Chapter 2 - ELEVEN SECONDS IN THE DARK
Someone screamed.
Glass broke near the dance floor.
Sarah immediately dropped to her knees.
“Daniel!”
“I’m here.”
His voice came from somewhere to her right.
Sarah reached blindly until her hand struck his arm.
“Stay down.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever turned off those lights knows the plan failed.”
Daniel stopped asking questions.
Around them, guests shouted and pushed toward the exits.
Emergency lights should have activated immediately.
They didn't.
The darkness lasted eleven seconds.
Sarah counted every one.
At eight seconds, she heard hurried footsteps.
At nine, someone brushed past her shoulder.
At ten, Daniel cursed.
At eleven, the ballroom exploded back into light.
Vanessa was gone.
The rear service door swung slowly on its hinges.
Daniel jumped to his feet.
“Lock the hotel down.”
Security scattered.
Sarah noticed blood on Daniel's white shirt.
“Daniel.”
He looked down.
A thin cut crossed his forearm.
Someone had apparently struck him in the darkness.
Margaret ran toward him.
“Are you hurt?”
“I'm fine.”
He wasn't looking at the cut.
He was staring at the empty place where his bride had been standing.
His bride.
The woman he had married less than an hour earlier.
The woman whose wedding ring he had slipped onto her finger in front of two hundred people.
Sarah stepped carefully around the shattered glass.
“Don't touch anything.”
Daniel's expression tightened.
“Police are coming.”
“They need more than that recording.”
Sarah pointed toward the broken champagne glass.
“They need this.”
A hotel manager approached with three guards.
“We've secured the elevators and lobby.”
“Vanessa?”
“No sign of her.”
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
“She was wearing a wedding dress.”
The manager swallowed.
“She may not be anymore.”
Sarah glanced at him.
“What does that mean?”
“One of our housekeeping employees was found unconscious in a linen room.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
“Her uniform is missing.”
Sarah closed her eyes briefly.
Vanessa had planned an exit.
That meant she had planned for something to go wrong.
Daniel turned toward Sarah.
“You knew her before tonight.”
“Yes.”
“And you came here because you thought she was going to kill me.”
Sarah hesitated.
“I came because I knew she was capable of it.”
Daniel looked at her phone.
“What exactly happened to Michael?”
Sarah didn't answer immediately.
Because the truth was worse than anything she could explain in a ballroom.
Michael Crane had known he was going to die.
Three days before his death, he had handed Sarah a sealed envelope.
He had told her to open it only if something happened to him.
Sarah had opened it the morning after his funeral.
Inside was one sentence.
If Vanessa tells them my heart failed, she killed me.
Sarah looked at Daniel.
“There are things you need to see.”
“Where?”
Sarah reached into her purse.
“My apartment.”
Daniel nodded.
“Then we're going now.”
A police officer entered the ballroom.
Before Daniel could move, the hotel manager called his name.
“Mr. Bennett.”
Daniel turned.
The manager held a small black envelope.
“This was found under your seat at the head table.”
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Sarah leaving her apartment that morning.
May you like
Across the photograph, someone had written four words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED QUIET.
