Chapter 10 - The Trap I Set for My Husband
The hidden door opened.
Natalie Shaw stepped out.
Her hospital gown was hidden beneath an oversized black coat.
One side of her face was still bruised.
She looked directly at me.
"Claire, don't trust Detective Cole."
Cole's hand moved toward his weapon.
Natalie immediately raised both hands.
"Don't."
"How did you get here?" he demanded.
"I ran."
"From a guarded hospital room?"
"Your guard wasn't protecting me."
Cole's expression hardened.
"What are you accusing my officer of?"
Natalie looked at me instead.
"The man outside my room wasn't the officer assigned to me."
Silence.
Cole pulled out his phone.
"Name."
"His badge said Reynolds."
Cole stopped.
"There is no Reynolds assigned to your detail."
"Exactly."
My stomach tightened.
"How did you get out?"
"The service elevator."
"And how did you know about this room?"
Natalie reached into her coat.
Cole drew his gun.
"Hands where I can see them."
She froze.
"I'm taking out a key."
"Slowly."
She removed a small silver key.
Another one.
I stared at it.
"Where did you get that?"
"Margaret."
Rebecca stepped closer.
"When?"
"Eight months ago."
My heart began pounding.
"You've been working with Margaret?"
Natalie nodded.
"Against Voss."
"You impersonated me."
"Yes."
"You helped Daniel."
"Yes."
"And all that time you were secretly working with Margaret?"
"Not all that time."
"When?"
"After I discovered what Voss was planning to do to you."
Cole lowered his weapon slightly.
"Explain why Mrs. Mercer shouldn't trust me."
Natalie looked toward the hallway.
"Because Gerald knew about the raid on the warehouse before your team arrived."
Cole's jaw tightened.
"He could've learned through someone else."
"He knew your route."
"What route?"
"Which entrance you'd use."
Cole said nothing.
Natalie continued.
"He also knew Claire was with you at the private vault."
I looked at Cole.
"How?"
"I don't know."
Natalie shook her head.
"I only know Gerald received a message saying, 'Cole has her.'"
The basement suddenly felt much smaller.
Cole put his phone on the table.
"Search me."
Natalie blinked.
"What?"
"Search my phone. My pockets. Whatever makes you happy."
Rebecca stepped between us.
"Nobody is conducting amateur searches."
Cole looked at me.
"I've been investigating Voss for eleven months."
That surprised everyone.
"Before my parents lost their house?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you weren't part of the investigation until three weeks ago."
"What investigation?"
"Financial exploitation."
Cole looked at the ledger.
"Three elderly victims filed complaints. Every trail died behind shell companies."
"Mercer Urban Holdings."
"Eventually."
"So you knew Daniel's name."
"I knew the company."
"Did you know it was connected to my husband?"
"Not until your case."
I didn't know whether to believe him.
That had become the worst part.
Truth and lies sounded exactly alike now.
Natalie walked toward the black case.
"Margaret built this archive because she didn't trust law enforcement."
Cole gave a humorless smile.
"Apparently she had excellent instincts."
"She trusted one investigator."
"Who?"
Natalie looked at him.
"Not you."
Cole's expression changed.
"Name."
"Special Agent Samuel Reed."
Cole swore under his breath.
"What?"
"Reed disappeared six months ago."
"Disappeared?"
"His car was found near Newark Airport."
"And him?"
"Nothing."
Natalie nodded slowly.
"Margaret told me if Reed disappeared, the investigation was compromised."
Rebecca asked, "Where is Margaret now?"
Natalie's face tightened.
"I don't know."
"You sent the messages?"
"No."
"The photographs?"
"No."
"Did Margaret?"
"I don't think so."
I showed her the image of Margaret at the restaurant.
Natalie stared.
"That's tonight."
"How do you know?"
"Her necklace."
I frowned.
"What?"
"Margaret wears that necklace only when she wants someone to recognize a signal."
"That's incredibly specific."
"Because I gave it to her."
Natalie enlarged the photograph.
A small silver pendant hung around Margaret's neck.
It looked like an ordinary circle.
"There's a tracker inside."
Cole stepped forward.
