Chapter 6 - THE DEAD TWIN
Dr. Celeste Warren’s twin sister was named Camille.
At twenty-three, Camille supposedly died in a cabin fire in upstate New York. Dental records identified the body.
The same dentist who altered Lisa’s records had confirmed Camille’s.
Her death had been fabricated.
Camille became Graham Vale’s most effective operative because she could adopt identities with professional makeup, prosthetics, and stolen biometric data. She had impersonated nurses, social workers, and grieving relatives.
At the estate, she disguised herself as Teresa Russo.
The false detective delivered Lorenzo’s bracelet.
Camille used it to open the safe room, struck the nurse, wrapped Emma in a blanket, and entered the tunnel.
The deception explained how she passed guards.
Nobody searched the boss’s mother.
Fear and familiarity opened another door.
The exchange instructions arrived at sunset.
Bring Vincent and the server credentials to a decommissioned Coast Guard station on Plum Island.
No police.
No aircraft.
No tracking devices.
Vale allowed Lorenzo, Vincent, and me.
Nobody else.
Vincent left the hospital against medical advice. Doctors stabilized his chest and concealed a lightweight ballistic vest beneath his coat. He could barely walk.
“You will collapse before we reach the station,” I said.
“Then Vale will believe I am less dangerous.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
His answer reminded me why Lorenzo once trusted him.
The Coast Guard station stood at the end of a narrow road surrounded by marshland.
Vale’s men searched us.
They found no weapons.
Marco’s team remained offshore in a fishing vessel beyond visible range. Police tactical units waited near the bridge, prepared to move when Emma was secure.
Inside the station, Graham Vale sat behind a steel desk.
He appeared to be in his sixties, with close-cropped gray hair and the calm posture of a retired soldier.
Camille stood beside Emma.
She had removed the Teresa disguise.
The resemblance to Celeste was unmistakable.
Emma sat in a wooden chair clutching her yellow cardigan. No restraints held her, but Camille’s hand rested on her shoulder.
“Mama.”
I moved.
A guard blocked me.
“She comes to me first.”
Vale smiled.
“Vincent said you were practical.”
“Vincent lied about many things.”
“Not about you.”
I looked at Emma.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Did they give you medicine?”
“No.”
Camille tightened her hand.
Emma winced.
Lorenzo saw it.
“Remove your hand.”
Camille laughed softly.
“Your daughter must find you exhausting.”
His face became stone.
Vale held out a laptop.
“The credentials.”
Vincent sat heavily before the desk.
He entered a username, password, and rotating code.
The server opened.
Rows of accounts appeared.
Trust transfers.
Medical records.
Death certificates.
Photographs of children.
Vale scrolled.
Satisfaction entered his face.
“You kept everything.”
“Insurance,” Vincent said.
“Against whom?”
“You.”
Vale connected an external drive.
The download began.
“Release Emma,” I said.
“When the transfer finishes.”
“That was not the agreement.”
“The agreement was temporary.”
His smile cooled.
“As is the child’s usefulness.”
Lorenzo moved slightly.
Four guns lifted.
He stopped.
The download reached thirty percent.
Vincent’s breathing became shallow.
Blood appeared beneath the bandage near his collar.
Vale noticed.
“You came directly from surgery.”
“I dislike delays.”
“Still serving Lorenzo after sleeping with his fiancée?”
Vincent looked toward him.
“I am serving the children she tried to kill.”
“Men always discover morality when their own death approaches.”
The download reached fifty percent.
Emma looked at me.
“Mama, my heart is bumpy.”
My fear sharpened.
“Do you have your medicine?”
She shook her head.
Vale frowned.
“You said she was stable.”
Camille looked annoyed.
“She was.”
Emma’s arrhythmia often worsened under stress.
She needed her rescue medication within minutes if the episode continued.
“It’s in my coat,” I said.
A guard had removed my purse but left the small emergency dose sewn into an inner pocket. I carried it everywhere.
“Let me give it to her.”
Vale looked toward the download.
“No.”
“She could die.”
“Then perhaps Lorenzo understands the cost of delay.”
Emma pressed one hand to her chest.
I moved anyway.
The guard caught my arm.
Lorenzo struck him.
Chaos exploded.
Vincent pulled a thin ceramic blade from beneath his bandage and cut the power cable.
The laptop went dark at seventy-one percent.
Camille grabbed Emma.
I drove my shoulder into her.
We hit the floor.
Vale drew a gun.
Lorenzo tackled him across the desk.
A guard fired.
Vincent fell against the wall.
I covered Emma with my body.
Camille seized my hair and dragged me backward.
I reached into my coat and found the medicine.
“Emma, open.”
My daughter obeyed.
I placed the dissolving tablet beneath her tongue while Camille pulled me away.
The effect would not be immediate.
But it gave her a chance.
Police boats appeared across the marsh.
Marco had received Vincent’s signal when the server connection ended.
Vale heard the engines.
He struck Lorenzo and ran toward the rear exit.
Camille recovered a pistol.
She aimed at Emma.
Vincent threw the ceramic blade.
It struck her wrist.
The gun fired into the floor.
I kicked it away.
Lorenzo reached Camille first.
He stopped himself before killing her.
That choice mattered.
Emma was watching.
He held Camille until officers entered.
Vale escaped in an airboat through the marsh.
Police pursued but lost him among narrow channels.
Camille was arrested.
The server download had failed, but Vale obtained enough data to identify the bank holding the original evidence.
He would go after the safe-deposit box.
Vincent collapsed.
Paramedics rushed him back to surgery.
Emma’s rhythm stabilized during transport.
At the hospital, she and Isabella were placed in neighboring rooms.
The girls held hands through the gap between their beds.
Lorenzo stood near the window.
“You saved her,” he said.
“I carried medicine.”
“You moved while men with guns told you not to.”
“So did you.”
He looked at our daughters.
“Vale remains alive.”
“Yes.”
“He will continue using them.”
“Then stop waiting for him to choose the next location.”
Lorenzo turned.
“What do you suggest?”
“We release the ledger ourselves.”
Vincent had hidden it because he feared Lorenzo and law enforcement corruption. But secrecy allowed Vale to keep killing witnesses.
Make the evidence public.
Send it to prosecutors, newspapers, hospitals, and families.
Lorenzo understood immediately.
“It contains information about my organization.”
“Yes.”
“If released, I may go to prison.”
“Yes.”
He studied me.
“You say that easily.”
“No.”
My voice softened.
“I say it knowing Emma’s medicine, housing, and medical care depend on my employment. If you go to prison, this estate may disappear.”
“Then why suggest it?”
“Because children are being poisoned.”
The answer did not require more words.
Lorenzo looked toward Isabella.
“I built an empire to make certain nobody could threaten my child.”
“And the empire taught people to hide things from you.”
Vincent hid the ledger.
I hid Vivien’s threat.
Marco failed to question the false detective.
Everyone feared the consequences of bringing Lorenzo bad news.
Power had protected Isabella.
It had also isolated her father from the truth.
Lorenzo took out his phone.
“Prepare the release,” he told Marco. “Everything.”
The hospital lights flickered.
Then an alarm sounded in Isabella’s room.
Her monitor showed a sudden dangerous rhythm.
The nurse checked her intravenous line.
A clear substance entered through a secondary port.
Someone had injected it into the tubing.
The hallway camera showed nobody approaching the room.
But eight minutes of footage had disappeared.
May you like
Again.
And the only person inside Isabella’s room during those eight minutes was Emma.
