Chapter 10 - THE MAN IN THE DARKDana moved first.
She drew her flashlight.
“Police are on the way.”
The footsteps stopped.
Then came a metallic crash.
A storage door slammed.
The emergency lights flickered back on.
Nothing.
The corridor was empty.
Dana rushed outside.
I followed.
A black sedan accelerated away at the end of the road.
We couldn't see the plate.
But on the asphalt lay a plastic identification badge.
Dana picked it up.
It belonged to Evan Cole.
He had been there.
And he knew about the storage unit.
Inside, we examined Daniel's documents.
The recorder contained interviews.
Names.
Dates.
A payment network linking Meridian Shield to shell companies.
But there was one file that mattered most.
A recording dated two months before Daniel's death.
His voice came through the speaker.
“If this reaches Rachel, understand this. I found evidence of unauthorized data access connected to a defense contractor. I don't know how far it goes.”
Another voice answered.
“Did you report it?”
“Yes.”
“Who did you tell?”
“Lewis.”
My heart sank.
Captain Lewis.
Daniel continued.
“I also told Patrick.”
Then the recording stopped.
Another file began.
Daniel's voice.
“I think someone is monitoring my communications.”
Static.
Then a final sentence.
“If I die, Rachel cannot know everything at once.”
I stared at the recorder.
Dana looked at me.
“Rachel.”
“He knew.”
“He was trying to protect you.”
“He knew something would happen.”
“We don't know that.”
“He told me what to do if they came for Eli.”
The recording ended.
On the table was one final document.
A list of encrypted account numbers.
One belonged to Evan.
One to Sandra.
One to Caleb.
The fourth belonged to a company called Redbridge Holdings.
I searched the name.
It led nowhere.
No public registration.
No office.
No website.
Just a shell.
Then Dana's phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“Monica has disappeared.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Caleb called her attorney this morning. He says she left without explanation.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
I thought of her phone call.
Her fear.
The voice in the background.
“How long until we know where she is?”
Dana shook her head.
“We don't.”
Then I saw something in the storage unit.
A photograph lying under the recorder.
Monica.
Standing outside an apartment.
A man beside her.
The building address was written on the back.
I recognized it.
The same address appeared in the Redbridge documents.
We drove there.
The apartment was empty.
But someone had left a laptop on the kitchen table.
It was still running.
Dana called law enforcement.
We waited.
On the screen was an email draft.
To me.
I read it.
Rachel, I was wrong.
The next line:
Caleb never wanted Eli. He wanted what Daniel left behind.
Then another line:
The money was never for custody.
My heart pounded.
Then the final sentence appeared.
It was payment for the house.
I stared at the screen.
“What does that mean?”
Dana looked at the apartment.
Then at the Redbridge files.
“Maybe the thing Daniel hid isn't in the house.”
“Then where?”
The laptop chimed.
A new message arrived.
No sender.
No subject.
One sentence.
Ask your brother-in-law why the basement wall was rebuilt.
I went still.
Our basement wall.
Three months after Daniel died, Caleb had volunteered to help repair the basement.
He'd said there was water damage.
He'd rebuilt one section.
I had thanked him.
I had never checked behind it.
Dana looked at me.
“Rachel.”
“I know.”
We drove home.
The basement door opened with a groan.
The rebuilt section of wall looked ordinary.
Too ordinary.
I touched the plaster.
Then knocked.
Solid.
I knocked again.
Different sound.
Hollow.
Dana stared at me.
“There's something behind it.”
Before we could do anything else, someone knocked upstairs.
Three sharp knocks.
The same pattern as the day CPS arrived.
Dana reached for her radio.
I went upstairs.
No one was there.
Only another envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
The basement.
Taken from inside the room.
The picture had been taken that morning.
May you like
On the back were six words:
YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME.
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