Chapter 10 - The Deputy's Last LieThe darkness lasted only a few seconds.
A red emergency light flickered on near the ceiling, casting the corridor in a dim glow. Jason had moved away from me, searching for the pistol.
Deputy Bell stood at the end of the passage with a flashlight in one hand.
For a moment, the two men stared at each other.
"You said nobody was coming," Jason snapped.
Bell glanced toward Sarah.
"You said you had the situation under control."
"She has the recording."
"No," Sarah replied. "You have no idea what she has."
Bell raised his flashlight.
"Quiet."
I pushed myself upright, my ribs aching. Jason had one hand on the bench and the other pressed against his side.
The pistol lay beneath a shelf several feet away.
I had no idea whether Bell intended to rescue us or finish what he'd started.
His next words answered that question.
"Give me the card, Jason. Then we can leave."
Jason laughed.
"You're going to arrest me?"
"I'm trying to keep this from getting worse."
"You helped me put Rebecca in the ground."
Bell struck him across the face.
"Don't say her name."
The sound echoed through the corridor.
Jason stumbled, caught himself against the wall, and looked at Bell with undisguised hatred.
For a second, I wondered whether the entire criminal arrangement was beginning to collapse under its own weight.
Then Bell turned toward me.
"Michael, the card."
I stared at him.
"You knew about Emily."
His jaw tightened.
"You don't understand the circumstances."
"My daughter was locked in a cage."
"I didn't put her there."
"But you knew."
He said nothing.
That was enough.
I moved toward Sarah, keeping myself between her and the two men.
Bell raised the flashlight like a weapon.
"Don't make me do something I don't want to do."
"You've already done it."
He looked at Jason.
"Where is the backup?"
Jason pressed his lips together.
Bell's expression changed.
"You told me you destroyed it."
"I lied."
The deputy closed his eyes.
"You stupid bastard."
Suddenly, I understood.
This wasn't merely about the video inside Bluebird. The recording was one piece of a larger collection of evidence, and both men had been searching for it for months.
Jason thought Sarah had the original.
Bell thought Jason had destroyed it.
Neither knew how much Sarah had managed to preserve.
A loud crack came from the ceiling.
The building's old generator had failed completely, and the lights would not return.
In the darkness, Sarah knocked her chair against the wall.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
I recognized the sound.
It was the signal she'd used beneath the house.
She was telling someone where we were.
Bell heard it, too.
He spun toward the door.
"Who else is here?"
No one answered.
Then a phone rang.
Jason pulled it from his pocket.
He looked at the screen and went pale.
The caller was Detective Ortiz.
Bell snatched the phone from him and answered.
"Ortiz."
Her voice came through the speaker.
"Daniel, I know you're there."
Bell said nothing.
"We have officers surrounding the property. Put down your weapon, step away from Jason, and let Sarah come out."
Jason lunged for the phone.
Bell shoved him back.
For several seconds, they fought over the device.
Then Jason managed to snatch it.
"You don't have anything," he shouted. "You have a dead woman nobody can identify and a child whose father broke into three properties."
Ortiz replied calmly.
"We have the recordings. We have the neighbor's footage. We have Rebecca Miles alive and willing to testify."
Jason went motionless.
Bell stared at him.
Rebecca's name hung between them like a door opening onto a room neither man wanted to enter.
Then Jason smiled.
It was the same smile he'd worn on the porch.
"You found her," he said softly.
He looked at me.
"And you brought her exactly where I wanted her."
Before anyone could react, he slammed his fist into the emergency panel.
A siren blared.
Metal shutters began descending over the corridor exits.
Sarah screamed my name.
Bell turned toward the door.
Jason disappeared through a narrow opening behind the workbench.
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And the last thing I heard before the shutter sealed us inside was a heavy mechanical click.
The building was locking itself from the outside.
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