Chapter 6 - The Foundry Exchange
The police wanted to treat the note as bait.
Elena treated it as proof Lily was alive.
At 11:45 p.m., she entered the abandoned Bell Foundry wearing a wire beneath her coat. Tactical officers surrounded the property, but the building’s thick brick walls and maze of underground tunnels limited their view. Daniel waited in the command van, furious that the plan required Elena to appear alone.
Rain drummed through holes in the roof. Rusted machinery rose from the darkness like skeletons.
“Elena,” a voice called.
Theodore Crane stepped onto a metal platform above her. He wore a black raincoat and held a phone in one hand.
“Where is Lily?” Elena asked.
“Safe for the moment.”
He showed her the screen. Lily sat tied to a chair in a concrete room, a bruise on her cheek. Her eyes were open.
Elena’s breath stopped. “Let me speak to her.”
“This is not a reunion.”
Crane demanded the memory card from Dr. Vale and every copy of Henry’s files. In exchange, he promised Lily would be released. Elena knew the promise meant nothing.
“You framed me because Veronica wanted the trust,” she said, keeping him talking for the wire. “But the money wasn’t enough, was it? You needed the company too.”
Crane smiled. “Your father built an empire and then became sentimental. He wanted ethics. Audits. Confessions. Men like Henry always mistake guilt for virtue.”
“And Lily?”
“She was supposed to disappear permanently. She proved resourceful.”
Elena forced herself not to react. “Did Veronica order my father’s murder?”
Crane’s smile faded. “Veronica ordered nothing. She suggested solutions.”
The admission traveled through Elena’s wire.
Then a second voice echoed from the shadows.
“She also suggested killing you tonight.”
Uncle Martin emerged with a pistol aimed at Crane.
Crane turned. “You should be across the border.”
“I was. Then she emptied my account.” Martin looked at Elena. “Your stepmother promised all of us protection. Now she’s cleaning the board.”
Martin claimed Veronica had arranged the station abduction but moved Lily before telling Crane where. The video Crane showed Elena was recorded earlier.
“Where is she now?” Elena demanded.
Martin’s hand shook. “The old sanatorium near Red Hill.”
A gunshot cracked.
Martin fell from the platform.
Crane had fired through his coat pocket.
Police stormed the building. Crane ran into the tunnels. Elena dropped beside Martin, pressing both hands against the wound in his chest.
“Don’t let her bury us,” he gasped.
“Where in the sanatorium?”
“Basement chapel.”
He died before the ambulance arrived.
Crane escaped through a storm drain, but the tactical team moved immediately toward Red Hill. Elena rode with Daniel and two detectives. The sanatorium had been abandoned for twenty years, its windows boarded and its roof sagging beneath wet leaves.
They entered through a side door and followed a corridor painted with faded blue flowers. In the basement chapel, they found a chair, ropes, blood, and a phone playing Lily’s recorded image on a loop.
Lily was gone.
On the altar stood a photograph of Elena leaving prison.
A red circle had been drawn around her face.
May you like
Beside it lay another note.
You opened the coffin. Now choose who goes inside.
