Chapter 21
As I ran up the steps of the Met, a crack of thunder split open the sky and rain obediently drenched the city, breaking the humidity that had been building throughout the day.
By the time I reached the front doors, my sneakers were soaked, and I was out of breath, but I felt strangely calm knowing that, soon enough, this would all be over.
The stress and anxiety I’d been experiencing had melted away, leaving me with a singular purpose and vision.
I made my way into the museum’s wide, open foyer and looked around. The bustle of people gave me good cover, in case anyone was watching, but I still had to stay vigilant. I wanted to keep my upper hand for as long as possible, which meant not letting anyone take me by surprise.
I had no idea how long it would take for Wilson to catch up with me. But if Lucas had done what I’d asked and Wilson had been able to verify my location by tracking my phone, I didn’t think I’d be waiting long.
As I glanced around again, my eyes flicked between the people enjoying the museum – couples, families with young kids, pensioners – and I knew I couldn’t let anything happen in here.
I couldn’t see Lucas, or anyone who could be considered undercover law enforcement, but wasn’t that the point?
That I wasn’t supposed to be able to spot them?
I wandered back out to the steps of the building. The weather had driven even the most dedicated tourists inside, and despite it only being late afternoon, it felt like I was alone on the streets of New York.
When a black sedan rolled up to the curb, my Spidey-senses tingled. Wilson immediately threw open the back door, unfolded himself from the car and slammed it shut behind him, the noise echoing like a gunshot.
Even though my heart was thundering in my chest, I held my nerve, waiting for him to spot me.
This location wasn’t an accident. I wanted him to have to look up to see me at the top of the stone steps and for him to be at the bottom.
And I had to get him to come to me – all the way here – so the people Lucas had sent to listen in to our conversation could overhear what he had to say.
‘Kendra Walker,’ Wilson yelled as he stalked up the steps toward me. ‘I am done with your fucking shit, little girl.’
He came right up close to me, forcing me to tip my head back to look into his eyes.
He had lost it.
I’d seen Wilson mad before, and scheming, and amused, and cruel.
But something in him had snapped – the thought of losing millions of dollars because he was too cheap and lazy to do his own research pushing him over the edge.
He knew as well as I did that he had sold the jewelry to my mom fair and square and had no right to take it back.
He knew that, but it didn’t make any difference.
‘Where is it?’ he demanded.
‘Tell me,’ I said, ignoring his demands. ‘Tell me to my face what you did to my mom.’
‘I’m not telling you a fucking thing. Give me my fucking jewelry,’ he screamed.
I kept my mouth closed, and this seemed to enrage him even further.
Wilson reached into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out his gun.
Clenching my jaw, I forced myself to stand my ground and not react, silently begging the law enforcement who were moving in to wait too. I needed to hear him say it.
‘Where is it, Kendra?’ Wilson said, his eyes wild. ‘Or do I have to kill you too?’
‘My mom didn’t deserve to die,’ I snapped, too angry to maintain my calm facade any longer. ‘She played by all the rules, and you lost because of your own greed and stupidity. That’s not my fault, and it wasn’t my mom’s either.’
‘Fuck that,’ he snapped. ‘Your saint-like mother double-crossed me once, and she was getting ready to do it again. You think I believed her when she said I had to wait a week for her to get back from a trip? Do you really think she was going to give me another quarter mil to balance it all out? Or do you think she was actually going to turn me over to the authorities while she basked in the glory of her … discovery?’
So that was her plan. Buy out Wilson to balance the scales once the Insect Brooch had been delivered safely to London. He should have taken the deal – I had no doubt my mom would have stuck to her side of it, if he’d given her the chance.
When I refused to answer again, Wilson lifted the gun and shot straight up in the air. That must have caught the attention of the security guards, but before they had time to react Wilson pressed the gun to the center of my forehead, and my whole body went ice cold.
‘I have no qualms about killing you, Kendra. In fact, there’s something almost poetic about using the same gun on you that I used to kill your mother,’ he hissed. ‘You want to die the same way she did? Bleeding out in the gutter?’
I could vaguely hear the shouts of the security guards behind me, but the noise had turned distant, fuzzy, and all I could focus on was Wilson. But if he really was about to kill me, then I didn’t want his face to be the last thing I saw.
‘It’s gone, Vance,’ I said, forcing a smirk onto my face. ‘You will never see the jewelry again.’ Then I closed my eyes.
