The driver was already checking his phone to connect to his next customer. “No offense, lady, but you’ve got a wild imagination. If you ask me, you should take a walk around the block. Maybe learn a bit about meditation. It’s the only way I make it through the day.”
He drove away, leaving Laurie alone in front of the warehouse. She heard a dog bark in the distance. The streets were surprisingly quiet.
She called Leo again, but his cell phone went straight to voice mail. She tried her own apartment next.
“Hey, Mom.” One of Timmy’s video games played in the background.
“Is Grandpa back from his meeting?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from sounding stressed.
“Not yet. Kara and I are playing Angry Birds.”
Whenever his favorite babysitter was there, Timmy was perfectly happy to have Laurie and Leo stay out late.
Her father had to be on the subway.
She tried Charlotte’s cell phone again. There was no answer.
At the front of the warehouse, she spotted a foot-wide crack beneath the steel roll-up door. Am I already too late? Did Angela realize that Charlotte was on to her…?
She couldn’t wait any longer. She slid her back beneath the gate, pressed her belly to the ground, and shimmied inside.
66
Leo was deep in thought as he exited the lower Manhattan office building. He missed the excitement of police work, but did not want to jump back in full-time. The opportunity to work on this task force was perfect. It would be several evenings each month, and he could do a lot of his work from home. He could continue to look after Timmy and be around to help Laurie.
As he walked the three blocks to the subway, he spotted a cab discharging passengers and changed his mind. After they got out, he jumped in the back and gave the cabbie Laurie’s address. He reached for his cell phone to check for messages. He then remembered that he had turned it off to avoid interruptions during the meeting.
His heart raced as he saw Laurie’s text and then listened to her voice mail. The building Charlotte and Laurie were in was less than two miles away. “Change of plans,” he shouted to the cabbie. “Go to 101 Fulton Street in Brooklyn and step on it!”
He yanked open his wallet and held up his police credentials so the driver could see them in the rearview mirror. “I’m a cop. You won’t get a ticket. Move!”
His first call was to the police commissioner’s office. He was promised that squad cars would be immediately dispatched to the Brooklyn address.
•••
As the cabbie wove through the narrow streets causing loud horn blares from angry motorists, Leo called Laurie’s cell phone. His heart sank when it went to her voice mail.
67
Her head hurt. Barely conscious, Charlotte felt herself being half-pushed, half-carried up the stairs. Why couldn’t she move her arms? Her legs were so hard to move. Something was tugging against them.
What happened?
She heard Angela’s voice.
“You need to keep moving. Come on, Charlotte.”
Angela’s voice. And also. And also. Angela had sent those terrible emails. Why? Charlotte felt a hard jab against her back.
“I started carrying a gun when your dear friend decided to investigate Casey’s conviction.” It was Angela’s voice, but it was a different-sounding voice. It had a desperate, hysterical quality.
They had reached the second floor. Charlotte felt her knees buckle, but Angela shoved her forward. “Keep going up, damn you.
“Charlotte, don’t worry. When something happens to you, the show will go on.” She began to giggle. “Maybe your family would even like me to offer a dedication to you. Better yet, they might offer me your job.”
Once they reached the third floor, Charlotte collapsed to the ground. “You don’t… have… to do this,” she pleaded.
“I do, Charlotte,” Angela said grimly, her voice rising. “I have no choice. But we’re friends. I promise it will be quick. You won’t suffer a bit.”
Charlotte yelped in pain as Angela yanked on the wrists tied behind her back, dragged her to her feet, and started pushing her toward the elevator shaft.
68
I can’t take the elevator, Laurie thought frantically. I can’t let Angela know I’m in the building.
She heard a voice scream from upstairs. “I promise it will be quick. You won’t suffer a bit.”
Her father would have warned her against entering the warehouse alone, but she hadn’t had a choice. She dropped her bag down on the floor, pulled out her cell phone, and made sure the volume was off. If she had any chance to save Charlotte, she needed to remain silent. Kicking off her shoes, she made her way to the stairwell.
69
Charlotte was pulling against Angela’s grasp as Angela guided her toward the broken elevator.
“I didn’t tell you,” Angela was saying in that same giggly voice. “The elevator’s stuck on the first floor, but the doors will still open on this floor. It’s a fifty-foot drop.”
She let Charlotte, whose breathing was labored, collapse against the wall next to the elevator.
“I don’t understand,” Charlotte gasped. “Why are you doing this?”
Angela tucked her handgun into the waist of her suit pants and slipped the box cutter from her jacket pocket. Charlotte flinched when she saw the blade. “No!”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Angela said. “Not with this anyway.” She cut the workout top from her ankles first. In a reflexive action, Charlotte began to wiggle each foot once her legs were freed.
Angela pushed the call button for the elevator. The doors eased open, but there was no sound of the car moving up from the first floor. Angela was reaching for Charlotte’s wrists to drag her toward the shaft when Charlotte jerked away. Steeling herself against the dizziness, she fought for time. The words could barely escape her lips. “Please, before I die, tell me the truth. You killed Hunter, didn’t you?”
70
From the top of the stairwell, Laurie could see Angela and Charlotte next to the warehouse elevator. Angela’s back was to Laurie, and she was pulling some type of cloth from around Charlotte’s lower legs. Charlotte was facing out, leaning against the wall.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” she heard Angela say. “Not with this anyway.”
Laurie saw her opportunity. She stepped out from the dark stairwell and into the room, and waved both arms. Please let her see me, she prayed. Please let her see me.
The warehouse room was cavernous and dimly lit. Charlotte would only notice her here if she was looking in this direction. She fumbled with her cell phone to pull up the flashlight function.
She found another chance when Angela moved toward the elevator. She waved the beam of the phone quickly in Charlotte’s direction and then immediately turned it off.
Did she see me? There was no way to know.
Then she heard Charlotte’s voice. “Angela, explain something to me. How did you manage to kill Hunter and frame Casey?”
Laurie felt herself breathe again. Her plan may have worked. Charlotte was trying to buy some time. Hopefully she knows I’m here.
But she couldn’t help Charlotte from here. She began moving slowly across the room, searching for the darkest shadows as she made her way toward her friend.
71
Charlotte thought she heard a sound in the distance, and then saw a quick flash of light. Was someone there, someone who might help her? It was her only hope. Charlotte could see the darkness awaiting her behind the open elevator doors. And she knew she didn’t have the strength to stop Angela from pushing her into it.