“Put it away.”
Richard hesitated.
Marcus noticed the screen.
A message was already open.
Only four words.
GET OUT OF THE GARAGE.
Marcus felt his stomach tighten.
“Officer.”
Hayes looked at him.
“Take his phone.”
Richard stepped backward.
“You have no authority—”
A deafening metallic bang exploded from the far end of the garage.
Everyone flinched.
One of the building security officers shouted.
A sedan alarm began screaming.
Then the lights went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the garage.
Evelyn screamed.
Hayes reached for his flashlight.
“Everybody stay where you are!”
Another crash echoed somewhere between the parked cars.
Footsteps.
Running.
Marcus moved toward the sound.
“Evelyn?”
No answer.
His hand found the hood of his car.
Then something slammed into his shoulder.
Marcus hit the concrete pillar hard.
A shadow rushed past him.
Hayes shouted.
“Stop!”
A flashlight beam cut through the darkness.
For one second Marcus saw Evelyn running toward the emergency stairwell.
Richard was nowhere beside her.
Then came the unmistakable sound of an engine starting.
Tires screamed.
Hayes dove behind a concrete support as a black SUV tore from a parking space and raced toward the exit.
Marcus caught only a glimpse of the driver.
Not Evelyn.
Not Richard.
The man from the midnight security footage.
The SUV smashed through the lowered exit barrier and vanished up the ramp.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Red light filled the garage.
Hayes immediately radioed the fleeing vehicle description.
Marcus pushed himself upright.
His shoulder burned.
“Where’s Richard?”
One security guard pointed toward the elevators.
“He ran that way.”
“And Evelyn?”
“Stairwell.”
Hayes cursed quietly.
Marcus looked beneath his car.
The black device was gone.
His blood ran cold.
“Officer.”
Hayes turned.
“The device.”
Hayes aimed his flashlight beneath the sedan.
Nothing.
Someone had removed it during the blackout.
“Everybody freeze!” Hayes shouted.
But Marcus was already thinking.
The blackout hadn’t been random.
The crash hadn’t been random.
The SUV driver had been waiting.
Someone knew police would come.
Someone knew Marcus had the footage.
And someone desperately wanted that device back.
His phone vibrated.
Marcus looked down.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
One new message.
He opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Marcus stopped breathing.
It showed him standing in the garage.
Taken less than ten seconds earlier.
From somewhere above.
Then another message appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THIS ALONE.
Marcus looked toward the ceiling.
Security cameras.
Concrete pipes.
Dark ventilation ducts.
Nothing moved.
Then a third message arrived.
This one contained a video.
Marcus pressed play.
The footage showed a small suburban house.
A front porch.
A red bicycle lying in the driveway.
Marcus recognized the house instantly.
His sister Claire’s home.
The timestamp on the video was live.
A man in a dark jacket walked slowly toward her front door.
Marcus’s hand tightened around the phone.
“No…”
Hayes stepped toward him.
“What is it?”
Marcus couldn’t answer.
The man on the screen climbed the porch steps.
Claire appeared behind the glass door.
She smiled, apparently believing she knew whoever was outside.
Then she reached for the lock.
“Claire, don’t open it,” Marcus whispered.
As if she could somehow hear him.
The door began to open.
The video suddenly froze.
One final message filled Marcus’s screen.
BRING US THE ORIGINAL SECURITY FILES.
COME ALONE.
OR YOUR SISTER LEARNS WHAT YOUR INVESTIGATION IS REALLY ABOUT.
Marcus stared at the words.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Hayes saw the screen.
“Don’t answer it.”
Marcus slowly lifted his eyes.
Across the garage, the emergency stairwell door opened.
Evelyn stepped back into view.
But she wasn’t running anymore.
She was standing perfectly still.
Someone was behind her.
A hand rested on her shoulder.
And pressed against the side of her neck was the unmistakable shape of a gun.
Evelyn looked directly at Marcus.
Terrified.
Then the person behind her leaned just far enough into the red emergency light for Marcus to see his face.
Marcus felt the ground disappear beneath him.
Because he knew that man.
And according to company records…
the man had been dead for six years.