Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF A GRANDSONMarcus called again at 6:17 that evening.
Police had turned Daniel’s home into a command center.
Detective Monroe connected recording equipment while federal agents arrived because the kidnapping crossed into a financial extortion case tied to interstate transactions.
Nobody used the word ransom.
Not until Marcus did.
“Twenty million.”
His voice came through the speaker.
I sat at Daniel’s kitchen table.
Rachel sat beside me gripping my hand hard enough to hurt.
“I want to hear Ethan.”
“You’ll hear him when the money moves.”
“No.”
Marcus laughed.
“You’re negotiating?”
“Yes.”
“With your grandson?”
“With you.”
Silence.
“You think this is a boardroom?”
“No. In a boardroom you’d have leverage.”
Rachel looked at me, terrified.
Monroe raised one finger.
Keep him talking.
Marcus’s voice hardened.
“I have leverage.”
“Then prove it.”
A pause.
Then Ethan’s voice.
“Grandpa?”
Rachel covered her mouth.
I fought to keep my voice calm.
“Hey, buddy.”
“I wanna go home.”
“I know.”
“Aunt Vanessa is crying.”
I looked at Monroe.
Vanessa was with them.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Is Mommy there?”
Rachel leaned toward the phone.
“I’m right here, baby.”
“Mommy!”
Her face crumpled.
“I love you. Grandpa’s coming to get you.”
Marcus grabbed the phone.
“Enough.”
I forced myself not to shout.
“Twenty million is difficult to move quickly.”
“You moved more than that last month.”
“You know company finances don’t work that way.”
“I know exactly how they work.”
“Then you know banks will flag it.”
“Crypto.”
Monroe wrote something.
I avoided discussing technical details.
“You’ll get traceable money and a federal prison sentence.”
“I already have the prison sentence.”
That was revealing.
He knew he was finished.
“What do you really want, Marcus?”
Silence.
Then he said, “A way out.”
There.
Not money.
Escape.
“What kind?”
“Private plane.”
“Where?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“I do if you expect me to arrange it.”
Monroe wrote: KEEP HIM TALKING.
Marcus exhaled.
“Small airport outside Richmond.”
“Which one?”
He gave the name.
Federal agents immediately moved.
“Plane fueled.”
“Destination?”
“Bahamas.”
“That’s not enough fuel planning information.”
“Figure it out.”
“What about Ethan?”
“He leaves when I’m airborne.”
“No.”
“Thomas—”
“No child leaves with you.”
“I said he stays.”
“With Vanessa?”
Silence.
Then a sound in the background.
Vanessa shouting.
“You promised!”
Marcus snapped something away from the phone.
I leaned closer.
“What did you promise her?”
“Shut up.”
“That she could leave?”
“Thomas.”
“Vanessa, can you hear me?”
A crash.
Then screaming.
Rachel stood.
“Ethan!”
The call disconnected.
Monroe immediately issued orders.
Phone location data had narrowed them to an industrial district thirty miles east.
Not enough for a building.
But enough to move.
I wanted to go.
Everyone told me no.
I went anyway.
Not into the tactical operation.
But close enough to wait.
Rachel came too.
We sat inside an unmarked police vehicle near an abandoned distribution center while agents searched warehouses.
Minutes became hours.
At 8:43, gunfire cracked in the distance.
Rachel stopped breathing.
I grabbed her hand.
More shouting.
Then silence.
My phone rang.
Monroe.
I answered.
“Tell me.”
“We have Vanessa.”
“Ethan?”
“Not yet.”
Rachel made a sound I will never forget.
“Marcus left approximately fifteen minutes before entry.”
“Where?”
“We’re working on it.”
“Was Ethan with him?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Vanessa was transported to our location.
She sat in the back of an ambulance with a cut across her forehead and blood on her wedding-ring finger where the engagement ring had been torn away.
I wanted to hate her.
I did hate her.
But Rachel reached her first.
“Where is my son?”
Vanessa looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Rachel slapped her.
An officer stepped forward.
I raised my hand.
Rachel’s whole body shook.
“You don’t get to say sorry.”
“I know.”
“Where is he?”
“Marcus took him.”
“Where?”
“He didn’t tell me.”
Rachel stepped closer.
“You helped him.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What was supposed to happen?”
Vanessa looked toward me.
“You were supposed to marry me.”
I said nothing.
“We were supposed to control the company long enough to force the waterfront vote.”
“For Voss?”
She nodded.
“Then what?”
“We were supposed to leave.”
“With my money?”
“Yes.”
She didn’t pretend anymore.
That almost made it worse.
“Did you plan to kill me?”
Her eyes fell.
“Vanessa.”
“No.”
“Then why was Marcus beneficiary?”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Rachel heard you discuss ways to make my death look natural.”
“I was trying to scare Marcus.”
I laughed.
Even she heard how ridiculous it sounded.
She closed her eyes.
“Thomas, I lied to you about almost everything.”
“Almost?”
Her face twisted.
“My feelings weren’t supposed to become real.”
Rachel stared at her in disbelief.
Vanessa continued quickly.
“Voss found me because Marcus owed him money. Marcus had lost everything gambling on bad investments. Voss offered to clear the debt if we helped him get close to you.”
“Spare me the romance.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I’m telling you because Marcus changed.”
“When?”
“When Voss offered more money.”
“For what?”
“To make sure you could never return to the company.”
My skin went cold.
“He wanted me dead?”
“Voss never said those words.”
“What did he say?”
“Permanent resolution.”
Rachel whispered, “Where is Voss now?”
Vanessa looked at her.
“Probably waiting for Marcus.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
I stepped closer.
“You know something.”
She hesitated.
“Marcus mentioned a hunting property.”
“Whose?”
“Voss.”
“Location?”
“I only heard part of it.”
“What part?”
“Blue Ridge.”
That covered hundreds of miles.
Then I remembered the photographs from my hidden safe.
One showed Margaret’s grave.
The background contained a truck.
A Blackridge-owned vehicle.
Stephen had traced it earlier.
Registered to a rural property management company.
Property.
I called him.
“Find every rural property connected to Blackridge, Voss, or its subsidiaries in the Blue Ridge region.”
He began searching.
Twenty minutes later, he had three.
One was a hunting lodge outside Front Royal.
Federal agents moved immediately.
Rachel and I waited.
Vanessa remained under guard.
At 10:11, Monroe received an update.
Thermal imaging showed two people inside the lodge.
Possibly three.
No vehicles visible.
At 10:26, agents approached.
At 10:31, the building was empty.
But Ethan had been there.
His gray bow tie from the wedding lay on the floor.
Rachel held it against her mouth and cried.
On the kitchen table, investigators found a handwritten note.
VOSS CHANGED LOCATION. OLD MILL. MIDNIGHT.
It was 10:42.
There were several old mills nearby.
Only one belonged to a company linked to Adrian Voss.
And midnight was seventy-eight minutes away.
Federal agents prepared.
I looked at Rachel.
She looked at me.
Neither of us needed to speak.
May you like
This ended tonight.
One way or another.
