Chapter 9 - The Final Note
"The song goes like this," Leo called out clearly, his voice ringing out across the vast open space of the quarry basin as he looked directly into Agent Miller's eyes.
"Leo, no!" Eleanor screamed, diving forward with her hands outstretched to tackle the boy away from the ledge.
"Wait, don't—" Miller shouted, reaching out his arm too late.
Leo didn't fall; instead, he dropped flat onto his stomach on the secure ground just a foot back from the precipice, letting his mother's momentum carry her entirely over the loose gravel lip.
A sharp gasp escaped Eleanor's lips as her loafers lost all traction on the steep dirt slope, her body pitching forward into open air before she could grab a root or a rock.
"Eleanor!" Richard shrieked, lunging forward with superhuman speed and diving flat onto the dirt, managing to catch his wife by the delicate silk fabric of her blouse just as her legs slipped over the edge.
The fabric strained and began to tear with a loud, sickening rip as Eleanor dangled three hundred feet above the quarry water, her fingers clawing frantically at the empty air while Richard screamed in agony as he tried to pull her back up against the weight of gravity.
Miller dropped to his knees beside Richard, grabbing the older man's belt loops to anchor him to the solid rock beneath the pine needles, throwing his full weight backward to keep both of them from being pulled over the edge.
Leo sat quietly a few feet away, watching his parents struggle against the abyss, his small face completely devoid of tears now as he opened his mouth and began to softly sing the sweet, mournful lullaby Marcus had taught him in the attic during the long winter nights.
It wasn't a code for a corporate server; it was the exact address of an old safety deposit box at the downtown municipal bank where Marcus had stored the paper deeds and handwritten confessions signed by both Richard and Eleanor years ago.
"Box four-zero-two," Leo sang softly into the wind, his voice steady and clear as a bell, carrying across the clearing directly into the open microphone of Agent Miller's tactical radio unit.
Miller heard every word, his eyes widening as the audio feed transmitted the safe deposit box number straight to the federal dispatch center waiting back at the estate.
"Copy that, box four-zero-two at municipal branch," a crisp voice confirmed instantly through the agent's earpiece. "Tactical team is securing the location now."
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Richard pulled with a final, desperate roar, his muscles trembling violently as he hauled Eleanor over the rocky ledge and collapsed on top of her in a tangled heap of mud, sweat, and exhausted tears on the safe earth of the clearing.
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