CHAPTER 3 The Man With the Gun
The doorknob shook again.
Harder this time.
Metal scraped against metal.
Sophie stirred in her hospital bed.
"...Mom?"
Evelyn instantly pressed a finger to her lips.
"It's okay."
She wasn't sure whether she was comforting her daughter...
...or lying to both of them.
Outside the door, the man's voice came again.
"Mr. Mills."
"I know you're in there."
"We need to talk."
Arthur's face had turned ghostly pale.
"That's him."
"The IT director."
Officer Ryan had mentioned only minutes earlier that only three people possessed administrator privileges to erase the hotel's surveillance files.
Nathan Collins.
The hotel's IT director.
And Preston.
Now one of those three men was standing outside a room occupied by the only witness who had unexpectedly produced a mysterious microSD card.
Coincidence?
Evelyn no longer believed in coincidences.
She quietly slipped the tiny memory card into the lining of Sophie's stuffed rabbit, unzipping the toy just enough to hide it deep inside the cotton filling.
Arthur watched.
"Smart."
"If he searches us..."
"...he'll never think to check that."
The pounding on the door became louder.
"Open it!"
"I know you found something."
Every word confirmed Evelyn's worst fear.
He wasn't guessing.
He knew.
Someone had seen Arthur recover the tiny card.
The man outside wasn't trying to protect the hotel.
He was hunting evidence.
Evelyn reached for her phone.
No signal.
She frowned.
Arthur checked his own.
Nothing.
"That's impossible."
He moved toward the window.
Still nothing.
The hospital room sat only thirty feet from the ballroom.
Reception should have been perfect.
Unless...
"The signal jammer," Arthur whispered.
"What?"
"Some luxury hotels use temporary jammers during high-profile events."
"They block unauthorized drones."
Evelyn stared.
"So nobody can call for help?"
Arthur nodded grimly.
"Not from inside this section."
Another violent bang.
The hinges groaned.
The door wouldn't hold much longer.
Then...
A voice echoed down the hallway.
"Maintenance."
"Is everything alright?"
Silence.
The man outside didn't answer.
Footsteps.
Moving away.
Fast.
Arthur slowly exhaled.
"He left."
"No."
Evelyn shook her head.
"People like him don't leave."
"They wait."
Five minutes later, Officer Ryan arrived after a nurse reported hearing shouting.
He examined the door.
Fresh dents surrounded the lock.
"Who was here?"
Arthur answered.
"The IT director."
Ryan frowned.
"Where is he now?"
Nobody knew.
Nathan Collins arrived moments later, equally confused.
"Our IT director?"
"His name is Michael Graves."
"I've been trying to reach him for twenty minutes."
"No answer."
Ryan's expression darkened.
"I want him located."
"Immediately."
Nathan called security.
No response.
He tried Michael's office.
Nothing.
Then he checked the staff tracking system.
His eyes widened.
"His security badge..."
"...just exited the building."
"When?"
Nathan looked again.
"Three minutes ago."
Ryan cursed under his breath.
"He ran."
Meanwhile...
Three floors below...
Inside the underground parking garage...
A black Mercedes S-Class rolled slowly toward the exit.
Behind the wheel sat Michael Graves.
Forty-eight years old.
Clean-shaven.
Calm.
He wasn't panicking.
Instead, he removed a second phone from the center console.
An encrypted device.
One contact.
He pressed Call.
The line connected immediately.
A woman's voice answered.
"Yes?"
Michael kept his eyes on the road.
"The girl doesn't have it."
Silence.
"Are you certain?"
"I'm certain."
"We searched the jacket."
"The evidence is somewhere else."
Another pause.
Then the woman spoke again.
"Then find it."
"What about Preston?"
"He has become..."
"...a liability."
Michael didn't reply.
The call ended.
He dropped the phone onto the passenger seat.
Then looked into the rearview mirror.
A black SUV had entered the parking garage.
Following him.
His heartbeat accelerated.
Police?
