Chasing the Son Read Online Free PDF Page A

intertwined facts so staggering he was incapable of even protecting himself.
    The shot startled him.
    Erin looked down at the small black hole in her upper chest, just over the top of her sundress. From hard experience Chase knew the exit wound wasn’t as pretty. Erin gave the slightest of smiles. “His name is Horace, too.”
    And then she crumpled, in the inelegant way the dead do, to the tiled deck, blood pooling underneath her body.
    At least Gator hadn’t used the Barrett, was the bizarre thought that went through Chase’s brain as he looked down at Erin’s body. The massive .50 caliber round would have blown Erin in half.
    Chase turned to Sarah.
    Her face was white. “I didn’t know she was crazy like that , Horace. You have to believe me.”
    Chase stared at her, the weight on his heart gone. “The money—whatever’s left—will switch accounts in”—he looked at his watch—“twelve minutes.”
    Sarah stiffened. “What?”
    “Sarah.” Chase shook his head. Clearing it. Feeling a warm glow growing deep inside. “I might have my faults, but stupid isn’t one of them.” He reached into his waterproof bag, tied to his waist, and pulled out the USB key. “My acquaintance in black ops programmed this. He did what I should have done. As soon as I called him on my way down to see Karralkov, he checked on you. He learned you didn’t have a son. Or a husband. He knew who you were, and what you were. But he let it play out for his own reasons. And it worked for him. You might be good, Sarah, but he’s in a world you can’t even imagine.
    “Before I left the Fina , I sent a retrieval code so that it automatically moves your money to several pre-programmed destinations. There’s nothing you can do to stop it.” He checked his watch. “Eleven minutes.” He turned and headed back toward the cliff and ocean.
    “Horace?” Her voice had lost all its allure.
    Chase turned. “You know, if I can find you, so can someone else. And they’re looking. Hard. Karralkov had friends. And the bettors, those whose millions you took, they aren’t happy, either.”
    He opened the gate and took the stairs down to the beach. He threw the USB key into the water, took off the running shoes, and retrieved his fins. He couldn’t see the Fina at this level, but knew it was just a couple of hundred yards offshore. He whistled, and heard Chelsea’s short bark. Chase whistled back, turned in that direction, and dove into the water heading toward his dog and his friends.
    It was over, but it wasn’t over.
    It was just beginning.
    He had a son, and his son’s mother was dead.
    It was all just beginning.
    But once more, Horace Chase was heading into the murky future without much information.
    He was going to have to correct that.
    He began finning, heading toward the Fina and his teammates and his dog.
    And his new future.
     

Chapter Two
    Wednesday Evening
     
    The balcony commanded a superb view of Charleston Harbor and the only complaint Mrs. Jenrette had about the view was that Fort Sumter was still out there with the flag of the Federalists flying high over it. The National Park Service lit it with a spotlight every single night, as if taunting the city that had taken it down by force so many years ago and replaced it with the Stars and Bars.
    “Mrs. Jenrette?”
    The grand dame lifted her right hand off the arm of her exquisite cane chair ever so slightly, a signal for the supplicant to proceed. He was a man in his late sixties, awkward in this subservient role, cloaking himself in it only on this balcony. To the rest of Charleston he was a ruthless lawyer with only one client: the most powerful family in the city.
    Like many things in that rarified world full of secrets, that wasn’t quite true.
    Charles Rigney walked up next to the wooden railing, smartly blocking Fort Sumter from view, a silent acknowledgement between the two of them. He was six and a half feet tall, had played forward on the Institute basketball