Chapter 11 - THE CALL BEFORE THE RESCUE
Captain Torres came to my attorney’s office with a city investigator.
Rachel sat beside me.
Torres placed a transcript on the table.
“At 7:46 p.m., twenty-eight minutes before the doors were opened, dispatch received a call from a personal cellphone.”
“Whose?”
“Valerie Mercer’s.”
I stared at her.
“She had service?”
“Intermittent.”
“She told us nobody could get a signal.”
“Apparently she got one briefly.”
“To 911?”
Torres shook her head.
“She called Lieutenant Davis directly.”
My hands went cold.
Alex had known.
Before he arrived.
He knew Valerie was inside.
“Do you have the call?”
“We have duration and partial audio from Alex’s department radio microphone.”
“How long?”
“Forty-one seconds.”
Torres pushed the transcript toward me.
VALERIE: Alex, I’m trapped.
ALEX: Where?
VALERIE: State Street store elevator.
ALEX: Are you hurt?
VALERIE: I can’t breathe.
ALEX: Listen to me.
I’m coming.
VALERIE: Lucy is here.
I stopped reading.
My entire body tightened.
“She told him.”
Torres nodded.
Before Alex ever requested reassignment, he knew both of us were inside.
I kept reading.
ALEX: What?
VALERIE: Your wife.
She’s in here.
ALEX: Is she okay?
VALERIE: She’s helping everyone.
She’s always so calm.
Then one final line.
VALERIE: Come get me first.
The room seemed to tilt.
Alex’s response was partially obscured by radio traffic.
But the last three words were clear.
I always do.
I looked at Captain Torres.
“You have this?”
“Yes.”
“And he still claimed his decision was medical?”
“Yes.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“What are the department implications?”
Torres chose her words carefully.
“We are investigating dishonesty, failure to follow command triage, abuse of authority in obtaining assignment, and conduct unbecoming.”
My mouth was dry.
“What about criminal charges?”
The city investigator answered.
“Not currently.”
“Because I survived.”
He did not correct me.
I looked down at the transcript.
Come get me first.
I always do.
Something inside me finally broke.
Not loudly.
I did not cry.
I did not scream.
I simply realized Valerie had known exactly what would happen when those doors opened.
The look she gave me from Alex’s arms had not been victory after the fact.
It had been confirmation.
She had tested him.
And he passed her test.
The next message from Valerie arrived that evening.
You think I stole him.
I didn’t.
He kept choosing me until eventually I stopped pretending he belonged to you.
For the first time, I answered without anger.
Then why are you still trying so hard to convince me?
She did not reply.
But twenty minutes later, Alex did.
May you like
Please do not communicate with Valerie.
My lawyer says she may be setting both of us up.
