Chapter 13 - EMMA MERCER
Police reached the service station six minutes after Hale.
Six minutes was enough for everything to go wrong.
Hale had grabbed Emma.
Hannah had grabbed Lucy.
Pike had a gun.
Malcolm was nowhere in sight.
Grant listened from the command car as officers shouted positions over radio.
He could detect flashing red as pressure and gray pulses behind his glasses.
For the first time, light terrified him because it meant something was happening that he still could not see.
Then a gunshot cracked.
Grant moved toward the sound.
Voss grabbed his coat.
"Stay here."
"That's my daughter."
"And bullets don't care."
Another shot.
Then Lucy's voice screamed, "Mr. Grant!"
He tore free.
Daniel guided him behind a concrete barrier.
Police rushed the building.
Pike was hit in the shoulder.
Hale surrendered.
Hannah emerged carrying Lucy.
A thin figure followed.
Grant stopped breathing.
He could not see her face.
Only a pale shape against darker space.
But he heard her.
"Grant?"
He dropped to his knees.
"Emma."
She flinched.
"They call me Emily."
Grant swallowed every instinct to pull her into his arms.
"Then Emily."
He held out one hand.
"You don't have to touch me."
She stood there for several seconds.
Then small fingers touched his knuckles.
Grant broke.
Not loudly.
Just one breath that became a sob he could not stop.
Emma did not hug him.
She kept holding one finger.
Hale was taken into custody.
Pike survived surgery.
Hannah and Lucy were safe.
Malcolm remained missing.
Then Hale asked for a lawyer and offered one sentence before refusing further questions.
"Malcolm didn't order the bomb."
Grant turned.
"Who did?"
Hale smiled weakly.
"Ask Caroline's insurer."
Daniel immediately pulled the old life policy.
Caroline had been insured for fifty million dollars.
Beneficiary was not Grant.
It was the Mercer Family Charitable Trust.
Trustee at the time:
Malcolm Mercer.
Grant stared into darkness.
May you like
Maybe Hale was lying.
But if he wasn't, the bomb had been worth fifty million dollars to his uncle.
