Dread sank in Eliana’s stomach like a rock.
Raquel tipped her head back and laughed. She reached for the keypad and started clicking down keys, each one beeping the sequence she evidently knew. But how had she learned it, except that someone had told her? Doctor Splitfield, maybe. Or Carolena?
Eliana had no idea, and it didn’t matter.
She raced toward Raquel and slammed into her, shoving her against the door and destroying the sequence of numbers shewas entering. Raquel screamed and swung back with her elbow, slamming it into the side of Eliana’s head.
“Where is he?!” Eliana screamed the question, grabbing Raquel and flinging her back from the vault door.
The system beeped.“Code error.”
Raquel stumbled and ran back toward her. Tony swung his leg up and tripped her. She hit the floor and he rolled, dragging her to him with his arms around her and his bound hands in front of her.
“Eliana!” he yelled. “Radio in a Code Red.”
“Everyone is upstairs, dealing with the bomb threat!” She moved to the keypad and hit the Cancel button.
Tony flinched, and Raquel started to wiggle out of his hold. He didn’t let her. “Bomb? What bomb?”
“Carolina is upstairs threatening to blow everyone up.” She still had the knife in her hand, each breath feeling like she had to drag it from her lungs. “Show me your hands. I’ll cut you free.”
He turned far enough that she could get the blade between the bindings on his hands. When Raquel tried to move, Eliana leaned down and held the knife to her throat. “Don’t even think about it.”
“As if you have it in you,” Raquel said through gritted teeth.
“I’m discovering all kinds of surprises about myself.”
Tony flipped her onto her front, slamming her against the floor. He held her there and said, “What’s the play here, Detective? You aren’t getting in the vault.”
“It doesn’t matter what you do to me. One way or another, Lydia is going to get her hands on everything inside.” She tried to look at Tony, but he didn’t let her turn her head. “And you know exactly what I mean.”
Eliana didn’t, but right now it wasn’t relevant. “Lydia is the one who sent you down here? Why would she have Carolena tryand bomb the gala if her speech was enough of a distraction that you could come down here and get in the vault?”
“What bomb?” Raquel struggled against Tony’s hold. “I don’t know anything about a bomb.”
Eliana scoffed. “I find that hard to believe. It’s chaos upstairs, and everyone is trapped there, believing someone is trying to blow them up.” Assuming the device was real and not a fake. But everyone, including Maizie and the police, would have to proceed as if it were. That meant establishing a perimeter and calling in the local bomb squad.
“I don’t know anything about a bomb! Lydia didn’t tell me.”
Eliana let that sink in. “So she’s the one who ordered you to kidnap Carlos? I thought you were one of the Reverence Sisters.”
“Those psychos! I’m not with them. Haven’t been for a long time.”
“It isn’t as if you turned your life around, and you’re trying to do good. To fight for justice.” Eliana set one hand on her hip. “Seems more like you’re taking cases to throw the evidence off the trail of the woman you work for.”
“And not getting into the vault,” Tony said.
“It’s over, Raquel. Where is Carlos?” Eliana figured Wallace had stayed with him while she came here and broke into the vault. A little insurance in case Eliana tried to stop her. “Does she have a phone? I bet she’s supposed to contact Wallace if something happens and she can’t get in the vault.”
Raquel cried out in frustration.
Tony kept her pinned to the floor while he searched her dress. He discovered the phone strapped just above her knee, pulled it out and handed it to Eliana.
She looked at the screen. “Face ID.” Then walked in a circle around Tony and angled the phone toward Raquel’s face. It unlocked, and she navigated through to the woman’s callhistory. Her messages. “She has a thread with Wallace, but it’s all ‘in position’ and ‘all clear’ and those types of responses.”
Tony looked up. “Any indication he’s in the museum?”
“No more than him hiding out somewhere else with a gun to Carlos’s head.” If they really were in the museum, Eliana would be able to find them. But she couldn’t let Wallace know that Raquel was now in custody. She had failed. That meant there was no more use for Carlos to remain alive. “There aren’t any messages about where, locations or addresses.”
