Chapter 13 - THE CLOSING TABLE TRAP
Dana stopped trying to predict where Mason would run.
She focused on what he still needed.
Cash could buy time.
Forged identification could create distance.
But North Creek’s largest account remained frozen. Mason could not access it without one final banking token stored in the safe.
The safe inventory listed two tokens.
Only one had been removed.
The second belonged to Daniel and required his biometric approval.
Mason needed Daniel alive long enough to unlock the funds.
That explained the hospital map.
His original plan had been to kill Daniel beneath the house after the closing. Now he needed him again.
Hospital security prepared for an attempted abduction.
Daniel was moved to a different floor under another patient name. A police officer occupied the visible room.
Dana expected Mason to avoid the obvious entrance.
At 4:20 p.m., a hospital food-delivery worker reported a missing uniform from the loading dock.
Kowalski closed the service elevators.
A man in a catering jacket entered the old patient room carrying a covered tray.
The officer inside raised his weapon.
The man dropped to his knees.
He was another paid courier.
Inside the tray lay a phone.
Mason called again.
“You keep putting strangers in the chair.”
Dana answered from the command room.
“What do you want?”
“Daniel signs the release. I disappear.”
“You attempted to kill him.”
“I kept him alive three days.”
“Lila kept him alive.”
Mason’s breathing changed.
“Put Daniel on.”
“No.”
“Then I send someone to the child.”
“You don’t know where she is.”
“I know where she will be.”
Dana muted the call.
The statement was not confidence.
It was inference.
Lila had a scheduled child-custody hearing the next afternoon. Mason may have learned about it from a public docket, not the protected location.
Dana requested the hearing be sealed and moved.
The judge approved a remote session.
Only the courthouse address remained visible online.
Officers prepared a second controlled operation.
Daniel agreed to record a message:
I will authorize the bank release at the courthouse after Lila’s hearing. Bring the original North Creek account book.
Mason replied with a location.
The old title office.
He wanted to complete his plan where it had first failed.
Dana knew it could be another distraction.
This time, she divided teams between the title office, hospital, courthouse, Harper house, and Lila’s secure center.
No location would be left exposed.
At noon, Daniel sat behind a one-way wall inside the title office with medical personnel nearby. His leg remained braced. Dana refused to let him enter the visible room.
A federal bank representative placed a biometric scanner on the closing table.
The room remained empty.
One minute passed.
Five.
Twelve.
Then the rear door opened.
Mason entered wearing a dark work jacket.
His face was thinner than his photographs. The cut on his forehead had been closed with tape. A handgun remained inside his waistband.
He placed the North Creek account book on the table.
Dana stepped from the adjoining room.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Mason smiled.
“You finally chose the right house.”
Officers entered from both doors.
Mason raised his hands.
Kowalski moved toward him.
Then Mason tapped his chest.
A phone inside his jacket was connected to a live video.
The screen showed Lila sleeping inside the secure family center.
The image came from a camera positioned inside her room.
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“If my heartbeat stops transmitting,” Mason said, “someone opens her door.”
👉 Mason had entered the trap willingly because he claimed an accomplice was already inside Lila’s protected building.
