Chapter 4 - The Empty Apartment
The investor meeting began well.
Mara stood at the end of a polished conference table, presenting cost projections for a new medical center. Her phone remained face down beside her laptop.
Twenty minutes into the presentation, it vibrated.
She ignored it.
Then it vibrated again.
And again.
During a pause, Mara glanced at the screen.
The notification came from the camera above the twins’ play area.
Unusual sound detected.
Mara opened the application.
At first, she saw only the play mat and the edge of Noah’s crib.
Then Noah crawled into view.
He was crying.
Lily sat near the couch, also crying, with tears covering her cheeks.
No adult appeared on the screen.
Mara turned up the sound.
“Mom?” she whispered.
She switched to the kitchen camera.
Empty.
The hallway camera showed Evelyn and Claire leaving the apartment nearly forty minutes earlier. They carried their paddles and sports bags.
Mara’s blood turned cold.
She called Evelyn.
No answer.
She called Claire.
No answer.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Her business partner, Julian, stood.
“Mara, what’s wrong?”
“My babies are alone.”
She grabbed her bag and ran from the conference room.
In the elevator, she called the building manager, Tessa Reynolds.
“Tessa, please go to my apartment. My mother left the twins alone.”
“I’m on the first floor,” Tessa replied. “I’m going now.”
Mara had installed a keypad lock, but Tessa did not know the code.
Mara gave it to her while rushing through the parking garage.
Then she called emergency services.
By the time she reached her car, Tessa was pounding on the apartment door.
“The code isn’t working,” Tessa said.
Mara remembered Evelyn complaining about the lock earlier that morning.
Her mother had changed the interior safety latch.
The door could not open fully from outside.
Officer Grant and the fire department were dispatched.
Mara drove toward home, trying to remain calm.
She kept the phone connected to Tessa.
“I hear them,” Tessa said. “They’re crying, but I can hear both of them.”
Mara gripped the steering wheel.
“Stay with them. Please don’t leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Ahead, traffic slowed near an intersection.
Mara stopped at the red light.
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When it turned green, she moved forward.
She never saw the delivery van that entered the intersection from her right.
