Chapter 4 - Thirty-One Empty Homes
Iris had left her phone unlocked, June's messages still open. I called her. She answered after six rings, breathing hard.
"Iris?"
"It's Lena. Where are you?"
"In my apartment. Where's Iris?"
"I'm looking for her. Listen, who shut off your power?"
"Men with Northline jackets. They said the whole building was empty on paper, so nobody had a right to complain."
Ben coughed in the background. A long, frightened rasp.
"Use his inhaler if he has it. Stay away from the elevator. I'm calling the fire department."
"I already called. They said they're sending someone. Lena, the stairwell's chained from the outside. The sixth-floor exit won't open."
A door banged behind me. Pike's voice echoed through Basement Two.
"She can't have gone far."
I ducked behind the linen cage. On Iris's phone I found photos of the relocation certificate, a delivery manifest, and a screenshot showing twelve million dollars in foundation payments marked as completed repairs.
I knew Ashbury House. The pipes leaked brown water. The sprinklers on floors four through eight had been disconnected for months. A donor banner upstairs claimed the First Light Foundation had paid to make the place safe.
Pike's shoes stopped inches from my hiding place.
"Grant wants the girl before midnight," he told the contractor. "Vanessa gets nervous when witnesses start talking."
"What about the cleaner?"
"The assault photos will handle her."
My stomach tightened. The stunt upstairs wasn't about humiliating me. It was meant to get me detained while Iris was taken away.
Pike walked on. I waited until his radio faded, then called 911 again and gave the dispatcher June's address and the chained exit. The operator confirmed firefighters were being sent.
I forwarded Iris's documents to an outside email address Owen had written on his business card. The progress bar reached one hundred percent.
Then another photo arrived from June. It showed a Northline worker fastening a padlock around the building's side gate.
May you like
His face was clear.
I knew him. He had been standing beside Vanessa when she raised her heel.
