Chapter 17 - Victoria’s Final Play
The soft, rhythmic electronic beep from the bilge was the only sound inside the luxury cabin.
Beep... beep... beep.
Grace didn't blink. I didn't lower my gun.
“You won’t press it, Eleanor,” I said, stepping forward until the muzzle of my Glock was two inches from the center of her cashmere collar. “A woman who spends twenty years stealing eighty million dollars doesn't want to die. You’re a coward. You hire mechanics to cut brake lines. You hire crooked lawyers to forge guardianship petitions. You hide behind your children.”
Eleanor’s smile finally slipped. A twitch of muscle pulled at the corner of her right eye.
“Try me, Daniel,” she whispered, her thumb pressing harder against the plastic casing of the detonator. “I have lived seventy years. I will not spend the rest of my life in a federal penitentiary being fed through a slot in a steel door.”
“You won’t have to,” Grace said.
Grace didn't fire her weapon. She reached into her coat, pulled out a small black radio transceiver, and spoke two words into the microphone:
“Cut it.”
From the dock outside, a loud mechanical hiss echoed through the yacht’s hull, followed by the sudden, violent shudder of the twin diesel engines dying.
The salon lights flickered and went out.
The rhythmic beeping from the bilge stopped instantly.
Two tactical divers from the State Police Maritime Unit breached the salon’s rear windows, their weapons trained on Eleanor before she could even register what had happened.
One diver lunged forward, his gloved hand chopping down across Eleanor’s wrist. The silver remote flew from her fingers, clattering across the teak floorboards.
Hendricks caught the remote with his boot, kicking it out onto the open deck.
Eleanor was forced face-down onto the white leather sofa, her arms twisted behind her back as heavy zip-ties bit into her wrists.
“Eleanor Vance,” Captain Miller’s voice boomed as he stepped through the shattered sliding doors, flanked by four federal agents with badges displayed. “You are under arrest for federal wire fraud, conspiracy to commit murder, capital murder in the death of Elena Mercer, and attempted manufacture of controlled chemical weapons.”
Eleanor’s face was pressed against the leather. Her perfect silver hair was ruined, her cultured composure shattered into ragged, furious gasps.
“You have nothing!” Eleanor hissed, spitting at Miller’s boots. “Carter signed the offshore accounts! Victoria signed the petitions! My name isn't on a single legal document!”
“Your name is on the Zurich vault lease, Eleanor,” I said, picking up the leather briefcase sitting beside her sofa and popping the brass clasps open.
Inside lay three Panamanian diplomatic passports under false identities, bearer bonds totaling twelve million dollars, and an encrypted hard drive labeled with the private seal of Mercer Logistics.
“Elena didn't just leave one tape, Eleanor,” I whispered into her ear as the federal agents hauled her to her feet. “Elena knew you kept the real offshore keys in this briefcase. Grace gave her the combination six months ago.”
Eleanor spun her head toward Grace, her eyes blazing with pure, venomous hatred. “You... you ungrateful little wretch! I fed you! I took you in when Arthur threw your mother away!”
Grace looked at the woman who had orchestrated my wife’s murder, her face completely calm, her voice steady and clear.
“You didn't take me in to protect me, Eleanor,” Grace said. “You kept me close so I wouldn't tell Daniel the truth. Well... Daniel knows. The world knows. And your empire is gone.”
Federal marshals dragged Eleanor Vance off the yacht in heavy iron chains, down the wooden dock in front of television news cameras that had just begun to arrive.
I stepped out onto the open deck of the yacht, taking in a deep lungful of cold, salty sea air.
The rain had finally stopped. A thin sliver of pale sunlight broke through the gray Atlantic clouds, reflecting across the rolling blue water.
Grace walked up beside me, leaning against the teak railing, her eyes tired but free.
“It’s over, Daniel,” Grace said softly.
I looked down at the encrypted hard drive in my hand.
“Not quite,” I said.
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
May you like
If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://vibe.treeiq.biz
New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
