Chapter 4 - A Marriage Full of Locked Doors

Miles pulled me through a crawlspace barely wide enough for our shoulders. Behind us, Inez cried out once. I tried to turn around.

"We can't leave her," I hissed.

"We won't. But if they catch us, we can't help anybody."

We emerged beside a linen chute and raced down a service stair. Miles called 911, gave the suite number, and asked for officers by name. The dispatcher promised a patrol unit. I didn't trust anyone who could be diverted by Voss.

At the fifteenth floor, I stopped. "Tell me all of it. Right now."

He braced himself against the stair rail. "Your father called me at ten oh-five. He said he had proof Voss stole from the workers' trust. He wanted a witness. By the time I reached seventeen, Pike had locked the stairs. At ten thirty-one I heard furniture break."

"And the picture?"

"Voss took it after Pike let me out. He told me to swear I'd been in Baltimore. He said he'd tell the police I'd threatened your father over our marriage."

I stared at him. "You let that work?"

"I was twenty-nine and stupid. I thought protecting you meant swallowing the truth."

"You robbed me of the chance to question witnesses while they were alive."

He accepted that without defending himself. It hurt more than an excuse would have.

A crash sounded below. A metal fire door slammed. Miles switched off his flashlight.

"Someone's coming up."

We squeezed into a janitor's alcove while two guards passed carrying Inez between them. She was breathing, her feet dragging against the steps. One guard spoke into a radio.

"We're taking the witness to loading bay three."

I recorded the words on my phone, then texted them to Detective Rachel Kim, a financial-crimes investigator I'd met the previous month. Kim had urged me not to confront Voss without evidence.

My message showed DELIVERED.

"We've got to get Inez," I said.

"Then we do it together," Miles answered.

A second message arrived. It wasn't from Kim.

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A video showed Inez tied to a chair under a bare bulb. Voss stood behind her, smiling.

"Bring me that little paper from the clock, Vivian," he said, "or the next video will be much shorter."