Chapter 6 - The Stranger Outside the Window
Audrey dropped below the window and pulled Sam against her chest.
“Margaret!”
The retired nurse hurried in from the kitchen.
Audrey pointed toward the curtains.
“Someone is outside.”
Margaret did not ask questions.
She locked the apartment door, closed every curtain and retrieved an old baseball bat from the hall closet.
Caleb returned within ten minutes.
Two patrol cars arrived soon after.
The alley behind the apartment was empty.
Officers found one set of footprints in the damp soil, but the trail ended at the street.
No weapon.
No camera.
No witness.
The photograph had been taken from less than thirty feet away.
Evelyn moved Audrey and Sam that evening.
Their new location was a private recovery suite inside St. Catherine’s Hospital, accessible only through a secured elevator. Officially, Audrey had been readmitted for postpartum complications.
Unofficially, hospital security monitored the floor twenty-four hours a day.
Dr. Sarah personally approved the arrangement.
“You should withdraw from the wedding plan,” she said.
Audrey sat beside the window, feeding Sam from a bottle.
“That’s what they want.”
“They may want more than that.”
“If I disappear, Julian keeps the company. Victoria gets access to my family’s assets. And whoever stole Lumen-7 continues profiting.”
“You have a newborn.”
“I know exactly what I have.”
Sarah sat beside her.
“Then protect him.”
“I am.”
“Going into a public confrontation three weeks after giving birth does not sound like protection.”
Audrey looked down at Sam.
“If I run now, I spend the rest of his childhood running.”
Sarah could not answer that.
Later that night, Caleb and Evelyn joined them.
Caleb had obtained security footage from Margaret’s building.
A dark sedan circled the block twice before the photograph was sent.
The license plate was registered to a private security company used by Vale Capital.
“Victoria’s father?” Audrey asked.
“Possibly,” Caleb said. “But the vehicle was reported stolen yesterday morning.”
Evelyn opened a folder.
“The genetic laboratory has completed the comparison.”
Audrey’s heart tightened.
“And?”
“Julian is the biological father with a probability exceeding 99.99 percent.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
She had always known.
Still, seeing the result gave shape to months of humiliation.
Every accusation.
Every denial.
Every person who had looked at her with pity or suspicion.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“The result remains confidential until we submit it.”
“When will we submit?”
“On the wedding day, as planned.”
Caleb placed a second document beside the report.
“We also confirmed that the anonymous source has administrative access to Sterling Biotech’s legal servers.”
“Can you trace them?”
“Not without alerting them.”
“Then let them keep sending information.”
Evelyn disagreed.
“They know where Audrey and Sam are.”
“They may not be the person who photographed them.”
“We cannot assume that.”
Audrey studied the newest anonymous message.
It contained a meeting location.
Old Bennett Research Annex.
Midnight tomorrow.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY HELEN BENNETT DIED.
Caleb shook his head.
“You are not going.”
Audrey almost smiled.
“I wasn’t planning to go alone.”
The Bennett Research Annex had been abandoned for twelve years.
It stood behind the newer Sterling Biotech campus, separated from the main laboratories by a chain-link fence and a row of dead trees.
At eleven forty-five the next night, Audrey waited inside a surveillance van with Caleb.
Two former federal agents watched the building from opposite sides.
Evelyn remained at the hospital with Sam.
Audrey wore a dark coat over her hospital clothes and carried no purse.
The annex appeared empty.
At midnight, a light flashed once in a second-floor window.
Caleb spoke into his radio.
“Positions ready?”
Both agents confirmed.
Audrey entered through the rear door.
The building smelled of dust and old chemicals.
Plastic sheets covered broken equipment.
She climbed the staircase slowly.
At the top, she found a figure waiting inside what had once been her mother’s laboratory.
The figure stepped into the moonlight.
Marcus Reed.
Julian’s best man.
The witness on every forged document.
He looked terrified.
“You shouldn’t have brought anyone,” he said.
“You shouldn’t have photographed my child.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
“I don’t know.”
Audrey kept several feet between them.
“Why are you helping me?”
“I’m not helping you. I’m trying to survive.”
Marcus removed a small metal key from his pocket.
“Julian thinks I destroyed the original Bennett archive.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere he can’t reach without this.”
He held up the key.
“What’s in the archive?”
“Your mother’s research records. The original patent assignments. Payments. Patient files.”
“And proof my signatures were forged?”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Why did you witness them?”
“Julian said you had agreed. Then Victoria showed me medical evaluations claiming you were unstable.”
“I was pregnant, not incompetent.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew enough then.”
He flinched.
Audrey took another step.
“What happened to my mother?”
Marcus looked toward the dark hallway.
“Julian wasn’t responsible for the crash.”
The words brought no relief.
“But he knows who was,” Marcus added.
A noise sounded below them.
Metal scraping against concrete.
Marcus’s face changed.
“They found us.”
One of Caleb’s agents shouted through the radio.
“Vehicle approaching from the east. No plates.”
The annex lights suddenly turned on.
Every room flooded with harsh white light.
Marcus shoved the key into Audrey’s hand.
“Leave through the west stairwell.”
“What about you?”
“I’m the reason they came.”
A gunshot cracked somewhere outside.
Glass shattered.
Caleb’s voice exploded through Audrey’s earpiece.
“Get down!”
Marcus pushed her behind a steel cabinet.
Another shot struck the wall.
Footsteps thundered up the stairs.
Marcus ran toward the opposite doorway, drawing the attackers away.
Audrey crawled through broken glass to the west stairwell.
Caleb reached her at the bottom.
They escaped through a maintenance tunnel as sirens approached.
Police searched the annex for six hours.
They found blood in the second-floor laboratory.
They did not find Marcus.
May you like
On the floor where he had stood, investigators discovered one final message written in blood.
ROOM 317.
