Chapter 11 - The Federal Gambit
Ava didn't stop running until her lungs burned with fire and her knees gave out against the wet asphalt of Highway 9. The fog was beginning to lift under the pale morning sun, revealing the silhouette of an early-morning commuter bus rumbling toward the county center. Desperate, bruised, and soaked in mud, Ava waved her arms frantically in the middle of the road.
The bus hissed to a halt. The driver stared in shock at the battered young woman in a high-end silk nightgown covered by a torn wool coat. ""Miss? Are you alright? Do you need an ambulance?""
""Take me to the downtown federal courthouse,"" Ava pleaded, her voice hoarse, tears carving clean tracks through the grime on her cheeks. ""Please. Just drive.""
An hour later, the marble lobby of the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Building was jarred by the arrival of the ragged heiress. Security guards moved to intercept her, but Ava raised her chin, holding out Julian’s keycard and the audio recorder. ""My name is Ava Mitchell,"" she announced, her voice ringing clear and steady across the grand atrium. ""I am the sole executor of Julian Mitchell's estate. I demand to speak with Special Agent Harris immediately. I have the evidence of murder, money laundering, and treason against Eleanor Mitchell and Marcus Vance.""
Within minutes, she was escorted into a private interrogation suite on the twelfth floor. Special Agent Harris—a gray-haired, stern-faced veteran investigator—entered, accompanied by two federal prosecutors. When he placed Julian’s original, unredacted accounting files on the table beside the audio recorder Ava handed him, the puzzle finally locked into place.
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""We’ve been hunting this paper trail for two years, Mrs. Mitchell,"" Harris said, listening to Julian’s dying words crackle from the small speaker. ""Julian hid the decryption keys on that keycard. With this, we can freeze Eleanor’s accounts in Switzerland, Panama, and the Caymans before noon.""
""I don't care about the money,"" Ava said, leaning forward, her eyes blazing with cold determination. ""Christian Vance is trapped at Hangar 14. You save him, and you put Eleanor Mitchell in a cage for the rest of her life.""