"Can you access it?"
"Yes."
Natalie took out her phone.
Her hands trembled as she opened an encrypted application.
A map appeared.
One blinking point.
Manhattan.
Moving.
"She's in a vehicle."
"Where?"
"Heading south."
Cole immediately called for units.
Natalie grabbed his arm.
"No."
He looked down at her hand.
"Why?"
"If Voss has access to police communications, sending units tells him we found her."
Cole pulled his arm free.
"So we do nothing?"
"No. We give him something else to watch."
Everyone looked at her.
"What?" I asked.
"You."
I almost laughed.
"Of course."
Natalie pointed toward the ledger.
"Gerald needs to know how much you understand."
"Why?"
"Because uncertainty makes him cautious."
"And certainty?"
"Makes him move."
Rebecca shook her head.
"We are not using Claire as bait."
I looked at Natalie.
"What would I have to do?"
"Go home."
"No," Cole said.
I ignored him.
"Then?"
"Call Daniel."
Daniel.
The man I'd spent seven years sleeping beside.
The man who had forged my signature.
The man who had helped throw my parents onto the street.
"What does Daniel have to do with it?"
"Gerald thinks Daniel still wants to save himself."
"He probably does."
"Exactly."
Natalie leaned closer.
"Make Daniel believe you're willing to protect him."
I stared at her.
"And then?"
"He'll contact Gerald."
"How do you know?"
"Because Gerald has trained Daniel to run back whenever he's scared."
It was cruel.
It was also probably true.
Rebecca looked at me.
"Claire, you don't have to do this."
I thought about Mom sleeping behind the abandoned market.
Dad's bloodied shirt.
Margaret somewhere inside a moving vehicle.
Seventeen properties.
Millions of dollars.
And Gerald Voss always one step ahead.
"Yes," I said. "I do."
Cole arranged it reluctantly.
Daniel hadn't yet been formally charged with everything investigators suspected, but he was being held for questioning.
Rebecca negotiated access.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel sat across from me in a private interview room.
No handcuffs.
Camera recording.
Microphone hidden beneath my collar.
He looked exhausted.
"Claire."
I sat down.
"I need your help."
He stared at me.
"Why?"
"Because I found Margaret's archive."
His face changed.
"Where?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Is she alive?"
"I think so."
He rubbed his face.
"What do you want from me?"
"I want Voss."
Daniel laughed quietly.
"So do I."
"Then call him."
"He won't answer."
"Make him."
"How?"
I leaned forward.
"Tell him I want a deal."
Daniel stared at me.
"What kind?"
"I give him the archive. He restores my parents' house and disappears."
"Gerald won't believe that."
"Then make him believe it."
"Claire—"
"You lied to me for seven years. Surely you can lie to him for seven minutes."
That landed.
He looked away.
"I deserve that."
"This isn't about what you deserve."
"No."
"It's about what you're going to do next."
Daniel studied me.
"You really want to make a deal?"
I forced myself to look uncertain.
Not angry.
Not confident.
Afraid.
"I want this over."
He leaned back.
And I watched something familiar return to his face.
The Daniel who wanted to solve things for me.
The Daniel who had used protection as an excuse for control.
"Give me the phone."
Cole had provided a clean device.
Daniel dialed from memory.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Daniel typed a message.
SHE FOUND THE ARCHIVE. SHE WANTS OUT.
Thirty seconds.
A reply.
PROVE IT.
Daniel looked at me.
"What proof?"
I had prepared for that.
I placed a photograph of one ledger page on the table.
Daniel sent it.
The response came immediately.
CALL IN FIVE.
We waited.
Five minutes felt like an hour.
The phone rang.
Daniel answered.
"Gerald."
Voss's voice was distorted through an electronic filter.
"Is she there?"
"Yes."
"Put her on."
Daniel handed me the phone.
"Gerald."
"Claire."
"Where's Margaret?"
"Safe."
"You like that word."
"It's accurate."
"I have your ledger."
"Part of it."
"Enough."
"You don't understand what you're holding."
"Seventeen stolen properties. Forged identities. Bank transfers. Elderly victims."
Silence.
