Chapter 7 - The Trap at the River Terminal
The police insisted I stay away from the terminal. I agreed, though every nerve in my body demanded otherwise. Detective Price arranged surveillance and used my phone to keep the kidnappers talking.
They wanted the flash drive. They wanted the forged document destroyed. Most of all, they wanted me to say publicly that I had invented the accusation against Vanessa.
The exchange was scheduled for midnight.
From a police command vehicle blocks away, I heard the negotiator ask for proof that my mother was alive. A familiar voice answered through a crackling connection.
“Claire, sweetheart, don't do anything foolish.”
“Mom?” I whispered, forgetting that she couldn't hear me.
The officers traced the call to an old refrigeration building. Their team entered and found my mother alive, frightened, and exhausted, with a blanket around her shoulders.
They also found an empty chair, a discarded burner phone, and evidence that the person directing the kidnapping had left minutes earlier.
May you like
At the hospital, my mother held my face between her hands. “A woman visited me before they took me,” she said. “She smelled like roses.”
Vanessa's new perfume.
