Chapter 13 - THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT
While we were airborne,
heading back toward the East Coast in a private jet that didn't exist on any flight plan,
the scene in White Plains was shifting.
Evelyn Vance sat in the interrogation room,
her hands still cuffed to the table,
but her expression was one of calm authority.
The female agent who had been watching her felt a sudden,
unexplained chill.
"You think you’ve won,"
Evelyn said to the empty room,
knowing the cameras were recording every word.
"You think that by arresting me,
you’ve stopped the machine."
"But you haven't realized that I am not the driver."
"I am the engine."
The door opened,
and a man in a dark suit walked in.
He wasn't an investigator.
He was the District Attorney,
a man I had seen at a dozen charity events in Greenwich.
"Leave us,"
the DA told the agent.
"But sir,
the protocol—"
"Leave us!"
he barked.
The door clicked shut.
Evelyn looked up at him and smiled.
"Hello,
Robert."
"It’s been a long time since the Vineyard."
The DA sat down,
his face pale.
"Evelyn,
this is a mess."
"Arthur was supposed to stay in the shadows."
"He was supposed to be a memory."
"Mark Miller found out,"
Evelyn said,
leaning back as much as the cuffs would allow.
"And now,
the FBI has the ledgers."
"If those ledgers are decoded,
Robert,
your name will be the first one the press sees."
"And the second name will be the Governor’s."
The DA swallowed hard,
his throat working convulsively.
"What do you want?"
"I want the charges against Sarah dropped,"
Evelyn said,
her voice dropping to a whisper.
"I want her released into my custody within the hour."
"And I want the FBI task force pulled back from the Greenwich estate."
"Tell them it’s a matter of national security."
"Tell them the investigation has been federalized by a higher authority."
"I can't do that,
Evelyn,"
he stammered.
"The FBI—"
"The FBI is already being handled,"
she interrupted.
"Agent Carter has the girl."
"Arthur is on his way back with Mark."
"The only thing missing is Sarah."
"Bring my daughter to me,
Robert,
or I will ensure that your career ends in a prison cell next to mine."
The DA stood up,
his hands shaking.
He didn't say a word.
He walked out of the room,
and five minutes later,
the recording light on the camera went dark.
The Queen was making her move.
She wasn't just protecting Arthur;
she was protecting the legacy she had spent forty years building.
She had married into the Vance family when it was just a small firm with a few secrets.
She had turned it into a shadow government.
And she wasn't about to let a "golden boy" like me tear it down.
I didn't know it then,
but as I sat on that jet,
my wife was being walked out of her cell and into a black SUV.
She wasn't being freed.
She was being recruited for the final act.
May you like
And as she sat in the back of that car,
Sarah Vance-Miller realized that her mother was a far more dangerous ghost than her father had ever been.
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