Chapter 5 - Lock the Doors
Edward lunged for Monica’s phone.
She stepped backward and dropped it.
The screen cracked against the concrete floor, but the call had already connected.
A man’s voice came through the speaker.
“Get out of the building.”
Sophia recognized Grant Ellis immediately.
Monica kicked the phone under a rolling rack.
Edward grabbed her wrist before she could run.
“Let go of me.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
Sophia did not raise her voice. “Maya, call building security. Tell them nobody leaves with boxes, garment bags, laptops, or company files.”
Monica laughed once.
“You think the guards work for you tonight?”
That sentence stopped everyone.
Sophia looked at Edward.
He understood.
“Use your phone,” she told Maya. “Call 911. Don’t use the house line.”
Maya backed toward the wall and dialed.
Then the lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the stockroom.
A metal rack crashed somewhere to Sophia’s left.
Maya screamed.
Sophia dropped to a crouch and felt along the floor.
“Edward?”
“I’m here.”
“Monica?”
No answer.
Emergency lights flickered red over the exit signs.
The stockroom door stood open.
Monica was gone.
Edward swore and started after her.
Sophia caught his arm.
“No. She wants us moving blind.”
Maya’s phone flashlight came on.
She was breathing fast, but she still had the dispatcher on the line.
“Police are coming.”
Sophia looked toward the gown.
The garment bag lay open.
The second handwritten tag was gone.
So was the insurance claim label.
Someone had moved through the darkness and taken the two pieces most likely to prove the gown had been diverted.
Then Sophia noticed something else.
A thin red light blinked beneath a shelf.
She reached down and pulled out a small portable drive.
A label had been taped across it.
SECURITY BACKUP - DO NOT CONNECT TO NETWORK.
Maya stared at it.
“I’ve never seen that before.”
May you like
Sophia turned the drive over in her hand.
“Then somebody wanted us to find it.”