I continued.
"And your contingency list."
That mattered.
I heard it in his breathing.
"What do you want?"
"My parents' house."
"You already know the transfer can be challenged."
"I don't want a challenge."
"What do you want?"
"Everything reversed."
"And?"
"Margaret alive."
"And?"
"Daniel walks."
Daniel looked sharply at me.
That was the bait.
Voss laughed.
"You still love him."
I didn't answer.
"Remarkable."
"Do we have a deal?"
"Not yet."
"What else?"
"The archive."
"Obviously."
"All copies."
"Yes."
"Where?"
I looked through the one-way glass.
Cole was watching.
Natalie stood beside him.
"Tomorrow."
"No."
"Then forget it."
"Tonight."
"Where?"
"The house."
My parents' house.
Of course.
The place he'd stolen.
The place hiding the archive.
Or what he believed was the archive.
"Fine."
"Midnight."
"Margaret comes first."
"She'll be there."
The call ended.
Daniel stared at me.
"You offered him my freedom."
"I offered him something he wanted to hear."
His expression changed.
"So you don't mean it."
"You helped steal my parents' home."
"I know."
"You tried to steal mine."
"I know."
"You planned to leave me with eleven million dollars of criminal transactions in my name."
"I didn't know it was eleven."
I almost smiled.
"That's your defense?"
"No."
He looked down.
"I don't have one."
For the first time, I believed him.
Not because he was innocent.
Because he'd finally stopped asking me to see him that way.
"You can still help."
"How?"
"Tell me what Voss will do."
Daniel thought.
"He'll arrive late."
"Why?"
"He always makes other people wait."
"Armed?"
"Someone will be."
"Will he bring Margaret?"
"If he thinks he needs her."
"Does he?"
Daniel looked at me.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Margaret knows where the protected money actually is."
"The accounts are frozen."
"Those aren't the real accounts."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"The eleven million is bait."
"Whose bait?"
"I thought it was Gerald's."
"And now?"
"Now I think it's Margaret's."
That changed everything.
"Explain."
"Margaret knew Gerald would search for the money. So she created accounts he could find."
"Using my identity?"
"Maybe to make Gerald think his own structure was working."
"Then where is my actual money?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
"But Margaret does."
"Yes."
Which meant Gerald needed her alive.
For now.
At 11:20 p.m., I stood inside my parents' house.
Police had wired every room.
Officers waited in neighboring properties.
The archive on the dining table was fake.
Real enough to survive a quick inspection.
False enough to protect the evidence.
My parents were safe elsewhere.
Natalie monitored Margaret's tracker.
11:42.
Still moving.
11:51.
Stopped.
Three blocks away.
11:56.
Moving again.
11:59.
A black SUV turned onto the street.
My heart hammered.
It stopped outside.
One man exited.
Not Voss.
He opened the rear door.
Margaret stepped out.
Alive.
My eyes burned.
Then Gerald Voss emerged behind her.
He held her arm.
They walked toward the house.
I whispered into the microphone.
"They're coming."
No answer.
I touched it.
"Cole?"
Static.
"Rebecca?"
Nothing.
Every police channel had gone dead.
Natalie appeared from the kitchen.
"Something's wrong."
"Where are the officers?"
"I don't know."
Then headlights appeared outside.
Another vehicle.
Daniel's car.
He wasn't supposed to be here.
Natalie looked at me.
"Did you tell him?"
"No."
Daniel got out.
Gerald stopped on the porch.
He smiled.
As though Daniel's arrival had been expected.
My stomach dropped.
"Claire," Natalie whispered, "this isn't our trap anymore."
The front door opened.
Gerald entered with Margaret.
Daniel followed.
Then someone locked the door from outside.
Voss looked at me.
"You thought you were setting a trap."
He placed a phone on the dining table.
The screen showed a live video.
My parents.
Bound to chairs.
My mother's mouth covered with tape.
My father struggling against his restraints.
I stopped breathing.
Voss smiled.
"You should have asked who moved them from police protection."
Then a figure stepped into view behind my parents.
May you like
He leaned toward the camera.
And Detective Cole looked directly at me.
