Chapter 4 - The Second Phone
They reached the study in less than a minute.
The door was solid walnut, two inches thick, with an electronic lock added during the last renovation. Dana tried her master credential.
Red light.
“Denied,” she said.
Jack stared at the keypad. “Who changed permissions?”
“No one on my team.”
Ethan arrived behind them. “This is ridiculous. There’s another exit.”
Claire looked at him. “Through the library.”
His face tightened.
Jack caught it.
“Luis, take the library.”
Luis moved.
Margaret appeared at the far end of the corridor, walking quickly but never running. She had mastered the art of looking calm while everyone else did the panicking.
“Charles needs to sit down,” she said.
Charles remained in the foyer with another guard.
Jack ignored her.
Dana removed the keypad cover. “Give me thirty seconds.”
Claire whispered, “The drawer has copies of wire transfers. And a phone.”
“A phone?”
“An old one. Black case. I saw it before Ethan grabbed me.”
“What was on it?”
“I didn’t get that far.”
The lock clicked.
Jack pushed the door open.
The study was empty.
The French doors to the library stood open.
Luis shouted from the other side, “Clear!”
Someone had gone through before he arrived.
Jack crossed to the desk. The bottom drawer was closed.
Claire handed him the brass key.
He opened it.
Empty.
Not almost empty. Clean.
The velvet liner had a pale rectangle where something had rested for a long time.
“A phone,” Claire said.
Ethan leaned against the doorway. “Or a paperweight. Or nothing.”
Jack looked at the floor.
A tiny shard of black plastic lay near the desk leg.
He picked it up.
Phone case.
Dana’s radio crackled.
“Supervisor, be advised. West service gate opened at 13:42 using credential M-Vale-01.”
Margaret stopped breathing for a beat.
Jack turned toward her.
Dana checked her tablet.
“That credential belongs to Mrs. Vale.”
Margaret’s face remained perfectly composed.
“My card is in my purse.”
“Where’s your purse?” Jack asked.
She looked toward the foyer.
Claire’s broken phone, still powered off in Jack’s hand, suddenly vibrated.
The screen lit by itself.
May you like
A new text appeared from an unknown number.
YOU FOUND THE WRONG PHONE.
