Chapter 13 - THE MAN AT THE DOOR
Arthur called the hospital.
Martin Greer was gone.
His company vehicle was found twenty minutes later beside the river.
Empty.
Inside the glove compartment were photos of Lucas.
Arthur.
Claire.
Emily.
And Maya.
Maya stared at her photograph.
It showed her leaving her apartment two weeks earlier.
Before Lucas disappeared.
Arthur noticed the date.
“Why was he watching you before any of this happened?”
Maya’s face went blank.
“I don’t know.”
Serena looked at her.
“Think.”
Maya did.
Two weeks earlier, she had catered a private lunch at Montgomery Holdings.
She remembered a man dropping an envelope near the elevator.
She picked it up.
It had Richard Voss’s name on it.
She gave it to reception.
“That’s it.”
Arthur frowned.
“That’s nothing.”
“Maybe I saw something without knowing.”
Security footage from the building was pulled.
There she was.
Maya carrying a tray.
Richard leaving a conference room.
Peter behind him.
Isabella walking in.
Then Martin Greer.
Maya paused the footage.
“Wait.”
“What?”
She pointed.
Martin handed Richard something.
A key card.
Then saw Maya looking.
Even though she had been staring only because someone almost walked into her tray, Martin clearly thought she had noticed the exchange.
Serena nodded.
“He started watching you.”
Arthur’s expression darkened.
“So when she found Lucas…”
“Greer assumed she knew more than she did.”
The hospital threat suddenly made sense.
The apartment call.
The surveillance.
Maya had become a problem by accident.
Arthur looked at her.
“You could have been hurt.”
“Yeah.”
He waited for a joke.
She didn’t make one.
That scared him more.
Serena put a car outside Maya’s apartment.
Maya hated it but agreed.
That evening, she went home for the first time in days.
Her apartment felt strangely small after the Montgomery estate.
Normal.
Safe.
She showered.
Changed.
Sat on the edge of the bed.
Then noticed the kitchen light was on.
She was sure she had turned it off.
Maya stood slowly.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
She reached for her phone.
A voice behind her said:
“Don’t.”
Maya froze.
Martin Greer stepped from the hallway.
He held a gun low at his side.
“You caused a lot of trouble.”
Maya’s heart hammered.
“I poured drinks for a living.”
“You should have kept doing that.”
“You watched a kid freeze behind a wall.”
“Richard said he’d be moved.”
“Everybody keeps saying they didn’t think anyone would get hurt.”
Martin’s jaw tightened.
“Put your phone down.”
Maya did.
“What do you want?”
“The recorder.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Claire’s files.”
“Don’t have those either.”
Martin smiled.
“Then you’re not useful.”
Maya’s stomach dropped.
He stepped forward.
“You know what I hate about people like you?”
“Waitresses?”
“Heroes.”
Maya swallowed.
“I’m not a hero.”
“No?”
“No.”
She looked toward the kitchen.
“I just know my neighbors.”
Martin frowned.
Maya suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs:
“MRS. GARCIA! CALL 911!”
Martin lunged.
A door across the hall slammed open.
Then another.
Maya threw a lamp.
Martin ducked.
She ran for the front door.
He grabbed her jacket.
She twisted out of it and hit the hallway barefoot.
Mrs. Garcia was already shouting.
A man from downstairs came running up.
Martin turned back.
Police sirens sounded outside.
He bolted toward the fire escape.
Maya leaned against the wall, shaking.
Her phone rang from inside the apartment.
Arthur.
She answered.
“Maya?”
For the first time since this began, she couldn’t make a joke.
“He was here.”
Arthur’s voice changed immediately.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Where is he?”
“Running.”
Arthur exhaled.
Then Maya looked down the stairwell.
A small black object lay where Martin had dropped it.
A key fob.
Montgomery Estate — WEST GATE.
Maya stared at it.
“Arthur.”
“What?”
“He wasn’t hiding from you.”
Her pulse raced.
“He was going back to your house.”
May you like
And Lucas was there.
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