Chapter 5 - SMOKE IN THE HALLWAY
Smoke rolled under the front door.
Rachel grabbed the flash drive and laptop.
I pulled Maya toward the hallway.
The elevator was dead, so we ran for the stairs with other residents.
On the ninth floor, a man in a gray hoodie pushed against the crowd, moving up instead of down.
He saw Maya.
Then he reached inside his jacket.
Rachel slammed him into the wall before he could pull out his hand.
A small can of gasoline fell to the steps.
The man twisted free and ran upward.
Rachel chased him two floors before smoke forced her back.
Firefighters found the source in the trash room outside my floor.
Someone had set a pile of cardboard on fire and blocked the sprinklers with plastic bags.
It was not meant to burn down the building.
It was meant to create panic.
A distraction.
When we returned to the condo, the blue insurance folder was gone.
So was Maya's purse.
Inside it had been her phone, house keys, and a photograph of her two daughters.
She sank onto the couch.
“They know where the girls are.”
Her daughters, Lily and Grace, were at a private school in St. Helena.
Rachel called local police while Maya called the school.
No answer.
It was just after seven in the morning.
Classes had not started, but early drop-off was open.
Owen had taken the girls there before dawn.
We drove north with police units ahead of us.
The school director met us in the parking lot.
“Owen Caldwell signed them out twenty minutes ago.”
“Signed them out to go where?” Maya demanded.
“He said there was a family emergency.”
Maya called him.
Owen answered on the first ring.
“You made a terrible choice,” he said.
“Where are my children?”
“They're safe as long as you stop talking.”
“Let me hear them.”
A little girl's voice came through the phone.
“Mommy?”
Maya nearly collapsed.
Then Owen took the phone back.
“Bring the drive to the old barrel warehouse at noon. Come alone.”
Rachel shook her head.
Maya covered the microphone.
“He'll hurt them.”
“He wants the evidence,” Rachel whispered. “The girls are leverage. If we follow his rules, he controls everything.”
I took the phone from Maya.
“Owen, this is Valerie.”
His voice hardened.
“You ruined this family.”
“No. I said no to thieves.”
“Bring the drive.”
“I'll bring it,” I said. “But I want proof the girls are alive when I arrive.”
He agreed and ended the call.
Maya stared at me.
“You cannot go in there.”
“I won't go alone.”
Rachel began calling in a tactical team.
Then the flash drive made a faint clicking sound inside her evidence bag.
A small red light blinked once.
Rachel's expression changed.
“This drive has a wireless tracker.”
May you like
On the road behind us, a black SUV turned into the school parking lot.
Adrian was driving.
