Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN HIS BUILDING
At 6:10 the next morning, Ethan stood inside Mercer Dynamics’ security command center.
He had slept forty minutes.
Daniel Ross stood beside him.
“So?” Ethan asked.
A security analyst enlarged the access logs.
“Maya Collins’s badge entered the executive elevator at 9:03 p.m. It accessed forty-one at 9:07.”
“Camera?”
“Disabled for six minutes.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
Ethan stared at the timestamp.
At 9:03, Maya had been sitting across from him.
He remembered because Lily had spilled lemonade onto his sleeve at almost exactly nine.
Maya could not have been in two places.
“Her badge was cloned.”
Daniel folded his arms.
“Or she gave it to someone.”
Ethan looked at him.
“She didn’t.”
“You’ve known her for one dinner.”
“I know where she was.”
Daniel frowned.
“Where?”
“With me.”
The silence that followed was magnificent.
“With you?”
“Yes.”
“On New Year’s Eve?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked as though several years of friendship had suddenly become insufficient preparation for the conversation.
“Who is she?”
“An overnight security officer.”
“I gathered that.”
Ethan turned toward the monitors.
“Don’t suspend her.”
“Ethan—”
“Whoever used that badge may not know we’ve detected the breach.”
Daniel understood.
“You want to leave the door open.”
“I want them to think it’s open.”
At 11:08, Maya arrived for an unscheduled meeting with her supervisor.
She entered the security office and stopped.
Ethan was standing beside the window.
Not wearing his old charcoal coat.
Today he wore a dark tailored suit.
Behind him, the Mercer Dynamics logo covered an entire wall.
Maya stared.
“No.”
Ethan almost winced.
“Maya.”
She looked from him to Daniel.
Then back.
“Mercer.”
“Yes.”
“As in Mercer Dynamics?”
“Yes.”
“As in Ethan Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“The Ethan Mercer?”
“I’m beginning to dislike the number of ways this can be asked.”
Maya’s embarrassment became anger.
“You lied.”
“I withheld details.”
“That’s what rich people call lying?”
Daniel wisely left.
Maya crossed her arms.
“You let me sit there telling you about overnight security.”
“I liked hearing you talk.”
“At your company.”
“Yes.”
“You let my daughter call you old.”
“That remains accurate.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“No.”
Ethan became serious.
“I’m sorry.”
Maya stared at him.
“Why am I here?”
He showed her the access record.
The anger left her face.
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because you were with me.”
Maya studied the screen.
“My badge never left my coat.”
“Who had access to it?”
“Nobody.”
“Think.”
Maya hesitated.
“Last week my badge stopped scanning.”
“What happened?”
“My supervisor took it for ten minutes.”
“Name?”
“Carl Brenner.”
Ethan recognized it.
Regional security manager.
Fifteen years with the company.
Trusted.
Too trusted.
“Did he return the same badge?”
“I assumed so.”
Ethan called Daniel.
By noon they had discovered something worse.
Carl Brenner had disappeared.
His company phone sat inside his apartment.
His bank account had been emptied.
And surveillance showed him boarding a train carrying a small suitcase.
Maya stared at the evidence.
“He framed me.”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
“We’re going to find out.”
Maya looked at Ethan.
“You believe me?”
“You were sitting across from me.”
“What if I arranged it?”
“Then inviting the CEO of the company you intended to rob to dinner would be unnecessarily theatrical.”
Despite herself, Maya smiled.
Then her expression changed.
“If whoever did this thinks I know something…”
Ethan understood.
“Lily.”
Maya grabbed her phone.
“School.”
Ethan stopped her.
“It’s New Year’s Day.”
“She’s with my neighbor.”
She called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Her face drained.
Ethan was already reaching for his coat.
They reached Maya’s apartment in eighteen minutes.
The neighbor’s door stood open.
“MRS. PARKER?”
Maya ran inside.
A chair had been knocked over.
Her phone lay shattered on the floor.
“Lily!”
Ethan’s pulse hammered.
Then a small voice came from the bedroom.
“Mom?”
Maya nearly collapsed.
Lily emerged holding Mrs. Parker’s hand.
The elderly woman had a bruise on her forehead.
“What happened?”
“A man knocked,” Mrs. Parker whispered. “Said he was building maintenance.”
Maya hugged Lily.
“What did he want?”
“He asked whether Maya Collins lived here.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“Did he come inside?”
Mrs. Parker nodded.
“When I said I was calling police, he pushed me.”
“Did you see him?”
“Gray coat. Baseball cap.”
Lily tugged Ethan’s sleeve.
“I saw his hand.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What about it?” Ethan asked.
“He had a picture.”
“A tattoo?”
Lily nodded.
“Like a snake.”
Maya went still.
“What?”
“Mom?”
Maya looked terrified.
“I know someone with that tattoo.”
“Who?”
“My husband’s brother.”
Ethan stared.
“You said your husband died.”
“He did.”
“What’s his brother’s name?”
“Travis Collins.”
“Why would he be looking for you?”
Maya’s face lost its color.
“Because four years ago, the night my husband died, Travis was in the car too.”
May you like
She swallowed.
“And he was the one driving.”
