Chapter 26 - The Unlikely Ally
For three agonizing seconds, my hand hovered over the gear shift, ready to slam the car into reverse and run down anyone standing in my path.
Campbell held both hands up in the air, palms out, showing he was unarmed. His trench coat was dusted with snow, his face grim and shadowed under the brim of his hat. He leaned down toward the glass and tapped his badge against the window, then pointed toward the diner door.
I lowered the window just an inch, the freezing wind whistling through the gap. "How did you find me?"
"You left your phone on the charger at the estate, Emma," Campbell said quietly, his breath billowing in white clouds. "Julian didn't find you because he was looking for your car. I found you because Eleanor’s burner phone pinged a tower two miles north of here twenty minutes ago. She isn't in Springfield."
The air left my chest. "What?"
"Eleanor was never in Springfield," Campbell said, his voice flat and urgent. "The county transport van that was supposed to take her to the state holding facility had a 'mechanical breakdown' on Route 9 three hours after the plea deal was signed. A private town car picked her up. Sheriff Barnes filed a false transfer log. They've been using the local precinct to keep you contained while Julian handled the paperwork."
I stared at him through the glass, trying to parse every micro-expression on his weathered face. "Barnes is in Julian's pocket. My father’s ledger says Barnes has been dirty since 1979."
Campbell grimaced, a bitter, self-loathing look crossing his eyes. "Barnes was my mentor. When you brought those New Year's documents to the station yesterday, something didn't smell right. The file numbers on Julian's court order didn't exist in the state database. I started pulling call logs from Barnes' private line. Barnes has a six-figure wire scheduled to hit an account in the Caymans tomorrow morning at eight o'clock."
"And what are you doing here, Campbell?" I demanded, my grip tightening on the heavy iron lockbox. "Are you here to take the ledger?"
"I'm here to arrest Barnes and Julian Vance before they put Eleanor on a private charter out of Hanscom Airfield at dawn," Campbell said, leaning closer to the glass. "And I can't do it with state troopers because Barnes has friends in the state attorney's office. I need the federal hook. Tell me you found Arthur’s original records."
I looked down at the lockbox in my lap, then at the USB drive sitting between my fingers.
May you like
"I found everything," I whispered. "Including the federal contact Arthur left behind."
Campbell let out a long, ragged exhale that dissolved into the storm. "Unlock the door, Emma. We have four hours before that plane takes off, and your mother is already sitting in the hangar."
