CHAPTER 5 THE MAN IN THE DARK
Click.
The sound of the handgun echoed through the apartment.
Lila screamed.
Mara grabbed her wrist and yanked her behind the kitchen island just as a bullet shattered the living room window.
Glass exploded across the floor.
"Stay down!" Mara hissed.
Another shot.
The lights were still out.
The only illumination came from flashes of lightning outside.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Confident.
The intruder wasn't searching.
He knew exactly where they were.
Mara reached into a kitchen drawer.
Nothing.
Another.
Empty.
The third drawer held a heavy cast-iron skillet.
She wrapped both hands around it.
The footsteps came closer.
Closer.
Then stopped.
Silence.
A phone vibrated in the darkness.
The man's voice cursed under his breath.
"She's not here."
Another voice came through the speaker.
Victor.
"Search again."
"I already did."
"She has the drive."
"I'll find it."
The call ended.
Mara exchanged a terrified glance with Lila.
Victor had sent a killer.
Not security.
Not investigators.
A killer.
The footsteps moved toward the hallway.
Now.
Mara swung the skillet with everything she had.
CRACK!
The pan connected with the man's wrist.
The handgun clattered across the floor.
He roared in pain.
Lila kicked the weapon under the couch.
The man lunged toward Mara, tackling her into the wall.
Her head slammed against the plaster.
Stars exploded across her vision.
He wrapped both hands around her throat.
"You should've stayed barren," he growled.
Mara couldn't breathe.
Her vision blurred.
Then—
BANG!
The man collapsed sideways.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
A second figure stood in the doorway holding a pistol.
Dr. Elena Voss.
"Police!" she shouted.
"Drop your weapon!"
Within seconds, officers stormed the apartment.
The gunman was arrested alive.
As detectives handcuffed him, Elena hurried to Mara.
"Are you hurt?"
Mara nodded weakly.
"You came..."
"I wasn't alone."
Elena glanced toward an older man standing behind the officers.
Gray hair.
Sharp eyes.
A detective's badge.
"This is Detective Samuel Reeves."
Mara frowned.
"The retired detective?"
Reeves smiled faintly.
"I retired."
He flipped open another badge.
"Then I came back six months ago."
"For Victor."
At the police station, Reeves finally explained everything.
Victor had been under investigation for nearly a year.
Financial fraud.
Identity theft.
Insurance scams.
Three missing wives.
But every witness disappeared before prosecutors could build a case.
"You," Reeves said quietly, "are the first victim who fought back."
He placed several photographs on the table.
The women Dylan had found.
Only...
One picture was different.
The second wife wasn't dead.
She wasn't missing.
She was alive.
Living under a different name in another state.
"She escaped."
Mara stared at the woman.
"Can I meet her?"
Reeves nodded.
"Tomorrow."
The next morning, Mara met Evelyn Carter.
Victor's second wife.
She looked older than her fifty-two years.
Fear had aged her more than time.
"I never stopped looking over my shoulder," Evelyn admitted.
"He convinced everyone I was insane."
She rolled up her sleeve.
A faded scar crossed her arm.
"He poisoned me slowly."
Mara felt sick.
"My pregnancy..."
Evelyn's expression changed instantly.
"Protect your food."
"What?"
"He always starts with the food."
"He makes it look like illness."
Then Evelyn reached into her purse.
"I kept one thing."
A tiny gold key.
"He hid this in his office."
"I never found what it opened."
She placed it in Mara's hand.
"But he killed to keep it."
Mara closed her fingers around the key.
She had no idea...
...it would unlock the biggest secret of Victor's life.Mara drove straight home.
Victor wasn't there.
Neither was Claudine.
Using the spare key she'd secretly kept for years, she entered Victor's private office.
The room looked untouched.
She searched every drawer.
Every cabinet.
Nothing.
Then she noticed an antique grandfather clock.
Hidden behind it...
A small keyhole.
The gold key fit perfectly.
Click.
A hidden compartment opened inside the wall.
Mara's breath caught.
There wasn't money.
There weren't jewels.
There were dozens of passports.
Different names.
Different countries.
Different faces.
Every passport belonged...
...to Victor.
At the bottom lay a black leather notebook.
Inside were handwritten lists.
Each page carried the name of a wealthy woman.
Beside every name...
Three columns.
Assets.
Marriage.
Exit.
Her own name appeared on the last page.
Under "Exit" someone had written in red ink:
After board vote.
Mara's knees nearly gave out.
She wasn't Victor's greatest success.
She was simply...
His next job.
Just then she heard the front door open.
Victor was home.
He wasn't alone.
Claudine laughed downstairs.
Mara shoved the notebook into her bag.
The secret compartment clicked shut.
Footsteps started climbing toward the office.
Victor's voice echoed through the hallway.
"Mara?"
She looked around.
There was no way out.
Then she heard something else.
A soft vibration inside her purse.
May you like
A message from Detective Reeves.
Don't let him see the notebook. We just arrested the gunman... and he confessed. Victor knows you're searching the office. He's coming upstairs to finish it himself.
