Chapter 5
Melissa Grant entered the conference room under guard.
She was not the glamorous woman Margaret had expected.
Her hair was wet and tangled.
Mud covered her jeans.
Blood stained one sleeve of her jacket.
She looked terrified.
Brandon had once shown Emily a photograph of Melissa on a yacht in Miami, smiling in a white dress with a diamond bracelet on her wrist.
The woman standing before them looked as if she had crawled through hell to reach the building.
“Is Brandon here?” she asked.
Agent Torres stepped forward.
“No.”
Melissa’s eyes moved to Emily.
“You’re his sister.”
“Yes.”
“You have the original foundation report?”
“Yes.”
Melissa exhaled shakily.
“Then you know.”
“We know the worker shelter is at risk.”
Melissa’s face collapsed.
“They’re still there?”
“We’re trying to evacuate them.”
“I can get them out.”
Torres blocked her path.
“First, you tell us what happened.”
Melissa looked toward the windows.
“There isn’t time.”
“Make time.”
Daniel handed Liam to the nurse from his medical team and moved beside Emily.
Melissa noticed the baby.
Her expression changed.
“You gave birth today?”
Emily’s patience snapped.
“Tell us how to reach the workers.”
Melissa pulled a folded site map from her jacket.
“There’s a drainage channel under the west fence. It connects to the service tunnel. I used it to get out after the east access collapsed.”
Torres took the map.
“Why were you at the site?”
“Brandon called me.”
“When?”
“An hour ago. He said I needed to delete the inspection archive and leave Chicago.”
Charles stepped forward.
“You obeyed him?”
Melissa looked at him with disgust.
“I went there to stop him.”
“Stop him from what?”
“Blowing the tunnel.”
The room went silent.
Torres’s voice sharpened.
“Explain.”
“Brandon had emergency demolition charges stored for concrete removal. He told Paul Reeves to place them in the service tunnel.”
Emily felt the air leave her lungs.
“Why?”
“To seal the site before investigators could reach the original core samples.”
Daniel stared at her.
“With workers inside?”
“He said the shelter would be evacuated.”
“But it wasn’t,” Emily said.
Melissa shook her head.
“The foreman refused to move everyone without official confirmation. Then the foundation shifted and blocked the east road.”
Torres spoke rapidly into her radio, relaying the route and explosive threat.
Melissa gripped the edge of the table.
“Paul was supposed to destroy your drive too.”
“We know.”
“He called Brandon after he failed.”
Charles’s hands curled into fists.
“My son ordered this?”
Melissa laughed bitterly.
“Your son orders everything and lets other people bleed.”
Margaret sat in silence.
She had not spoken since entering the building.
Melissa looked at her.
“You must be his mother.”
Margaret’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
“He told me you would protect him no matter what.”
Margaret lowered her eyes.
Melissa turned back to Torres.
“I have messages. Recordings. Everything.”
“Why keep them?”
“Because I knew one day he would blame me.”
“You helped create North Crest.”
“I signed the paperwork. He told me it was a legal consulting structure.”
Emily shook her head.
“You approved invoices for work that was never performed.”
“At first, I believed the services came through subcontractors. Later, I knew.”
“Yet you continued.”
Melissa’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised everyone.
She did not beg.
She did not deny.
“I liked the money,” she said. “I liked the apartment. I liked feeling important. Then South Harbor happened.”
“What happened?” Emily asked.
Melissa looked at Charles.
“Your company hired an independent engineer named Samuel Ortiz. He failed the foundation.”
Charles nodded slowly.
“I remember the name.”
“Brandon offered him two hundred thousand dollars to revise the report. He refused.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“What did Brandon do?”
“He had Samuel removed from the project. Then Samuel disappeared.”
Ava moved closer.
“Disappeared?”
“Brandon said he went back to Mexico.”
“Did he?”
Melissa shook her head.
“I found Samuel’s wallet in Brandon’s car.”
Margaret made a broken sound.
Charles stared at her.
“Are you saying my son killed someone?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you suspect it.”
“Yes.”
The conference room speaker crackled.
A voice from the South Harbor site came through.
“We’ve entered the drainage channel. Visibility is low.”
Torres rushed to the communication console.
“How many responders?”
“Six. Bomb squad behind us.”
Emily looked at the map.
“Tell them the channel splits near the old pump station. Take the left path. The right side dead-ends.”
Torres repeated the instruction.
Melissa stared at Emily.
“How do you know?”
“I reviewed every change order before I left.”
Charles whispered, almost to himself, “You knew the company better than any of us.”
Emily heard him.
