With two witnesses behind you?"
"I've done worse with more."
Naomi stopped.
But she didn't look away.
"You're afraid," Naomi said.
Ava laughed.
"Of what?"
"Of what I already have.
You came here to stop me.
That means I already have something you can't afford to lose."
Ava's grip on the g*n shifted.
Just slightly.
"What do you have?"
Naomi reached into her uniform slowly.
Ava's arm straightened.
The two inmates behind her tensed.
Naomi pulled out a small recording device.
She held it up.
"I've been recording since I walked into this building.
Every conversation.
Every phone call.
Every confession."
Ava's face went blank.
"Everything you just said.
About Maya.
About Mercer.
About suggesting.
It's all on this device.
And it's already been transmitted."
Ava's hand started to shake.
"To who?"
"The FBI agent sitting in a car outside this facility right now.
The one who's been monitoring this operation for the past seventy-two hours."
Ava turned to the Warden.
"You set me up."
The Warden shook his head.
"I didn't know."
"She's lying," Ava said.
"She has to be lying."
Naomi pressed a button on the device.
A light blinked green.
"Check your phone, Ava.
Check the news."
Ava's free hand went to her pocket.
She pulled out a phone — one the guards had apparently missed.
She looked at the screen.
Her face went white.
"Senator Douglas Mercer was arrested forty minutes ago," Naomi said.
"Federal charges.
Conspiracy.
Obstruction.
Accessory to murd3r.
His statement named you as the one who gave the order."
Ava's phone slipped from her hand.
It hit the floor.
"That's not possible.
He wouldn't talk.
He never talks."
"He talked when the FBI showed him the visitor logs.
The same logs that show your connection to Rachel.
The same logs that prove you've been holding the Warden's daughter as leverage for a federal cover-up."
Ava looked at the two inmates behind her.
They stepped back.
"Don't," Ava said.
But they were already gone.
The door was open.
Footsteps running down the hall.
Ava turned back to Naomi.
The g*n was still in her hand.
But her arm had dropped to her side.
"You planned all of this.
The fight.
The cafeteria.
You wanted me to come after you."
"I needed you to reveal yourself.
You've been hiding behind Mercer and the Warden for three years.
I needed you to say it out loud.
And you did."
Ava's eyes were wet.
For the first time, she looked like someone who had been caught.
"What happens to me now?"
Naomi heard boots in the hallway.
Federal agents.
Real ones.
"That depends on what you tell them about my daughter."
Ava's mouth opened.
Then closed.
Then opened again.
"I didn't want her to d*e.
I told Mercer to scare her.
To make her stop.
He did more than that."
"Who did it?"
"His name was Ray Tolson.
He worked maintenance at the state facility.
Mercer paid him.
He's in Montana now.
I can give you the address."
Naomi's chest tightened.
Three years of searching.
Three years of dead ends.
And now, in a prison cafeteria, the woman who had taken everything from her was giving her the last piece.
"Is that the truth?"
"It's the truth."
Naomi nodded.
"Then tell the agents.
Every detail.
Every name.
Every payment.
And maybe — maybe — the judge will listen."
Ava looked at the g*n in her hand.
She looked at the door.
She looked at Naomi.
"I was never going to use this," she said quietly.
"I know," Naomi said.
"You brought it to feel powerful.
But you're not powerful anymore, Ava.
You haven't been since the moment you decided to hide behind other people."
The federal agents came through the door.
Four of them.
They moved fast.
Ava didn't resist.
She set the g*n on the Warden's desk and put her hands out.
One of the agents looked at Naomi.
"Agent Carter.
Are you alright?"
Naomi nodded.
"I'm alright."
They took Ava out of the office.
She didn't look back.
The Warden sat behind his desk.
His face was gray.
"What happens to me?" he asked.
Naomi looked at him.
"You call the FBI.
You tell them everything.
You cooperate.
And maybe — maybe — they'll consider what you did against what you were trying to protect."
"My daughter—"
"Is being retrieved right now.
The agents know where she is."
The Warden put his head in his hands.
He didn't say anything else.
Naomi walked out of the office.
The hallway was full of inmates watching from behind the bars.
They had seen Ava taken out in handcuffs.
They had seen the federal agents.
They knew something had changed.
One of the inmates — a young woman with tired eyes — called out softly.
"Hey.
New girl."
Naomi stopped.
"Are you really a cop?"
Naomi looked at her.
"I was.
A long time ago."
"Did you do all this for someone?"
Naomi thought about Maya.
Her laugh.
The way she used to call every Sunday.
The way the phone just stopped ringing one week.
"For my daughter," Naomi said.
The young woman nodded.
"She must be proud of you."
Naomi didn't answer.
She kept walking.
Three weeks later, Naomi stood in a courtroom in Billings, Montana.
Ray Tolson sat at the defense table.
He was thinner than she expected.
Older.
He looked at her when she walked in and then looked away.
The prosecutor met her at the door.
"He's going to plead guilty," she said.
"Mercer's testimony sealed it.
Ava corroborated everything."
"Did she get a deal?"
"Twenty-five years.
She gave up Tolson, Mercer, and three others involved in the cover-up."
Naomi sat down in the front row.
The hearing was short.
Tolson pleaded guilty.
The judge set sentencing for the following month.
When it was over, Tolson stood up.
He turned around.
He looked at Naomi.
"I didn't know who she was," he said.
"Mercer told me it was a dr*g problem.
He told me she was dirty."
Naomi looked at him.
"She wasn't."
"I know that now."
"That doesn't bring her back."
Tolson's eyes dropped.
The guards led him away.
Naomi sat in the empty courtroom for a long time.
The prosecutor touched her shoulder.
"There's someone waiting for you outside."
Naomi walked out.
Rachel was standing in the hallway.
The Warden's daughter.
She looked different from the photographs.
Thinner.
Cautious.
But free.
"Are you Naomi?" she asked.
"I am."
"My father told me what you did.
He said you were the one who—"
"I was the one who found the truth."
Rachel's eyes filled.
"He's going to prison, isn't he?"
"Yes."
"I hate him for what he did.
But he's my father."
Naomi reached out and took her hand.
"I know."
Rachel squeezed her fingers.
"Your daughter.
Maya.
Was she anything like me?"
Naomi thought for a moment.
"She was braver than she knew.
Just like you."
Rachel wiped her eyes.
"What are you going to do now?"
Naomi looked at the courtroom doors.
They were closed.
The case was over.
The truth was out.
The people who had taken Maya were going to spend the rest of their lives answering for it.
"I'm going to go home.
I'm going to sit in my kitchen.
And I'm going to call my daughter's old number — the one that's been disconnected for three years — and I'm going to let it ring once.
Just to hear the silence.
And then I'm going to make coffee.
And I'm going to drink it slowly."
Rachel nodded.
"That sounds like peace."
Naomi smiled.
It was small.
It was real.
"It sounds like a beginning."
She walked out of the courthouse.
The sun was out.
The air was cold.
She pulled her coat tighter and walked toward the parking lot.
Her phone buzzed.
A text from the FBI agent who had been outside the prison that day.
"Ava asked me to tell you something."
Naomi opened the message.
"She said: 'I'm sorry about your daughter.
I should have said it in the room.'"
Naomi read it twice.
Then she closed the phone and put it in her pocket.
She didn't need Ava's apology.
But she took it anyway.
Not for Ava.
For Maya.
Because Maya would have taken it.
And that was enough.