Chapter 6 - THE CHURCH KEYTwo hours later, I was free.
That was probably why he'd survived so long.
“Hands where I can see them!” he shouted.
I raised mine.
Marcus did the same.
Rourke immediately started talking.
“These men attacked us!”
Kerr didn't look at him.
His eyes stayed on me.
“Mr. Cole, step away from the patient.”
“My wife was abducted.”
“We'll sort that out.”
“She was removed from the ICU under a fraudulent transfer order.”
“Step away.”
The four uniformed officers looked confused.
Good.
That meant they might not belong to Kerr.
I moved slowly.
“Detective, Lily needs medical attention.”
“And she'll get it.”
Marcus caught my eye.
Don't escalate.
I knew.
Kerr ordered one officer to check Lily.
The officer leaned into the van.
“She's breathing. Pulse steady.”
“Call medical.”
The officer radioed.
Kerr looked at Rourke.
“You hurt?”
“Shoulder.”
“Sit down.”
The interaction was tiny.
Almost invisible.
But Kerr treated Rourke like a victim before taking a single statement.
He had chosen his story already.
Then Kerr approached me.
“Turn around.”
“You're arresting me?”
“Detaining.”
“For rescuing my wife?”
“For assault.”
“Ask how she ended up in that van.”
“I said turn around.”
I did.
The handcuffs clicked around my wrists.
Marcus followed.
Rourke wasn't cuffed.
Neither were his men.
One of the uniformed officers noticed.
“Detective?”
Kerr looked over.
“What?”
“Shouldn't we secure everyone?”
Kerr's face remained calm.
“They're witnesses.”
“So are we,” Marcus said.
Kerr ignored him.
The young officer's doubt deepened.
I memorized his nameplate.
H. RAMIREZ.
Potential ally.
As paramedics removed Lily, I watched every second.
She was transferred to a hospital gurney.
One medic checked her pupils.
Another inspected her IV.
“She has midazolam onboard,” he said.
The medic frowned.
“Who authorized it?”
Nobody answered.
Ramirez looked toward Rourke.
Kerr interrupted.
“Hospital administered.”
The medic checked the label.
“No hospital pharmacy sticker.”
Silence.
That mattered.
Ramirez reached toward his body camera, perhaps ensuring it was active.
Smart man.
Kerr noticed.
His jaw tightened.
Then my phone rang on the concrete floor where it had fallen.
The display showed UNKNOWN.
Malcolm.
Kerr saw it.
His eyes changed.
“Whose phone?”
“Mine.”
He picked it up.
The call ended.
Kerr pocketed it.
“You need a warrant,” I said.
“Thanks for the legal advice.”
“I offer free consultations.”
Marcus coughed to hide a laugh.
Kerr moved us toward separate patrol vehicles.
As Ramirez guided me, I said quietly, “Your camera recording?”
“Yes.”
“Keep it that way.”
He looked at me.
I nodded toward Lily's medical bag.
“Photograph the drug vial before it disappears.”
His expression stayed professional.
But his eyes flicked toward it.
Message received.
At the precinct, they placed me in an interview room.
No phone.
No belt.
No shoelaces.
No lawyer yet.
Kerr entered forty minutes later holding coffee.
He sat across from me.
“You're calmer than most husbands.”
“Most husbands don't spend six months where I was.”
“Where was that?”
“You know enough to know I won't answer.”
He smiled.
“I know exactly what unit you're attached to.”
“You shouldn't.”
“People talk.”
“Not about that.”
He took a drink.
“Your wife created a serious problem.”
“She found yours.”
“Careful.”
“Why? You'll throw me down four stairs?”
He leaned back.
“You think you're protected because of your background.”
“No.”
“Good. Because this isn't some overseas playground where you kick doors and everyone calls you a hero.”
I said nothing.
He continued.
“Here, you're a citizen.”
“That's all I've ever wanted to be.”
That seemed to bother him.
He expected arrogance.
Violence.
Something he could use.
Instead, I waited.
Kerr slid a photograph across the table.
Lily entering Meridian's headquarters late at night.
Timestamped five weeks earlier.
“She stole confidential company files.”
“She worked there.”
“Not at two in the morning.”
“What was she looking for?”
“You tell me.”
“I was overseas.”
“She contacted you.”
“No.”
“We've reviewed phone records.”