She gave no response.
On the screen, helmet-camera footage appeared.
Responders crawled through dark water beneath the construction site.
Concrete groaned overhead.
Daniel took Emily’s hand.
This time she did not pull away.
Not because she had forgiven him.
Because she was afraid.
The team reached the service tunnel.
Wires ran along the wall.
A bomb technician examined them.
“Charges confirmed. Remote trigger.”
Torres turned toward Melissa.
“Who has the trigger?”
“Brandon.”
“He is in custody.”
“He has two phones.”
Torres immediately called the agents transporting him.
No answer.
She tried again.
Emily’s pulse raced.
“Where is Brandon now?”
Torres’s face hardened.
“The vehicle never reached federal headquarters.”
Charles stepped forward.
“What does that mean?”
The speaker came alive with shouting.
“Movement in the tunnel!”
The video shook.
A figure ran across the camera.
Then gunfire erupted.
Melissa screamed.
“Who is there?”
The picture stabilized.
A man in a construction helmet fell behind a concrete barrier.
Responders took cover.
Torres shouted into the microphone.
“Identify yourself!”
No reply.
Melissa leaned toward the screen.
“That’s the night supervisor. Ray Collins.”
“Why is he shooting?”
“Brandon paid him.”
Daniel looked at Torres.
“This was planned far beyond tonight.”
The responder’s voice came through.
“We’re pinned down. Charges are twenty yards ahead.”
Then another sound filled the room.
A baby crying.
Not Liam.
It came through the tunnel microphone.
Everyone froze.
Emily leaned closer.
“What was that?”
Melissa covered her mouth.
“The workers bring their families sometimes.”
Charles stared at the screen in horror.
A responder called out.
“There are civilians in the shelter! We hear children!”
Emily’s heart pounded.
The worker shelter was not holding sixty adults.
It held families.
Torres ordered tactical backup.
Melissa pointed at the map.
“There’s another entrance.”
“Where?”
“The concrete batch room. A maintenance ladder drops behind the charges.”
“Can we reach it?”
“Not from outside. Only through the east tower basement.”
“The east tower is unstable.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked at Emily.
“No.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“I know that look.”
“What look?”
“The one where you decide you have to solve everything yourself.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You were thinking about it.”
“I know the access system.”
Melissa turned to her.
“So do I.”
Torres shook her head.
“Neither of you is entering an active collapse zone.”
A technician at the computer suddenly spoke.
“We have a signal.”
Brandon’s second phone had connected to a tower near South Harbor.
Charles’s face went blank.
“He’s at the site.”
Torres called the transport team again.
This time someone answered.
A panicked agent’s voice filled the room.
“The vehicle was struck at the intersection. Suspect escaped during the confusion.”
“Any fatalities?”
“Driver injured. No deaths.”
Emily looked at the live map.
A blinking dot moved toward the east tower.
Brandon was not running away.
He was returning to finish the destruction.
Torres issued orders.
“Lock down the perimeter. Suspect may have a remote detonator.”
Melissa grabbed Emily’s arm.
“There’s something else.”
Emily looked at her.
“Say it.”
“The charges are not only in the tunnel.”
“Where else?”
Melissa’s voice dropped.
“Under the worker shelter.”
The room erupted.
Charles shouted.
Margaret began crying.
Torres demanded details.
Emily stared at the map.
“If he detonates them, the shelter falls into the parking structure.”
Melissa nodded.
“And the parking structure brings down the east tower.”
Daniel’s face became stone.
“A chain collapse.”
Emily looked toward Liam, asleep in the nurse’s arms.
Then she looked at Daniel.
“Take him somewhere safe.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You need to protect our son.”
“So do you.”
She felt tears burn her eyes.
“I know how to stop Brandon.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Charles shook his head.
“You don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
She pointed to the blinking signal on the map.
“He isn’t going to detonate immediately. He wants the evidence destroyed, but he also wants to escape.”
Torres frowned.
“How does that help?”
“He’ll use the old management office. It has a hard line connected to the project server and a tunnel exit beneath the riverwalk.”
Melissa nodded.
“She’s right.”
Emily looked at Agent Torres.
“Send officers to the riverwalk exit.”
“And Brandon?”
“I’ll call him.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Absolutely not.”
“He hates me more than he fears the FBI.”
“That is exactly why you should not call.”
“He will answer.”
Emily picked up her phone.
She dialed Brandon’s number from memory.
It rang once.
Twice.
Then he answered.
“You ruined everything,” he said.
May you like
Emily looked at the moving signal on the screen.
“No, Brandon. I finally found you.”
