Chapter 14: Two Million Dollars

Joanna took the paper out of the lawyer's hand and tore it in half.

"He pulled me out of a room your client locked me in," she said. "Write that in your order."

"Ms. VanHorne, please."

"Get off my lawn."

The paramedics put her on a stretcher, and she grabbed my sleeve as they lifted her.

"Don't let them take the recording," she said.

"They won't," Sadie said.

The lawyers stayed on the grass and watched us go.

By evening Joanna was in a private room on the fourth floor with an oxygen tube under her nose.

A detective came and took Sadie's phone for an hour and gave it back.

He found us in the corridor.

"The brake line was cut," he said. "A clean cut, with a blade, not wear."

Something loosened in my chest.

"Then arrest him."

"The judge wants the lab to confirm the audio before she signs the warrant," he said. "That's Monday."

"He has a passport and her cash."

"His passport is flagged. He can't board anywhere without the airline telling us."

"And the driver?"

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"The driver withdrew his statement this morning," he said. "Through a lawyer from the VanHorne family office."

Sadie swore under her breath.

"He's afraid for his pension," I said. "Dane told him what to be afraid of."

"I can't make a man testify who won't," the detective said. "I need something that doesn't depend on him."

He left, and I leaned against the wall.

A woman was walking down the corridor toward me.

She was sixty-two, with silver hair in a French twist and a pearl in each ear.

She didn't hurry, and the nurses stepped out of her way without knowing why.

I had met her perhaps ten times in nine years, and she had never once used my name.

"Flynn," Rhoda said.

It was the first time.

"Mrs. VanHorne."

"We should speak in private."

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