Chapter 6 - The Woman in the Gray Coat
Evelyn did not go alone.
Mira waited in a parked car across the street while Rosa stood near the station entrance dressed in a dark coat.
The old train station had been abandoned for more than ten years. Rain passed through holes in its metal roof, and faded departure signs still hung above empty platforms.
At midnight, a woman in a gray coat appeared beside the ticket booths.
She was in her forties, with short black hair and a narrow scar above one eyebrow.
“Evelyn Vale?” she asked.
“Hart.”
“Not for much longer.”
“Are you Lila Grant?”
The woman looked past her.
“You were told to come alone.”
“I was also told the roof was dangerous. I have stopped obeying strangers.”
Lila almost smiled.
“Good. Your father said the same thing.”
“You knew him?”
“I studied his designs. I never met him.”
“Why did you send me the glass?”
“Because I supervised the panel replacement.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Who hired Northbridge?”
“A holding company connected to Hart Meridian.”
“Daniel?”
“The authorization carried his electronic signature.”
“Was the panel defective?”
“It was deliberately weakened.”
Rosa moved from the entrance.
“How?”
Lila looked at her sharply.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who has watched the Hart family bury the truth for thirty years.”
Lila opened a metal case.
Inside were photographs of the roof panel, laboratory results and copies of maintenance orders.
“The new glass looks identical,” she explained. “But the inner layer was treated with a compound that becomes unstable under concentrated pressure. A fracture will spread much faster than normal safety glass.”
“Would it collapse?” Evelyn asked.
“Not immediately. It would crack, sink and create enough terror to force someone to move where they were directed.”
“The rescue door.”
Lila nodded.
“Someone also changed the lock. It can now be controlled from the executive corridor.”
Evelyn felt the baby move.
“Why did you agree to install it?”
“I did not know the panel had been altered. The materials arrived sealed. I discovered the treatment after a sample failed inspection.”
“Why not report it?”
“I did.”
“To whom?”
“Adrian Cole.”
Rosa’s expression hardened.
“What did he do?”
“He told me to remain silent until he could preserve the security records. The next morning, my office was searched and my inspection files disappeared.”
“Do you trust him?” Evelyn asked.
“I trusted your father’s system more.”
Lila handed Evelyn a small memory card.
“This contains the test data and copies of the original maintenance request. It may prove the roof was altered, but it will not prove who ordered it.”
“The camera footage might.”
“The main cameras can be disabled.”
“My father created a backup.”
Lila looked surprised.
“You found Aegis?”
“Part of it.”
“Then you need Room 1706.”
“We were there.”
“No. You found the archive entrance. Room 1706 is larger than the space behind the wall.”
Rosa took out the brass key.
Lila examined it.
“The number is not a room number. It is a code.”
“For what?”
“A second entrance beneath the tower.”
Footsteps echoed from the far platform.
A flashlight moved through the darkness.
Lila immediately closed the case.
“You were followed.”
Mira flashed the headlights from outside.
“Come with us,” Evelyn said.
“I cannot.”
“You will be safer with an attorney.”
“No one is safe near this company.”
The flashlight moved closer.
Lila ran toward the opposite platform.
“Wait!”
She stopped only long enough to call back.
“Ask Rosa what she hid in Room 1706.”
Then she disappeared between two trains.
Evelyn turned toward Rosa.
“What did she mean?”
Rosa did not answer.
A man emerged from the darkness wearing a gray maintenance uniform.
Evelyn recognized the cap.
He had been on the roof.
May you like
The man looked at the memory card in her hand.
“Mrs. Hart,” he said, “your husband would like his property returned.”
