Chapter 7: Celeste Makes Her Move
Lorenzo read the message over Evelyn's shoulder.
He took the phone from her hand, photographed the screen with his own phone, and passed Evelyn's back to her.
"She's escalating," Reyes said from the doorway.
"She's scared," Lorenzo said.
"There's a difference." He looked at Carver.
"How long until the U.S.
Attorney can move on the financial charges?"
"If I send what we have tonight — the transfer records, Marcus's statement, the recording — they can have an emergency filing by morning.
A warrant for Celeste's assets by noon." Carver was already closing her legal pad.
"The attempted kjlling is more complex.
We need the witness statement formally filed and we need to establish Celeste's location."
"We'll have her location," Lorenzo said.
"How?"
He looked at Reyes.
"She's not on the jet," Reyes said.
"But the jet filed a flight plan.
Celeste would know we'd track it, which means it's a decoy.
She's moving by ground." He paused.
"There's a Vane property in Lake Forest.
Forty-five minutes north.
Richard Vane uses it in winter.
It's the one place she'd feel safe that we'd be least likely to move on directly."
"Because it's Richard's," Lorenzo said.
"Because it's Richard's," Reyes confirmed.
"Going there means going through him."
The room was quiet for a moment.
"Then we go through him," Lorenzo said.
Carver looked up sharply.
"Lorenzo.
If you move on that property without law enforcement—"
"I'm not going to touch anyone," Lorenzo said.
"I'm going to knock on the door." He looked at Carver.
"With a federal attorney who has a warrant request already drafted and a U.S.
Attorney on the phone."
Carver studied him.
"That's not how this works."
"It is tonight," he said.
"Because if Celeste gets across a border, the financial case takes three years and the Carter case takes longer.
You know that."
Carver was quiet for a long moment.
Then she picked up her phone and dialed.
She turned away, speaking quietly.
Evelyn looked at Lorenzo.
"You've done this before," she said.
"Moved this fast."
"When I have to."
"Does it always work?"
"No," he said.
"But the alternative is waiting, and waiting has a cost."
Carver turned back.
"The U.S.
Attorney will have a federal agent meet us at the Lake Forest property in ninety minutes.
We go in with law enforcement.
You stay in the car." She was looking at Lorenzo.
"Both of you," she added, looking at Evelyn.
"I want to be there," Evelyn said.
"I know," Carver said.
"And you will be.
But you're a witness, not an agent.
You stay in the car until it's done."
Evelyn nodded.
It wasn't what she wanted.
It was what she could live with.
They drove north.
The city thinned out, then disappeared.
The highway became a two-lane road, then a private drive through bare winter trees.
The Lake Forest property was set back from the road — large, stone-faced, every window lit.
Celeste was there.
Evelyn could feel it the way you feel weather before it arrives.
Two federal vehicles were already parked at the end of the drive.
Carver got out and walked toward the agents.
Lorenzo got out and stood beside the car, hands in his coat pockets, looking at the house.
Reyes stayed with Evelyn.
"What happens if she runs?" Evelyn said.
"She won't get far," Reyes said.
"There are people at every exit from this property.
She doesn't know that yet."
"And Richard Vane?"
"The agents have the recording.
If it authenticates on the spot — and it will — they can take him in for questioning tonight." Reyes paused.
"It won't be a quiet night for the Vane family."
Evelyn watched the house.
One of the upstairs lights went out.
Then another.
"She knows we're here," Evelyn said.
"Yes," Reyes said.
"She just realized she has nowhere to go."
The front door of the house opened.
Two federal agents went in.
Carver followed.
Three minutes passed.
Four.
Five.
Then the door opened again, and Celeste Vane walked out between two agents, her honey-blonde hair loose, her emerald gown replaced by something dark and plain.
She'd had time to change.
She hadn't had time to compose her face.
She looked across the drive and found Evelyn in the car.
Their eyes met through the glass.
Celeste's expression didn't collapse.
It didn't crumble.
It did something worse — it went very still, and then very cold, and Evelyn saw in it the same calculation she'd seen at the dinner table.
Even now, Celeste was looking for the angle.
Then a second figure appeared in the doorway.
Richard Vane — older, heavier, but with Celeste's same precision in his face.
He said something to the agent beside him.
The agent shook his head.
Richard Vane looked at the car.
At Evelyn.
He didn't know her face.
But he understood, from the way Lorenzo was standing and the way the agents were positioned and the briefcase Carver was holding, that something had come apart tonight that he hadn't expected.
His shoulders dropped.
Just slightly.
Just once.
May you like
That was enough.
Evelyn looked away first.