His roar of rage was feral, and I braced myself for a bullet …
That never came.
In the next moment, I was tackled to the ground as another shot echoed, and when I opened my eyes I was being dragged away and Wilson was laying on the cool stone in a pool of blood.
‘You are a fucking idiot,’ Lucas said from next to me, his voice shaking.
‘Is he dead?’ I gasped, and then Wilson twitched, and I realized he’d been shot in the leg.
A man in black tactical gear flipped him over and slapped handcuffs on his wrists as he writhed and screamed, and I closed my eyes again, not wanting to see any of it.
A moment later and I started to shake, fear and adrenaline taking over as Lucas bustled me back inside the museum. People were screaming, having heard the shots, and the security team were ushering back the crowd, away from the doors and deeper into the interior of the building.
It would only hold them for so long. But that wasn’t my concern any more.
Lucas led me over to the side of the room and said something to a security guard that I didn’t hear, and then he practically carried me through a STAFF ONLY door and into a small room lined with TV screens.
One guy was sat in front of them, and he looked at us, wide-eyed, like he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.
Well, that made two of us.
‘Here, sit down,’ Lucas said, pulling out a chair. ‘Someone’s coming to …’ He didn’t seem sure how to finish that sentence. Arrest me? It was possible.
I looked down at my trembling hands, then back to him.
Lucas had folded his arms over his chest and his jaw was clenched, and I could tell he was freaking out too. After a second, he met my eyes.
‘He would have killed you, you know,’ he said in a low voice.
I mustered as much confidence as I could manage. ‘He didn’t, though.’
The next half-hour passed in a blur. Someone brought me a foil blanket, like the ones used by marathon runners or for victims following major disasters, and another someone pushed a cup of coffee into my hands.
It was too milky and too sweet, but I drank it anyway, knowing I needed the sugar.
Lucas went in and out of the room a few times, coming back looking more pissed off each time, and I didn’t know how to interpret that.
When the FBI agent who had let me go from Tanoshimu walked in I was petrified.
‘So,’ she said, looking down at me as she pulled a notebook out of her pocket. ‘Maddie Lawson, huh?’
I really wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, so I gave her a small, tight smile. ‘Yep.’
Lucas loomed over her shoulder. ‘It’s all right, Kendra. She knows who you are.’
The betrayal hit like a punch to the gut.
The agent sat down. ‘I’m Agent Liz Mallory. You, as it turns out, are Kendra Walker.’
‘Got me,’ I said, trying to play it off as nonchalant.
‘Want to tell me why you lied earlier?’
‘Because I’m scared of you,’ I said honestly, and Lucas sighed.
She looked between me and him.
‘Why did you lie to me?’ she demanded of Lucas.
‘I’m scared of you too,’ he said, trying to make a joke, but her steely expression didn’t change. ‘Because she’s innocent in all this. You don’t need to question her.’
Well, that wasn’t exactly true, but I’d let the FBI think that.
‘She just lured Vance Wilson out of hiding and almost got killed by him,’ Agent Mallory said incredulously. ‘She’s involved in this whether she likes it or not.’
‘Fine,’ Lucas bit out.
I got the impression he was doing what he could to shield me from the authorities – something I’d made incredibly difficult for him by throwing myself into the middle of what was clearly an ongoing investigation.
I shuddered, and Agent Mallory’s expression turned sympathetic.
‘Kendra, I’m going to tell you what I can right now, okay?’
I nodded and sipped my rapidly cooling, too-sweet coffee.
‘Vance Wilson has been the subject of a fourteen-month-long investigation into drug trafficking, money laundering, theft and grand larceny.’
‘And murder,’ I added. ‘He killed my mom.’
‘Corrine Walker,’ Lucas confirmed.
Agent Mallory looked back at me. ‘I’m so sorry about your mother, Kendra.’
‘Did you know he did it?’ I asked.
‘No,’ she said, looking directly at me, and I believed her. ‘But he killed a very good officer earlier today when he escaped, so I know that he’s capable of it.’
‘Is he ever getting out?’
She offered me a small smile. ‘No, Kendra. He’s not getting out. The penal system in this country doesn’t look fondly on those who murder law enforcement officers.’
A wave of relief crashed over me. My plan had worked. I couldn’t believe it.
‘Can you do something for us?’ Lucas asked, and I wondered if he was speaking to me or Agent Mallory.
‘I can try,’ she replied.