Chapter 19 - The Smoke Clears
The entire lobby went dead silent.
Grant stared at the television screen, his face turning the color of ash.
"Explodes...?" he whispered.
The news anchor’s voice drifted through the lobby speakers:
*"Authorities report that a private Gulfstream jet carrying two passengers detonated three miles off the coast of New Jersey at 8:12 AM. Coast Guard units report no signs of survivors. Aviation experts suspect a catastrophic explosive decompression caused by an onboard device..."*
The bomb hadn't been planted by the police.
Victoria Bennett had set the jet to blow before she ever walked into David's office. She had never intended to let Caroline escape with her money.
They had all played each other.
Victoria, Caroline, Grant.
A family of predators devouring one another until nothing was left but ash and bone.
Grant slowly lowered the gun.
His knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the polished marble floor of the bank, sobbing into his hands, the brass key slipping from his fingers and clattering across the stone.
"It's gone," he wept, rocking back and forth like a broken child. "It's all gone..."
I walked forward, kicked the gun away from his reach, and stood over him.
I felt no triumph. I felt no satisfaction.
Only a vast, echoing emptiness, and the overwhelming desire to wash the smell of blood and poison off my skin.
The heavy glass doors of the bank burst open.
Detective Miller, followed by a dozen armed federal agents, flooded the lobby, their boots thundering across the marble.
"Don't move! Hands on your head!"
Agents pinned Grant to the floor, pulling his arms behind his back and snapping the steel cuffs onto his wrists. He didn't fight back. He didn't say a word. He just stared at the television screen, his eyes completely hollow.
Miller walked up to me, breathing heavily, his face pale from blood loss. He looked at Grant, then at the shattered key on the floor, and finally at me.
"It’s done, Claire," Miller said softly. "The feds just seized the bank’s master server. Box B-4092 has been frozen under federal forfeiture. It's completely over."
I nodded slowly, wiping the rain and sweat from my forehead.
May you like
"I need to see my daughter," I said.
***
