Chapter 13 - Claire’s Funeral.
“Mom!”
Claire spun toward the corridor.
The laundry cart was empty.
One agent lay on the floor holding his shoulder.
Another shouted into his radio.
Victor had vanished.
Anne had vanished with him.
Claire ran.
Sloane caught up.
“Claire!”
Nathan and Rebecca followed.
Julian shouted after them.
“He’ll take her to the garage.”
Claire stopped.
“How do you know?”
Julian looked at the agents surrounding him.
“Because that’s how he moved Rebecca.”
Rebecca stared.
Julian continued.
“There’s a vehicle tunnel under the east wing.”
Nathan stepped toward him.
“Show us.”
The agent objected.
Claire looked at him.
“My mother has been kidnapped.”
That ended the argument.
Julian was handcuffed.
Nathan held his arm.
They moved quickly through the basement.
Julian led them to an unmarked steel door.
Behind it was a descending ramp.
Fresh tire marks cut through the dust.
Claire’s heart hammered.
They ran downward.
The ramp opened into an underground garage.
An SUV roared toward the exit.
Anne sat in the back seat.
Victor was beside her.
Claire screamed.
“Mom!”
The vehicle accelerated.
Nathan ran toward a parked security truck.
Sloane jumped into the passenger seat.
Claire climbed in back with Rebecca.
Julian was pushed into another federal vehicle.
The chase exploded into daylight.
Victor’s SUV tore through downtown traffic.
Claire watched her mother’s face through the rear window.
Anne was conscious.
Terrified.
But alive.
Sloane called police dispatch.
Nathan drove like a man who had been waiting eight years for this moment.
They turned onto a highway.
Victor’s SUV accelerated.
Rebecca suddenly looked at Claire.
“What did your mother tell you about your funeral?”
Claire stared.
“My funeral?”
“When Julian declared you dead.”
“I didn’t know.”
Rebecca’s expression darkened.
“There was a funeral.”
Claire felt cold.
“A body?”
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I never found out.”
Nathan glanced at his sister through the mirror.
Rebecca continued.
“Victor kept records for every identity Julian erased.”
Claire looked toward the SUV ahead.
“Why?”
“Leverage.”
Sloane whispered.
“Bodies are leverage?”
“Bodies are proof.”
Claire thought about Rebecca disappearing.
Her mother’s sealed casket.
Her father’s sealed casket.
Julian’s fake automobile death.
Everyone in this story had been buried without anyone seeing a body.
She finally understood the system.
Deaths created legal doors.
Insurance.
Estates.
Trusts.
New identities.
Clean money.
Claire looked toward Victor.
“My funeral was a transaction.”
Rebecca nodded.
The SUV suddenly exited the highway.
Nathan followed.
They entered an industrial district.
Victor’s vehicle headed toward an abandoned funeral home.
Claire stared at the faded sign.
Bennett & Sons Memorial Services.
Her childhood surname.
Anne began hitting the rear window.
Victor dragged her down.
Nathan slammed the accelerator.
Claire’s stomach turned.
She knew this place.
Her father’s funeral had been held there.
Her mother’s funeral had been held there.
Julian’s memorial documents had come from there.
Rebecca whispered.
May you like
“This is where they make dead people.”
Victor’s SUV crashed through the rear gate.
