Chapter 17 - The Ferry
Harbor police intercepted the ferry midway across the East River.
Passengers were moved to the upper deck while officers searched below.
Daniel, Sarah, and Arthur were kept at Pier 6 despite Daniel’s repeated attempts to board a police boat.
“You will only give her another hostage,” Ortiz told him over the phone.
Below deck, officers found a trail of medical tubing leading toward the engine-access corridor.
At the end stood Eleanor.
Grace’s transport carrier rested on the floor beside her.
The baby was crying.
Eleanor held a lighter near a rag soaked in fuel.
Ortiz stopped twenty feet away.
“Step away from the carrier.”
Eleanor looked exhausted for the first time. Her hair had fallen loose. Her coat was wet with river spray.
“They stole everything from me.”
“No one stole this child from you. She was never yours.”
Eleanor’s eyes hardened.
“The Vance family was mine before Sarah crawled into it.”
“You mean the money.”
“I built Daniel’s father into a man people feared.”
“You poisoned him.”
“He was going to throw me away.”
Ortiz kept her voice flat. “So you killed him.”
Eleanor smiled faintly. “Ask Grant.”
“We did.”
That shook her.
“He talked?”
“He gave us everything.”
For a second, Eleanor looked older than her sixty-one years.
Then Grace cried louder.
Eleanor glanced down.
Ortiz moved half a step closer.
“Grace needs oxygen. Whatever you think you’re proving, she can’t survive your anger.”
Eleanor’s hand trembled.
On the pier, Sarah listened through Ortiz’s open line.
She took the phone from Daniel.
“Let me talk to her.”
Ortiz put the call on speaker.
Sarah’s voice came through Eleanor’s phone.
“Eleanor.”
Eleanor looked down at the device in her pocket, startled.
“Give me my daughter.”
“You ruined my life.”
“No. You did that every time you chose control over a person.”
“You think Daniel loves you? Men like him love bloodlines, not women.”
“Then why are you the one alone?”
Eleanor’s face twisted.
She dropped the lighter.
The fuel-soaked rag ignited.
Flames jumped across the metal floor.
Officers surged forward.
Eleanor grabbed the carrier.
Ortiz hit her shoulder-first, knocking her away from Grace.
Another officer smothered the flames with an extinguisher.
The carrier tipped.
Grace screamed.
Ortiz caught it before it struck the floor.
Eleanor fought like a trapped animal, kicking and clawing until three officers pinned her.
“You can’t do this!” she screamed.
Ortiz snapped handcuffs around her wrists.
“We already did.”
At the pier, Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered.
Ortiz’s voice came through.
“We have Grace.”
Sarah collapsed against Arthur, sobbing.
May you like
Then Ortiz added one more thing.
“She’s alive.”
