She Thought the Balcony Would Make It Look Like an Accident

“Drop them.”

Daniel stepped from behind Ortiz.

Eleanor’s face changed.

“You always were weak where women were concerned.”

“My wife is alive.”

“For now.”

Ortiz’s voice sharpened. “Eleanor.”

She flicked the lighter open.

Daniel saw the floor.

Accelerant ran in a thin line from her feet toward dozens of old cardboard boxes.

“If this burns,” Eleanor said, “there is no case.”

“You pushed a pregnant woman on camera,” Daniel said.

“That case.” She shrugged. “A good lawyer can create doubt.”

“And my father?”

For the first time, Eleanor’s smile disappeared.

“He should have signed what I gave him.”

Daniel’s stomach turned.

Ortiz’s body camera captured every word.

“You killed him?” Daniel asked.

Eleanor tilted her head. “Your father was dying anyway.”

Daniel took one step forward.

Ortiz blocked him with her arm.

Eleanor looked almost pleased.

“There he is. Charles’s temper.”

Then she dropped the lighter.

Flame raced across the floor.

Ortiz fired a fire extinguisher from the wall while agents rushed Eleanor.

She threw the red ledger toward the flames and bolted through a side door.

Daniel lunged and caught the ledger inches from the fire.

By the time agents reached the stairwell, Eleanor was gone.

Ortiz cursed.

Then Daniel opened the ledger.

Inside were handwritten payments dating back twenty-two years.

Beside one payment was Arthur Bell’s name.

Beside another was Rebecca Sloan’s.
Chap 14

Grant Mercer stared at the ledger through the interview-room glass and lost whatever confidence he had left.

“That is not what it looks like.”

Ortiz sat across from him. “It looks like Eleanor paid you half a million dollars the week Charles Vance died.”

“For legal work.”

“Medication?”

Mercer said nothing.

Federal prosecutor Maya Brooks placed photographs on the table.

Charles’s prescription bottle.

Pharmacy records.

A toxicology report from the preserved hospital blood sample.

The result had arrived that morning.

Charles had dangerous levels of digoxin in his bloodstream—far above his prescribed dose.

The medication could trigger fatal arrhythmia.

“Who changed the pills?” Brooks asked.

Mercer’s face collapsed.

“I didn’t touch his medication.”

“Then who did?”

Mercer looked at the wall.

“Eleanor.”

Ortiz did not move.

“Say it clearly.”

“She replaced his tablets.”

“Did you know?”

“I knew she was planning to make him sick. I didn’t know she would kill him.”

“Did you help cover it up?”

Mercer closed his eyes.

“Yes.”

Within an hour, he signed a cooperation agreement.

He admitted falsifying trust documents,

abducting Martin Hale, destroying camera files, and helping Eleanor frame Daniel for financial fraud.

Then he gave police the one thing they had been missing.

A phone number.

Eleanor’s emergency satellite phone.

Ortiz traced its last connection to a rural property outside Hudson, New York.

The property belonged to a shell company.

The shell company belonged to Eleanor.

At the hospital, Sarah was finally discharged.

She refused to return to the Vance estate.

Daniel rented a guarded townhouse near the hospital so they could remain close to Grace until the baby was released.

Arthur moved into the guest room.

“You’re family now,” Sarah told him when he protested.

Arthur looked away quickly.

That evening, Daniel told Sarah about Mercer’s confession.

“My father knew she was stealing,” he said. “He tried to stop her too late.”

Sarah took his hand.

“You’re stopping her now.”

Then the lights went out.

Every room dropped into darkness.

Arthur stood immediately.

“Stay here.”

The backup generator should have activated within three seconds.

It did not.

Daniel reached for the flashlight on his phone.

A crash sounded downstairs.

Security shouted.

Then a gunshot exploded through the house.

Sarah grabbed the bassinet even though Grace was still in the NICU and the empty motion made her heart twist.

Daniel stepped toward the hallway.

Arthur stopped him.

“No.”

Another gunshot.

Then a man yelled from the front room.

“Mr. Vance! Police!”

Ortiz rushed upstairs.

“We found a man trying to enter through the kitchen.”

“Who?”

She held up his identification.

A private security contractor Eleanor had used for years.

Chap 15

The attack changed the rules.

Eleanor was no longer only destroying evidence.

She was sending people after Sarah.

Ortiz wanted the family moved to an undisclosed federal safe location.

Sarah refused one thing.

“I’m not leaving Grace.”

The baby was still in the NICU, four days from possible discharge.

So police turned the hospital into a fortress.

Then Sarah offered an idea that made Daniel immediately say no.

“Use me as bait.”

“No.”

“Eleanor is obsessed with me because Grace changes the trust.”

“No.”

“She keeps coming toward me. Stop chasing her. Make her come where you want.”

Daniel stood. “Absolutely not.”

Sarah’s eyes flashed.

“You do not get to decide for me because you’re scared.”

“I watched you almost die.”

“And I lived.”

Arthur spoke from the doorway. “She is right.”