Chapter 10 — Seven Seconds
Nothing exploded.
The red light kept blinking.
Adrian looked down at the remote.
Confusion crossed his face.
Caleb moved first.
He tackled Adrian into the lockers.
The detectives drew their weapons.
Adrian’s men ran.
One was caught immediately.
The other disappeared into the crowd.
Maisie grabbed my arm.
“The box.”
A digital timer inside the locker showed seven seconds.
I pulled Maisie behind a concrete pillar.
Dana threw herself down beside us.
Caleb and Adrian struggled on the floor.
The detectives shouted for everyone to run.
A loud pop echoed through the station.
Red dye blasted from the locker.
It covered the wall, the floor, and Adrian’s coat.
No explosives.
A tracking device.
A trap built to mark whoever opened the locker without the correct key sequence.
Erin had expected Adrian.
He stood covered in red dye, laughing.
“You think this proves anything?”
One detective handcuffed him.
“It proves you brought armed men into a train station.”
Adrian looked at Maisie.
“I came for my daughter.”
“You came for a recording,” she replied.
His smile faded.
Police searched the red box.
Beneath a false bottom, they found a memory drive.
The files contained years of fraudulent medical transport claims, bribery records, patient identities, and internal messages.
Enough to destroy Cross Medical.
But one folder was encrypted.
Its title was:
MERCER
I looked at Maisie.
She looked at me.
Adrian saw the screen and began fighting the officers.
“You don’t know what that file contains!”
“Then tell us,” I said.
He stared at me with hatred.
“Hannah wasn’t investigating my company.”
“Erin’s recording says she was.”
“Erin only knew half.”
“What was Hannah really doing?”
Adrian leaned closer as officers dragged him away.
“Ask your wife’s doctor.”
“Hannah’s doctor died two years ago.”
Adrian smiled.
“No.”
That word again.
Another dead person who might not be dead.
The encrypted file was taken as evidence.
Adrian was charged with kidnapping, conspiracy, fraud, and obstruction.
Maisie watched him disappear into a police vehicle.
She did not cry.
That worried me more than tears would have.
Dana touched her shoulder.
“We need to find you a safe temporary placement.”
Maisie looked at me.
I knew what she was asking without words.
My apartment had one bedroom.
I had no experience raising a teenager.
I worked unpredictable hours.
I still spoke to my dead wife when the rooms got too quiet.
Taking Maisie home would be irresponsible.
Saying no would be reasonable.
“I have a couch,” I said.
Dana frowned.
“That is not how emergency placement works.”
Maisie almost smiled.
“Is the couch terrible?”
“Very.”
“Better than the station floor?”
“Marginally.”
Dana sighed.
“I can authorize one night while I arrange formal kinship screening.”
“One night,” I repeated.
But when Maisie stepped into my silent apartment that evening, she looked at the framed photographs of Hannah and whispered, “She was beautiful.”
And for the first time in three years, I answered without breaking.
“Yeah. She was.”
Then someone knocked on the door.
A woman’s voice said, “Maisie?”
Maisie froze.
May you like
The color left her face.
“Mom?”
