Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Worn Coat
“Darren!” Emma shouted.
He shoved through the swinging employee door so hard it slammed against the wall.
For a second, no one moved.
Then Eleanor picked up her milk, tucked the phone into her coat, and said with startling calm, “He’s going for the computer.”
Emma stared at her. “Who are you?”
“Later.” Eleanor pointed toward the hallway. “Does that office have a second exit?”
“Yes. It opens near receiving.”
“Then we don’t have much time.”
Emma should have walked away. Darren had just fired her. Whatever happened next was no longer her problem.
But she remembered something from two nights earlier: Darren standing over the office shredder after closing, feeding in a stack of yellow inventory sheets one handful at a time.
Emma ran.
She reached the hallway just as the office door slammed shut.
“Darren, open it!”
A lock clicked.
From inside came the scrape of a chair, then frantic tapping.
Eleanor arrived behind her, breathing harder now. She looked seventy again, but her voice stayed sharp.
“Is there a breaker panel nearby?”
Emma blinked. “Utility closet.”
“Don’t touch it. Just show me.”
Before Emma could move, the office printer started spitting out pages. Then came the grinding sound of the shredder.
“He’s destroying something,” Emma said.
Eleanor raised her phone. “Security is six minutes away.”
“Six minutes is forever with that shredder.”
Emma tried the door again. “Darren!”
He shouted back, “Get out of here, Emma! You don’t work here anymore!”
A young stock clerk appeared at the far end of the hall. Mateo Ruiz was nineteen, skinny, nervous, and still wearing orange work gloves.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Darren’s locked himself in the office.”
Mateo’s face went pale. “Then he knows.”
Eleanor turned. “Knows what?”
Mateo looked at Emma as if asking permission to speak.
Emma said, “Tell her.”
“I found cases of donated baby formula in the basement last week,” Mateo said. “The boxes were marked as delivered to a shelter, but they never left the store.”
Eleanor’s expression hardened.
“How many cases?”
“Forty, maybe fifty.”
Emma stared at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I told Assistant Manager Lewis. The next day my hours got cut in half.”
Inside the office, the shredder stopped.
Then the back door banged open.
“He’s leaving!” Emma yelled.
Mateo sprinted toward receiving.
Emma followed, but Eleanor grabbed her wrist.
“Wait.”
“What?”
Eleanor nodded toward the bottom of the office door.
A thin ribbon of smoke was curling into the hallway.
May you like
Darren hadn’t just tried to destroy the records.
He had set the trash can on fire.
