Chapter 7 - The TrapFederal agents hated Claire’s idea.
Detective Price advised against it.
Claire insisted.
The meeting took place in a secure interview room at the county detention center.
Celina entered wearing jail-issued clothing instead of the fashionable outfits Claire associated with her.
She looked smaller.
Exhausted.
Older.
Claire felt no satisfaction.
Only grief.
Celina sat across from her.
For several seconds, neither woman spoke.
Finally Celina whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Claire leaned back.
“Start with the first lie.”
Celina closed her eyes.
“Gideon approached me about a year ago.”
“What did he want?”
“Information.”
“About me.”
“Yes.”
“Why would you give him information about your own sister?”
Celina’s eyes filled.
“I owed money.”
“How much?”
“Seventy-eight thousand.”
Claire stared.
“To who?”
“Online gambling. Loans. Then people who weren’t exactly lenders.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“I was ashamed.”
“You did come to me. You lied and borrowed twelve thousand dollars.”
“I know.”
Claire’s anger sharpened.
“So Gideon offered money.”
“He said he was investigating you.”
Claire almost laughed.
“Investigating me for what?”
“He said he thought you were having an affair.”
Claire stared.
“And you believed him?”
“At first.”
“You followed me?”
Celina nodded.
“Checked my schedule?”
“Yes.”
“My phone?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You gave me your spare house key.”
Claire felt sick.
“Did you copy my hospital badge?”
Celina started crying.
“I took pictures of it.”
“Did you know what he used them for?”
“Not at first.”
Claire leaned forward.
“When did you realize?”
“Months later.”
“And you kept helping him.”
“He threatened me.”
“After taking his money.”
“Yes.”
“And when did you start sleeping with him?”
Celina looked down.
“Seven months ago.”
Claire’s voice hardened.
“You mean around the same time you realized he was a criminal.”
Celina nodded.
It was worse than Claire expected.
Not one betrayal.
A hundred conscious decisions.
“When did he talk about killing me?”
Celina went still.
There it was.
“He said he wanted a new life.”
Claire waited.
“With you?”
Celina’s silence answered.
“He told you he wanted me dead.”
“He never said dead.”
“What word did he use?”
Celina whispered, “Gone.”
Claire felt nothing for several seconds.
Then suddenly remembered Celina at age eight following her around the backyard.
Celina at fifteen crying after her first breakup.
Celina holding Noah in the hospital the day he was born.
Claire had always considered herself more than a sister.
She had practically raised Celina after their mother died.
And Celina had listened to a man discuss making Claire disappear.
“What did you think ‘gone’ meant?”
Celina sobbed.
“I didn’t let myself think.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I thought maybe divorce. Maybe you’d leave.”
“Did he show you the insurance policy?”
Celina shook her head.
“The furnace?”
“No.”
“Did you know someone was being held in my basement?”
“No.”
“Did you know he locked Noah in his room during meetings?”
Celina’s face collapsed.
“No.”
“Did you ever see him put Noah on the kitchen floor?”
“No. I swear.”
Claire stared.
“Last Thursday?”
“I was upstairs.”
“With my husband.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew Noah was downstairs?”
Celina looked away.
“He said Noah was watching a movie.”
Claire felt tears burn her eyes.
“You didn’t check?”
“No.”
“You’re a teacher.”
Celina sobbed harder.
“You spend every day caring for other people’s children, and you didn’t walk downstairs to check whether your nephew was okay?”
“I’m sorry.”
Claire stood.
“Stop saying that.”
“Claire—”
“You don’t get to use two words to cover a year.”
Celina lowered her face.
Claire walked toward the door.
Then Celina said, “He was going to do it this weekend.”
Claire stopped.
“What?”
Celina looked terrified.
“Gideon said everything would be finished by Sunday.”
“What would?”
“He bought plane tickets.”
“Where?”
“Costa Rica.”
“For who?”
Celina’s mouth trembled.
“For him, me, and Noah.”
Claire turned slowly.
“No.”
“He said Noah would come with us.”
“No.”
“I swear.”
“How?”
“He said after you were gone, no one could stop him.”
Claire felt the room disappear.
Gideon had not merely planned to kill her.
He had planned to take her child.
Claire stepped toward the table.
“When?”
“Sunday night.”
“How was I supposed to die?”
Celina shook her head frantically.
“I don’t know.”
“Tell me.”
“I don’t know!”
Claire slammed her palm against the table.
“Tell me!”
Celina flinched.
“He said your car.”
Silence.
“What about my car?”
“He said everyone knows exhausted nurses fall asleep driving home.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“Was he going to cause a crash?”
“I don’t know.”
But Celina knew something.
Claire could see it.
“What did he do to my car?”
Celina covered her face.
“I saw him in the garage Wednesday night.”
“Doing what?”
“Under the hood.”
Claire immediately thought of Thursday morning.
She had driven home from work.
No accident.
Had Gideon failed?
Or had the plan not been finished?
Investigators inspected Claire’s vehicle.
The results arrived hours later.
Brake-fluid line.
Partially cut.
Not enough to fail immediately.
Enough to leak gradually.
Agent Lee explained it.
“Depending on driving conditions, your brakes could have failed sometime during the next several trips.”
Claire stared through the office window.
“And afterward?”
“Investigators might have concluded mechanical failure.”
“Or that I was tired.”
“Yes.”
She pressed her palms together.
“What was Sunday?”
Agent Lee looked confused.
“Excuse me?”
“Celina said Gideon was leaving Sunday. He must have expected me dead before then.”
Lee said nothing.
Claire’s phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
She looked down.
A photograph appeared.
Noah.
Not now.
Taken months earlier.
He was walking out of preschool holding Claire’s hand.
Underneath was a message.
THE DRIVE WASN’T YOURS TO GIVE AWAY.
Claire’s stomach dropped.
Another message arrived.
WE KNOW WHERE YOUR SON GOES.
Agent Lee took the phone immediately.
“Whoever sent this is trying to scare you.”
“They succeeded.”
“We can increase protection.”
Claire stood.
“No.”
Lee frowned.
“No?”
“I am done waiting for everyone else to decide what happens.”
“What are you proposing?”
Claire looked at the photograph.
“They want something from me.”
“The original drive is in federal custody.”
“They don’t know that.”
Lee watched her carefully.
“You want to draw them out.”
“I want these people gone.”
“That could be extremely dangerous.”
Claire looked toward the hallway where Noah sat with a victim-services counselor.
“They already photographed my child.”
May you like
She turned back.
“So danger is already here.”
