Chapter 10 - The Dead Man on the Phone
Nora forgot Martin.
Forgot the locked door.
Forgot every sensible thing she had ever known.
“Ben?”
Her brother breathed into the phone.
“Nora.”
The sound nearly dropped her to her knees.
“No.”
“I know.”
“No. I saw your coffin.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
Martin started toward them.
Adrian shoved a rolling shelf across the aisle.
Metal shrieked over concrete.
“Ben,” he snapped. “The door.”
“Response team’s on the east side. Stay where there’s ventilation.”
Nora stared at Adrian.
“You knew.”
He didn’t deny it.
Martin struck the shelf.
Boxes tumbled.
“Nora, move.”
She let Adrian pull her behind a bank of cabinets.
Ben kept talking.
“There’s a maintenance panel beside the fire-hose cabinet. It opens into the utility corridor.”
“How do you know?”
“I worked down there when I was sorting the records.”
“Why are you alive?”
The question sounded insane.
It was the only one she had.
Martin shoved the shelf aside.
Adrian grabbed a metal chair.
Not gracefully.
Not like a man from a movie.
Like a frightened person holding the only thing within reach.
Martin stopped.
“You’re going to make this worse.”
Adrian’s voice shook.
“You’ve been saying that for twenty years.”
Nora found the maintenance latch.
Locked.
“Ben.”
“Small square panel below it. There’s an emergency release.”
She pulled.
Nothing.
Her fingers slipped.
Martin lunged.
The chair crashed against the cabinets.
Adrian fell hard.
Nora grabbed the fire extinguisher and discharged it between them.
White spray filled the aisle.
Martin cursed.
The latch gave.
Cold air hit her face.
“Adrian!”
He crawled toward her, one arm held tight against his ribs.
She dragged him through the opening.
Something struck the metal behind them.
Then shouting.
Real voices.
“Federal agents! Show your hands!”
Nora kept moving until hands reached them from the utility corridor.
She fought those, too.
“Federal agent,” a woman said. “Nora Reed?”
Nora stared at her badge.
Then at the phone still clutched in Adrian’s hand.
“Put him back on.”
Adrian handed it over.
For several seconds, all she heard was breathing.
“Nora,” Ben said.
She pressed her fist against her mouth.
“You let Mom think you were dead.”
His answer came broken.
“Yes.”
May you like
She closed her eyes.
“Then you’d better have a reason that survives looking at her.”
