousness, Diana questioned him.
He admitted signing fraudulent transfers.
He admitted changing estate records.
He admitted monitoring my investigation through documents he secretly copied from my briefcase.
That confession hurt more than I expected.
The locked briefcase had been the one boundary I believed he respected.
He had photographed files while I slept.
“Why?” I asked from the doorway.
Julian looked toward me.
His face was pale beneath the hospital lights.
“To know whether you were close.”
“Close to what?”
“Finding Saint Alder.”
“You knew people were imprisoned there.”
“I knew Daniel was alive. I didn’t know Laura was still there until last year.”
“And Lily?”
“I visited her.”
“You left her there.”
“My mother told her I was her cousin. I brought medicine. Schoolbooks.”
“You could have called the police.”
“She had judges and officers working for her.”
“So you did nothing.”
“I was collecting evidence.”
“For seven years?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I was afraid.”
I almost laughed.
“I was locked in a restroom during premature labor because you were afraid.”
“I wanted to come back.”
“You always want to come back after someone else has suffered.”
He closed his eyes.
I continued.
“You signed every transfer.”
“Mother said the money kept Saint Alder operating.”
“You financed their prison.”
“I thought if I stopped, she would kill them.”
“Perhaps you believed that. But you also enjoyed the estate, the cars, the position, and the Sterling name.”
He looked at me.
“You hate me.”
“No. That would be easier.”
I stepped into the room.
“I loved the person you pretended to be.”
Julian cried silently.
“Will you let me see Grace?”
“When she is safe and when your presence cannot endanger her.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“Then start behaving like her father. Tell Diana everything.”
He did.
Julian revealed that Eleanor maintained a network of emergency accounts controlled through coded entries in the original ledger. Several officials still receiving payments would help her escape if they believed the document remained hidden.
He also gave Diana the name of the person who had released Eleanor at the wedding.
Deputy Attorney General Martin Keller.
Keller had approved our warrants while secretly warning Eleanor about the investigation.
He had used forged credentials to create confusion after the raid.
Federal agents arrested him before noon.
Under questioning, Keller disclosed Eleanor’s likely destination at Blackstone Lake: an abandoned lodge owned by a trust in Laura Rourke’s maiden name.
Eleanor intended to force Laura to retrieve the ledger before killing her.
Teams converged on the lake.
A storm had begun over the mountains, grounding aircraft and turning the roads to mud.
Agents reached the lodge after sunset.
They found Eleanor inside with Laura bound to a chair.
A pistol rested against Laura’s temple.
Diana spoke through a negotiator.
“The property is surrounded.”
Eleanor laughed.
“You should have learned from Daniel. Being surrounded does not mean being defeated.”
“Release Laura.”
“Bring Lily and the drive.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Then Laura dies.”
Inside the hospital, Lily watched the live feed beside Daniel.
She began shaking.
“My mother told me where the ledger is,” she said.
Daniel turned toward her.
“When?”
“Years ago. She said I should never tell anyone unless both she and Dad were alive.”
Daniel took her hand.
“We are alive.”
Lily looked at Diana through the camera.
“The ledger isn’t at the lodge.”
“Where is it?”
“In Sterling Ridge.”
Everyone froze.
“The estate?”
Lily nodded.
“Inside the memorial garden.”
Robert Sterling’s memorial.
Eleanor had built a monument over the evidence that could destroy her.
Diana informed the team at the lake.
Eleanor heard the transmission through a stolen police radio.
Her calm expression shattered.
She fired at the lodge window and dragged Laura toward the back door.
Officers breached the building.
Gunfire erupted.
Then the live feed went black.
Minutes passed.
No one spoke.
Finally, Diana’s radio crackled.
“Laura recovered alive.”
I exhaled.
“What about Eleanor?” Diana asked.
The answer came through static.
“She escaped onto the frozen lake.”
The storm had covered the surface with snow.
Eleanor ran into the darkness.
Agents followed her tracks until they stopped beside a wide crack in the ice.
May you like
They found her scarf floating in the black water.
No body surfaced.