No.
The SUV had no emergency lights.
No license plate.
Michael's expression changed.
He knew exactly who it was.
And for the first time that day...
He looked afraid.
Back upstairs...
Officer Ryan sat across from Evelyn inside a private conference room.
A digital recorder rested between them.
"I need you to start from the beginning."
Every detail.
Every word.
Evelyn nodded.
She described Preston accusing Sophie.
Finding the phone inside the jacket.
Her refusal to accept the accusation.
The violent attack.
Arthur's body camera.
The corrupted file.
The mysterious microSD card.
Ryan listened without interruption.
Finally he asked,
"Has your brother ever behaved like this before?"
Evelyn laughed quietly.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the answer was enormous.
"You don't have enough recording space."
Ryan waited.
"When we were children..."
"...Preston pushed another boy down a staircase."
"What happened?"
"Our parents blamed the victim."
"He broke a teacher's jaw in high school."
"They paid for silence."
"He crashed Father's Bentley while drunk."
"They bribed the responding officer."
Ryan remained expressionless.
"And today?"
"Today he attacked my daughter."
"And they'll try to bury this too."
Ryan leaned back.
"What does your brother do for a living?"
Evelyn answered without hesitation.
"He owns Preston Biomedical."
Ryan typed the name into his tablet.
His eyebrows lifted.
"Annual revenue..."
"...two hundred million dollars."
"That's right."
"And our father sits on the board."
Ryan looked thoughtful.
"This family has influence."
"They've always had influence."
"But influence doesn't erase blood from a child's forehead."
Ryan closed the recorder.
"No."
"It doesn't."
Across the city...
The black Mercedes sped onto Lake Shore Drive.
Michael kept checking the mirror.
The SUV remained exactly four car lengths behind.
Never closer.
Never farther.
Professional.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown Number.
He answered.
"What?"
A distorted electronic voice replied.
"You made a mistake."
Michael gripped the steering wheel.
"I can fix it."
"No."
"You cannot."
The voice remained unnervingly calm.
"The memory card must never reach the police."
"I understand."
"If it does..."
"...everyone becomes expendable."
The call disconnected.
Michael suddenly realized something horrifying.
The SUV behind him accelerated.
Fast.
Very fast.
Its headlights filled his rearview mirror.
"No..."
The SUV slammed into the rear of the Mercedes.
Metal exploded.
Glass shattered.
Michael lost control.
The luxury sedan spun across three lanes of traffic.
A semi-truck driver slammed his brakes.
Too late.
The truck collided broadside with the Mercedes.
The impact folded the car almost in half.
A fireball erupted across the highway.
Traffic screamed to a halt.
Within seconds...
The only man capable of explaining who deleted the hotel's surveillance footage...
Appeared to be dead.
Twenty minutes later...
Officer Ryan received the call.
His face became unreadable.
"What happened?"
Evelyn asked.
Ryan slowly lowered his phone.
"The hotel's IT director..."
"...was involved in a fatal traffic collision."
Arthur whispered,
"Convenient."
Ryan didn't answer.
Because he was thinking exactly the same thing.
His phone vibrated again.
This time...
A text message.
No sender.
No number.
Just eight words.
You're investigating the wrong crime.
Ryan stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived.
Forget the wedding. Follow the money.
His pulse quickened.
A third message appeared before he could react.
Ask Preston about Project Lazarus.
Ryan frowned.
Project Lazarus?
He had never heard that name before.
Neither had Evelyn.
But across the room...
Arthur's coffee cup slipped from his hand.
It shattered across the floor.
His face had gone completely white.
"You know that name."
Ryan stood immediately.
Arthur slowly nodded.
Barely able to speak.
"I worked..."
"...for Preston Biomedical."
The room fell silent.
Arthur looked directly at Evelyn.
"I didn't become a waiter because I wanted a quieter life."
His voice cracked.
"I became a waiter..."
May you like
"...because someone destroyed mine."
End of Chapter 3
