Chapter 11 - Where Wade Was Waiting

"Call the police," Owen told Wade. "Tell them exactly where you are."

"I tried once. The man who took my statement called Cross before I got out of the parking lot."

"Then call Detective Collins. I'll give you her badge number."

A breath rasped down the line. "They're already coming. I can hear the truck."

Collins listened on speaker while Owen kept Wade talking. He was hiding in the maintenance shed behind a closed bowling alley outside Camden. A former coworker owned the property. Wade had his old job files with him, wrapped in plastic beneath a bag of grass seed.

"Don't move from a place they can find you," Collins ordered. She radioed New Jersey officers while her partner pulled up a map. "And whatever happens, don't make a run for it in traffic."

A vehicle door slammed on Wade's end. Footsteps scraped gravel. Someone yelled his name.

"I didn't want this," Wade whispered.

Then the call cut off.

Twenty-three minutes later, Collins rang Owen back. Officers had arrived in time to arrest two men trying to force the shed door. Wade was shaken but alive. The files were intact. One of the attackers was Dani Rusk's brother. The police were pursuing the person who had hired them.

Wade agreed to an interview with counsel present. Owen wasn't allowed inside. He waited across the hall with Talia, who stared at the closed door as if it were the entrance to a second trial.

"If he tells us how Dad died," she said, "I don't know what I'll do."

"You don't have to do anything," Owen answered. "You get to feel whatever you feel."

At dusk Priya emerged. "Wade says Martin ordered the exit hardware changed, but that wasn't the whole job. He saw a woman sign off on the alarm disconnect. He remembers her because she argued about the invoice color."

"Natalie," Owen said.

Priya nodded. "Wade also says he returned at midnight to undo the change. The loading gate was locked, and he heard someone pounding on the east door from inside."

Talia's breath caught. "My dad."

"He called emergency services," Priya said, "but the call doesn't appear in the case materials. Collins is requesting the dispatch archive now."

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Wade had kept the original handwritten instructions. At the bottom of the last page, beside Natalie's initials, was a note Martin wrote himself: REMOVE ALL ARCHIVES BEFORE MONDAY.

Monday was the day the surviving wing of the music hall was scheduled to be demolished.