Chapter 7 - THE MAN BEHIND THE DOOR
Ortega drew his gun.
“Police. Show yourself.”
No answer.
Margaret held the recorder against her chest.
Footsteps moved outside.
Slow.
Then stopped.
Ortega stepped toward the door.
“Stay behind me.”
“I’m in a wheelchair, Luis. I’m not exactly charging ahead.”
“First smart thing you’ve said today.”
He pulled the door open.
Empty hallway.
Then glass shattered behind them.
A brick flew through the small window.
Margaret ducked.
Smoke poured in.
“Fire!”
Ortega grabbed the wheelchair handles and shoved Margaret toward the exit.
Someone had dropped a smoke canister into the locker room.
People began screaming in the station.
Margaret coughed.
“Recorder!”
“You have it?”
She touched her coat.
“Yes.”
“Then move.”
They reached the main hall.
Police rushed toward them.
Grant’s reach suddenly felt very real.
Twenty minutes later, sitting beside an ambulance, Margaret copied the recording onto Ortega’s phone.
Then another.
Then another.
“No single copy,” she said.
Ortega nodded.
“Now you’re thinking.”
“I’m learning late.”
“Late beats never.”
Margaret looked at him.
“Can you trust the department?”
Ortega didn’t answer quickly enough.
That was the answer.
“Some of them.”
“Which ones?”
“Not enough.”
The next morning Daniel appeared before a new judge.
Judge Elena Morales.
Grant sat behind the prosecutor.
Margaret hated the sight of him.
The state asked for no bond.
“Mr. Reed is violent,” the prosecutor argued. “He broke into a private office and assaulted a respected civic leader.”
Daniel’s attorney stood.
“We have newly discovered evidence suggesting the alleged victim may have been engaged in criminal activity directly related to the incident.”
Grant smiled.
Judge Morales looked up.
“What evidence?”
Before Daniel’s lawyer could answer, Grant whispered something to the prosecutor.
The prosecutor stood.
“Your Honor, the state was informed this morning that certain evidence was obtained illegally and may be fabricated.”
Margaret’s stomach tightened.
Ortega leaned toward her.
“They know about the recording.”
“How?”
He didn’t answer.
Judge Morales scheduled an evidentiary hearing for the next morning.
Daniel was taken away again.
As deputies moved him past Margaret, he whispered, “Lily?”
“Safe.”
“You sure?”
Margaret started to answer.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Lily standing outside Margaret’s house.
Taken through a car windshield.
Timestamp: two minutes ago.
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Under it was one sentence.
GIVE US THE RECORDER OR THE GIRL DISAPPEARS.
