CHAPTER 6: The Judge My Husband Wanted Dead
"They're alive."
The words echoed through the black SUV.
Derek slammed his fist against the dashboard.
"Search every road leading out of Oakridge."
The driver nodded.
"What about the state police?"
Derek's eyes turned cold.
"Not yet."
"If they know Rachel survived, they'll start asking questions."
He looked at the tablet again.
The thermal scan showed only one body beneath the collapsed house.
One.
Not two.
Not three.
His perfect plan had failed.
And for the first time that morning...
He looked afraid.
Three miles away, we hid inside an abandoned grain warehouse.
The broken windows let in thin strips of gray morning light.
Dust floated through the air.
Helen kept watch from the entrance while Noah searched through old toolboxes.
Lily sat beside me, hugging her stuffed rabbit.
She hadn't spoken in nearly twenty minutes.
I gently brushed the hair away from her face.
"Sweetheart?"
She looked up.
"Are you mad at me?"
My heart broke.
"What?"
"For taking Daddy's paper."
I pulled her into my arms.
"Lily..."
I kissed the top of her head.
"You may have just saved our lives."
Noah suddenly called out.
"Mrs. Collins!"
I hurried over.
He had managed to unlock more of Derek's hidden phone.
"There are encrypted files."
"Can you open them?"
"I think so."
After several tense moments...
The screen unlocked.
A folder appeared.
PROJECT FALCON
Inside were dozens of documents.
Photographs.
Financial transfers.
Lists of names.
Then...
A confidential court schedule.
Every hearing Judge Amelia Carter was expected to attend over the next month.
My stomach tightened.
They weren't threatening her.
They were stalking her.
Another file opened automatically.
It was a short video.
Recorded only two nights earlier.
Derek sat across from three people in expensive suits.
One of them was the same shadowed man from the video call.
The one labeled DIRECTOR.
"We cannot allow Judge Carter to unseal the Mercer files," the Director said calmly.
Another man asked,
"And Rachel?"
Derek answered without hesitation.
"She doesn't know what she has."
"If she dies with the evidence, the investigation dies too."
The Director nodded.
"Then eliminate both problems."
The video ended.
Helen covered her mouth.
"My God..."
My hands trembled.
Derek hadn't simply agreed.
He had volunteered.
He had calmly discussed murdering his own wife.
As if I were nothing more than paperwork.
Then Lily quietly spoke.
"I know Judge Carter."
Everyone looked at her.
"You do?"
She nodded.
"She came to my school."
I frowned.
"When?"
"Last month."
"She read us a story."
Lily smiled faintly for the first time all morning.
"She gave everyone bookmarks."
I suddenly remembered.
Career Day.
Judge Amelia Carter had visited Lily's elementary school.
She had spent an hour answering children's questions.
Which meant...
If Derek knew Judge Carter had met Lily...
Could that have been how he realized Lily had seen something?
My thoughts were interrupted by Noah.
"There's another file."
He clicked it.
The title read:
Witness Inventory
Rows of names appeared.
Some had green check marks.
Some had red X's.
Then I found mine.
Rachel Collins
Status:
Priority Witness
Action:
Terminate before Monday 8:00 A.M.
Below my name...
Lily Collins
Status:
Contingency
Action:
Recover if possible. Eliminate if necessary.
Helen gasped.
"They put it in writing..."
I couldn't breathe.
Derek hadn't just said those words in anger.
He had signed off on them.
Officially.
Like a business transaction.
Suddenly...
A loud engine rumbled outside the warehouse.
Everyone froze.
Headlights swept across the broken windows.
One vehicle.
Then another.
Noah peeked through a crack.
His face turned white.
"Black SUVs."
My pulse exploded.
"How many?"
"Four."
Helen whispered,
"They found us."
Doors slammed outside.
Men spread out across the property.
Someone shouted,
"Search every building!"
Another voice answered,
"The tracker stopped somewhere around here."
I looked at the crushed tracking device in my pocket.
Impossible.
Unless...
There had been another one.
Then Lily slowly reached up...
And touched the ribbon in her hair.
"Mommy..."
She pulled off the pink bow.
Something small fell into her hand.
Another silver tracker.
Hidden inside the fabric.
Derek hadn't trusted just one tracking device.
He had hidden a second one where only he would think to look.
At that exact moment...
The warehouse's rusted side door burst open.
A flashlight beam cut through the darkness.
A man stepped inside holding a rifle.
He smiled the moment he saw us.
Then he spoke into his radio.
"I found them."
Seconds later...
Derek's voice came through the speaker.
"Don't shoot."
A chilling pause.
"I want my daughter alive."
"And Rachel..."
His voice became ice cold.
May you like
"Kill her in front of Lily."
TO BE CONTINUED...
