Chapter 5 - The Mastermind Unmasked
Richard stepped into the dim light of the overhead utility bulb.
He had ditched his tailored tuxedo jacket. His white silk shirt was stained with sweat, his hair disheveled, and his eyes wild with the desperation of a man who knew his empire was collapsing around his ears.
Ten feet behind him stood Marcus, holding a heavy iron crowbar, his knuckles white.
"Richard," I said, stopping in my tracks and placing myself between his gun and Viktor, who was holding the injured woman and the child. "You’re escalating a corporate fraud case into a multiple homicide prosecution. You know how federal prosecutors work. You won't survive this."
Richard let out a harsh, bitter laugh that echoed crazily in the subterranean tunnel. "Fraud case? Arthur, you don't understand! If Vanguard Pharmaceuticals fails, I don't just lose money. I lose everything! My assets are leveraged to the hilt with foreign cartels! If your three hundred million dollars doesn't clear my bank account by noon tomorrow, those people won't just sue me—they’ll skin me alive!"
"So you decided to murder me at a charity event?" I asked, keeping my voice level, buying time as I felt Viktor discreetly shifting his weight behind me, preparing his draw.
"It was supposed to be clean!" Richard spat, his hand shaking as he pointed the revolver at my chest. "A heart attack! You have a history of arrhythmia! The compound Marcus used was a synthetic potassium derivative. It breaks down in the bloodstream within two hours, leaving zero trace in a standard autopsy! You would have died quietly in your ambulance, your estate would have signed the wire transfer, and everyone would have wept for the great Arthur Vance!"
"And Clara?" I gestured toward the injured woman bleeding in Viktor’s arms. "Was she part of the plan too?"
Richard glanced at Clara with utter disdain. "A dish washer! A nobody who happened to be taking out the trash at the wrong minute! She ruined everything! And then this little brat—" he glared at Lily "—had to throw her bread into your glass!"
"She saved my life," I said coldly.
"She delayed your death by twenty minutes!" Richard screamed, pulling back the hammer of the revolver with a loud, terrifying CLICK. "Now it just gets messy! Marcus and I will lock this tunnel, let the fire finish you all off, and take my private jet out of the country tonight!"
"You're forgetting one thing, Richard," I said, stepping forward half a pace.
"What's that?!"
"Marcus isn't a killer," I said, looking directly past Richard at the trembling assistant. "Look at him, Richard. He’s a twenty-five-year-old business major who wanted a country club membership. Marcus... do you know what the penalty for capital murder of a federal witness is in this state?"
Marcus froze. His eyes darted nervously between Richard’s gun and me. "Richard... you said nobody was going to get shot..."
"Shut up, Marcus!" Richard yelled without turning around.
"The needle, Marcus," I said, my voice dropping into a deep, hypnotic rhythm. "Or life without parole in a maximum-security prison. That’s what Richard is offering you tonight. You haven't pulled a trigger yet. You pushed a woman, yes, but she’s alive. You attempted poisoning, but I didn't swallow it. If you walk away now, my legal team can pull you down to a state state-evidence plea bargain. You might serve five years. But if Richard pulls that trigger, you are an accessory to mass murder. You will die in a concrete cell."
"Marcus, hit him!" Richard roared. "Hit him with the bar!"
Marcus looked at the heavy iron bar in his hands. Then he looked at Richard’s sweating neck.
The fire in the stairwell behind us roared louder, sending a fresh wave of heat down the tunnel.
May you like
"Marcus..." I whispered. "Choose."
With a sudden, guttural scream of fear and anger, Marcus didn't charge me. He swung the iron crowbar with all his strength directly into the back of Richard’s knees.
