The Abandoned Carousel
Chapter 08 - The Abandoned Carousel
The Hawthorne Foundation had once funded a children’s amusement park on the edge of the city. It closed after a flood twelve years earlier, leaving behind rusted rides and a broken indoor carousel.
Lily remembered the painted horse from a photograph in Eleanor’s scrapbook.
Police surrounded the park before midnight, but Jonathan had installed motion sensors along the main entrance. Detective Cole warned that a direct raid could put Clara at greater risk.
Alexander entered through an old maintenance tunnel carrying a copy of the red folder. Vanessa, fitted with a concealed microphone, accompanied him. She insisted Jonathan trusted her enough to lower his guard.
Inside the carousel building, Clara sat tied beside a control panel wired to containers of gasoline. Jonathan stood behind her with a pistol.
“You were always too sentimental, Alexander,” he said. “Your grandmother made the same mistake.”
Vanessa approached him slowly. “You lied about my father.”
Jonathan smiled. “I gave you a purpose. Without me, you were simply an abandoned girl with a dead criminal for a father.”
His cruelty shattered the last hold he had over her. Vanessa stepped between the gun and Clara, giving Alexander time to pull a fire alarm mounted on the wall. The sudden bell startled Jonathan. Clara kicked the control box, and the lights went out.
Police rushed in.
A gunshot tore through the darkness.
When the emergency lights flickered on, Vanessa was on the floor with blood spreading across her shoulder. She had pushed Alexander out of the bullet’s path.
Jonathan escaped through a rear door, but he left behind his phone. On it were messages proving he ordered Eleanor’s poisoning, the archive fire, and Clara’s kidnapping.
There was also a scheduled transfer of sixty million dollars from Hawthorne Global to an offshore account at 8:00 the next morning.
The transfer required one final approval: Alexander’s biometric signature.
Jonathan had not kidnapped Clara only for the folder.
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He had brought specialized equipment to copy Alexander’s fingerprint and voice.
The money was already moving, and Jonathan was still free.
