Chương 5
Mara read it twice.
“Connection to what?”
“I don’t know.”
“You went through his things and you don’t know?”
“I found this page after I opened the storage unit.”
“Then why hide it?”
Linda looked ashamed.
“I didn’t hide it.”
Mara looked up.
Linda pointed toward the paper.
“I copied it because I was afraid someone would take the original.”
Mara paused.
“What happened to the original?”
Linda hesitated.
Then answered.
“I gave it to Daniel’s old friend, Peter.”
“Who is Peter?”
“Someone who worked with him.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Linda sighed.
“Someone Daniel trusted.”
Mara stared at her.
“And where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer changed the room.
Not because it was surprising.
Because it created a new question.
“When did you last see him?”
“Three months ago.”
Mara looked at the page again.
“You’ve been investigating this for three months?”
“No.”
Linda shook her head.
“I’ve been avoiding it for three months.”
That was different.
Mara understood the difference.
Avoiding something took almost as much energy as chasing it.
“Why come to me now?”
Linda looked toward the front door.
“Because someone came looking.”
“The person tonight?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what do you know?”
Linda swallowed.
“I know the same car has been near my house twice this week.”
Mara looked at her.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to become involved.”
Mara almost laughed.
“Linda.”
“I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds impossible.”
“It was the first thing I did that was about protecting you.”
The sentence landed harder than Mara expected.
Because she realized Linda believed it.
Not completely.
Not logically.
But emotionally.
Mara walked to the window and looked outside.
The dark sedan was parked across the street.
No movement.
No lights.
Just presence.
“Does that car belong to someone connected to Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
“Have you seen the driver?”
“No.”
“Have you seen anyone near it?”
Linda hesitated.
“Once.”
Mara turned.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer frustrated her.
But this time she heard the fear beneath it.
Not secrecy.
Fear.
A different thing.
“We leave,” Mara said.
Linda stood.
“Where?”
“Somewhere public.”
“No.”
Mara looked at her.
“No?”
Linda shook her head.
“If someone is watching my house because they think I have something, leaving is exactly what they want.”
Mara stared.
That was not the answer she expected.
“You’re saying we stay?”
“I’m saying we stop reacting without knowing what we’re reacting to.”
A small silence followed.
Mara almost smiled.
“Did you just tell me to slow down?”
Linda looked uncomfortable.
“Apparently.”
The moment was brief.
Almost normal.
Then the sedan’s headlights turned on.
Both women stopped.
The car did not move.
The lights stayed on for five seconds.
Ten.
Then went dark again.
A message.
Or a warning.
Neither woman knew.
Mara grabbed her coat.
“Show me the storage unit.”
Linda looked at her.
“What?”
“The address.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
“You hate surprises.”
“I hate not knowing more.”
Linda picked up her bag.
The admission changed something between them.
Not everything.
But something.
Forty minutes later, they parked two blocks from the old warehouse listed on Daniel’s paperwork.
The building sat between a closed machine shop and an empty lot covered with weeds.
Mara looked at the address.
“This is where the storage company sent you?”
Linda nodded.
“I came once.”
Mara turned.
“When?”
“After I found the receipt.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because nothing happened.”
“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t important.”
Linda looked through the windshield.
“I know that now.”
They walked toward the building.
The entrance door was locked.
But someone had recently scraped away dirt near the bottom edge.
Fresh marks.
Mara crouched.
Linda watched her.
“You still do that.”
“Do what?”
“Look for the thing everyone else misses.”
Mara stood.
“I don’t always find the right thing.”
Linda looked at her.
“That might be the first time I’ve heard you say that.”
Before Mara could answer, something moved inside the warehouse.
Not a person walking.
Something heavier.
A metal object dragged across concrete.
Both women froze.
Linda whispered, “Someone is inside.”
Mara looked at the locked door.
Then at the copied page in her hand.
Then at Linda.
The mystery had stopped being about what Daniel left behind.
Now it was about who had followed them here.
The door handle moved.
Slowly.
From the inside.
The warehouse door moved another inch, and Peter stopped breathing.
The sound was small, almost nothing compared with the rain hitting the metal roof above them.
But everyone in the room heard it.
Linda tightened her grip on the flashlight until her knuckles turned pale.
She had spent three days telling herself that fear was only a reaction to things she did not understand.
Standing there in the dark with the door slowly opening by itself, she had to admit she understood one thing very clearly.
Someone was on the other side.
Peter raised a hand.
Not a command.
A warning.
Linda wanted to ask him what he expected them to do, but the look on his face stopped her.
He was not calm.
That was what scared her.
Peter was the kind of man who looked comfortable during emergencies.
He had spent twenty years repairing electrical systems in buildings where everyone else was afraid to touch anything.
He had crawled into damaged basements after storms.
He had walked into rooms where alarms were screaming and smoke was filling the air.
He was not someone who frightened easily.
Now he was afraid.
The door opened another few inches.
A thin line of yellow light appeared on the floor.
Linda looked down and noticed something beside the doorway.
A muddy footprint.
Fresh.
Her stomach dropped.
Someone had already been inside.
Peter saw it too.
“Back up,” he whispered.
Linda did not move.
“Peter.”
“Linda.”
The way he said her name made her stop.
May you like
Not because he sounded angry.
Because he sounded like he was asking her not to make him choose between protecting her and finding answers.