“Then you know she didn't.”
Kerr's lips tightened.
He pulled another photograph.
Malcolm Reed.
“Know him?”
“I do now.”
“Where is he?”
“Police announced he was dead.”
“False report.”
Interesting.
So Rourke had received that information from Kerr's network.
“Why fake Malcolm's death?”
“To see who reacted.”
“Did Victor react?”
Kerr stopped.
A small mistake.
He hadn't expected me to name Victor directly.
I leaned forward.
“The problem with dirty networks is everybody thinks they're controlling everybody else.”
His expression hardened.
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
“Victor thinks you protect him.”
Kerr didn't blink.
“Rourke thinks Victor protects him.”
Nothing.
“And Malcolm thinks somebody above Victor is calling the shots.”
There.
A microscopic reaction.
Malcolm had been right.
Victor wasn't the top.
But maybe Kerr wasn't either.
“So who's protecting you?” I asked.
Kerr stood.
The interview was over.
“Enjoy the room.”
He walked out.
Ten minutes later, the door opened again.
Not Kerr.
A woman in a dark blue suit entered.
Late forties.
Sharp eyes.
Federal credentials.
“Ethan Cole?”
“Depends.”
“Special Agent Nora Beck. FBI Public Corruption Unit.”
I stared at her.
“That sounds convenient.”
“It should. Your wife contacted my office eleven weeks ago.”
That stunned me more than anything Kerr had said.
“She was working with you?”
“Unofficially.”
“Why unofficially?”
“Because she didn't trust our local task force.”
“Smart.”
Beck sat down.
“She believed Meridian Development was laundering bribes through subcontractors tied to city infrastructure projects.”
“Forty million?”
“Possibly more.”
“Five suspicious deaths?”
Her expression changed.
“Who told you that?”
“Malcolm.”
“You spoke to him?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Recently.”
“Where is he?”
“Ask Kerr.”
“I have.”
“And?”
“He says Malcolm is a fugitive.”
“Is he?”
“From somebody.”
I leaned back.
“Get me out.”
“Working on it.”
“No. Now.”
“I can't simply—”
“My wife was kidnapped from an ICU, drugged with an unmarked sedative, and recovered in a van controlled by Victor Dane's employee. Yet I'm the one handcuffed.”
Beck's jaw tightened.
“I've already requested federal preservation of all hospital security footage.”
“Request faster.”
She studied me.
“You know, Lily said you'd be difficult.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
“She said that?”
“She also said you'd try to solve everything alone.”
“She knows me.”
“She specifically asked me not to involve you unless she was in danger.”
“She was beaten almost to death.”
“Yes.”
The word settled heavily between us.
“Tell me everything,” I said.
Beck opened a folder.
“Three months ago, Lily discovered payments routed through Meridian subcontractors into consulting firms with no employees.”
“How much?”
“Initially nine million.”
“Then?”
“She kept digging.”
“Without telling me.”
“You were deployed.”
“She could have contacted my command.”
“She said she didn't want to jeopardize you.”
Typical Lily.
Protecting everyone while standing in front of the train herself.
“What did she find?”
Beck turned a page.
“Judges.”
Another page.
“Police.”
Another.
“City officials.”
Then another.
“Private contractors.”
“How high?”
“We don't know.”
“You know something.”
She paused.
“Lily believed one of the names belonged to someone with access to federal investigations.”
That explained her fear.
“Inside the FBI?”
“Possibly.”
“So she contacted you because—”
“We've known each other since college.”
That surprised me.
“Nora Beck.”
“You've heard my name?”
“Lily's roommate Nora.”
She smiled faintly.
“Different lifetime.”
I remembered a photograph from Lily's college apartment.
Two girls laughing with red plastic cups.
One had been Nora.
“She trusted you.”
“Yes.”
“Should she have?”
Nora didn't take offense.
“That's the correct question.”
A knock interrupted us.
Agent Beck opened the door.
A subordinate whispered something.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“Your wife is missing again.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“How?”
“The ambulance carrying her back to St. Catherine never arrived.”
I stood.
“Where is it?”
“Abandoned two miles from the hospital.”
“Crew?”
“Both unconscious.”
“And Lily?”
“Gone.”
Nora held my gaze.
May you like
Then said the sentence that made every other problem irrelevant.
“We found blood inside the ambulance.”
