CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
"Rebecca, don't do this," Kari said, moving slowly closer with her hands visible and empty. "Put the gun down and let's talk."
"I'm done talking." Rebecca's voice was raw with pain. "I've spent two years trying to understand why Mom died. And then I found her files. Everything she'd documented about his projects—the violations, the payoffs, the corners he cut. She was going to expose him. She was going to take everything to federal authorities."
"Rebecca, please—" Charles Sterling started, but his daughter cut him off.
"She called you the night before she died. I found the phone records. She told you she was going to the authorities, didn't she?"
Sterling's face crumpled. "I tried to talk her out of it—"
"And when she wouldn't back down, you had her meet you at that construction site. You knew the scaffolding was unsafe. Victor's inspection reports showed it. But you brought her there anyway."
Kari was close enough now to see the anguish in Rebecca's face, the way her father's betrayal had broken something fundamental in her. "Rebecca, killing him won't bring your mother back."
"It'll make sure he pays." Rebecca's tears fell freely now. "Make sure he doesn't get to walk away like her life didn't matter."
"He won't walk away," Maria said, circling from the other direction. "We have evidence of illegal construction practices. We can investigate your mother's death, reopen the case. But that requires you to put the gun down."
Rebecca laughed bitterly. "Why would I trust you to hold him accountable?"
"Because we know the truth," Kari said. "You killed Garrison, Hoffman, and Sheridan to eliminate everyone involved in your father's practices, the same practices your mother discovered. You framed Thomas Hatathli to make it look like environmental activism. You've led us here, to this moment, where your father has to face what he did. That was your plan, wasn't it? Not just revenge, but exposure."
Rebecca stared at her, the gun wavering.
"Three people are dead, Rebecca," Maria said. "Three people who had families, lives. Whatever they knew about your father's business, they didn't deserve to die for it."
"They enabled him!" Rebecca's voice rose. "Garrison invested knowing the projects were built on fraud. Hoffman rushed permits through. Sheridan knew the scaffolding was unsafe and approved the work anyway. My mother died because of it."
Charles Sterling's face had gone gray. "Rebecca, I never meant for Catherine to die. I was trying to protect the business—"
"You lured her to an unsafe site!" Rebecca screamed. "You thought you could change her mind, but when you realized you couldn't, you killed her and made it look like an accident!"
"I didn't know the scaffolding would collapse," Sterling said, truth and guilt warring in his voice. "I swear, Rebecca, I didn't know—"
"You thought wrong. And now three more people are dead because they helped you get away with killing Mom."
Kari saw Rebecca's finger move to the trigger. "Your mother wouldn't want this. Catherine was trying to expose corruption through proper channels, through evidence and authorities. Killing him isn't what she would have wanted."
"My mother is dead."
"But her work isn't." Kari took another step closer. "You found her documentation. Give us that evidence. Let us finish what Catherine started. Let her work bring your father to justice the way she intended."
"He'll buy his way out. He always does."
"Not this time," Maria said. "Not with three murders connected to his business practices. Not with federal attention on his projects. Rebecca, you've already won. But if you kill him, you'll go to prison and he'll be remembered as a victim instead of a criminal. Is that what you want?"
Kari could see the war in Rebecca's eyes—revenge fighting against truth, punishment battling with self-preservation.
"I deserve whatever punishment comes," Sterling said, pleading now with Rebecca. "But your mother loved you. She would want you to have a life, a future. Please, Rebecca. Don't throw your life away for this."
The gun in Rebecca's hand shook violently. Kari saw the moment grief overwhelmed rage, saw the weapon lower, and lunged forward. She grabbed Rebecca's wrist, forcing it down. Maria secured the gun and carefully handcuffed Rebecca as she collapsed sobbing.
"I had to make him pay," Rebecca cried. "I had to make them all pay."
Kari knelt beside her. "I know. But it's over now."
Diana stared at Sterling with horror. "You killed Catherine?"
