Chapter 17 - THE RIVER
Police searched the riverbank all night.
No Margaret.
At dawn, a helicopter spotted footprints leading away from the water.
She had staged the abandoned car.
Again.
A false story.
That was what she did best.
Brooks traced a prepaid phone used near a bus terminal.
Cameras showed Margaret boarding a bus in a baseball cap and sunglasses.
Destination: Chicago.
Michael knew why.
Patterson Foods kept its original family archive there.
Richard's oldest records.
Margaret still wanted something.
We flew with federal agents.
The archive occupied the basement of the company's first factory.
Margaret got there first.
She was inside when agents surrounded the building.
Michael insisted on speaking through the door.
"Mom."
No answer.
"You're done."
Her voice came through.
"You don't know what I sacrificed for you."
"You tried to take my daughter."
"I tried to protect what is yours."
"Emma isn't property."
Silence.
Then Margaret said, "Richard never understood that families like ours survive by keeping control."
Michael looked at me.
Then at the agents.
He said, "Open the door."
Inside, Margaret stood beside a metal cabinet.
Papers burned in a trash bin.
An agent extinguished the fire.
Margaret did not resist.
She looked at Michael.
"Ask Rachel how long she'll stay after the money is gone."
I stepped forward.
"This was never about money for me."
Margaret smiled.
"It always is eventually."
Agents cuffed her.
Then one officer pulled half-burned documents from the bin.
A trust schedule.
My name was on it.
So was Emma's.
And a third name.
A child I had never heard of.
Ethan Patterson.
Age six.
Michael stared.
May you like
"I don't have a son."
Margaret stopped smiling.
