Chapter 2 - ANOTHER VOICE IN THE DARK
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The second knock came before Ava could finish speaking to the dispatcher. Noah pointed at the black coupe again, his eyes pleading with her to believe what he already knew.
"Another child may be trapped," Ava said into the phone. "Black car, east wall. Send officers through the front entrance, and tell them the businessman is still inside."
Victor took another step toward the service hall. Ava stayed between him and Noah, but she could not guard the boy and reach the other trunk at the same time.
"Listen carefully," she told Noah. "Stand beside this pillar where I can see you. Don't approach the broken lights. The police are coming through those doors."
Noah nodded with the solemn concentration of a child who had already learned too much about danger. Ava ran toward the black coupe without breaking the dispatcher connection.
The rear release did not respond. She pressed twice, then noticed a narrow panel above the license plate, nearly invisible beneath the blue showroom lighting.
Victor's shout echoed behind her. "Don't touch that car!" He tried to follow, but the fallen rope bases turned his first steps into a painful stagger.
Ava pulled the emergency latch inside the panel. The trunk rose several inches, caught against a poorly fastened cargo strap, and revealed a pair of frightened dark eyes.
"Please," a girl whispered. She was older than Noah, perhaps eight, with curly black hair and a yellow cardigan twisted beneath her chin. "He said nobody would hear me."
"I hear you," Ava answered. "I'm opening it." She freed the strap, lifted the lid fully, and saw that the girl was curled around a small glittering backpack.
Ava helped her onto the floor. The girl shivered beneath the showroom's cold air-conditioning but appeared alert, with no visible injuries beyond the exhaustion in her face.
"My name is Ava. What's yours?" The girl stared beyond her shoulder before answering. "Lila Brooks. Please don't let the tall man come back."
"He won't touch you while I'm here," Ava said. She guided Lila toward Noah, careful to keep both children beyond the fallen sign and out of Victor's reach.
The children recognized each other immediately. Noah opened his arms, and Lila crouched to hold him, whispering something so quietly that Ava could not make out the words.
A door slammed near the office corridor. Victor was no longer where Ava had left him. Behind the showroom reception desk, a security monitor flickered to black.
The dispatcher asked whether the children could leave the building. Ava looked at the locked glass doors, their magnetic catches glowing red, and felt the first edge of a different fear.
A man in a charcoal security uniform appeared behind the reception counter. His badge read GRANT PIKE, and a fresh cut on his collar suggested he had dressed in a hurry.
"We're closed," Grant said. "I need everyone to remain calm." His eyes passed over the rescued children without a flicker of surprise, then settled on Ava's raised phone.
"Unlock the doors," Ava said. "The police are outside." Grant smiled too gently, as though a softer voice could turn an unlawful command into something reasonable.
"There has been a misunderstanding." He reached beneath the desk. Ava thought of the silenced security screens and began moving the children toward the front windows instead.
A muted electronic buzz rolled through the building. Every display screen turned gray, and the rotating red showroom logo disappeared from the far wall like a light being extinguished underwater.
"They're erasing something," Lila whispered. Ava looked down sharply. The girl nodded toward the security office. "He did that before. The cameras went dark when they moved us."
The front doors rattled beneath a police officer's fist. Red-and-blue lights pulsed through the glass, transforming the showroom's immaculate surfaces into an urgent wash of color.
Grant pressed a hidden switch. The doors released with a heavy click, but instead of greeting the officers, he turned and disappeared behind the service corridor's gray fire door.
Two uniformed officers entered with a paramedic. Ava raised both hands to show she was not a threat, then pointed toward the children and explained where they had been found.
The paramedic knelt beside Noah and Lila. Detective Lena Ortiz entered a moment later, rain darkening the shoulders of her coat, and studied the wreckage before meeting Ava's eyes.
"Where is Sloane?" Ortiz asked. Ava pointed toward the service hall. "He went that way. His security chief followed after shutting down the cameras."
Ortiz spoke into her radio. Officers moved to block the rear exits while another team swept past the shattered sign, calling Victor's name without receiving an answer.
Ava remained near the children. She wanted to chase the man who had slapped her, but Noah was holding her hand with the desperation of someone afraid rescue could be reversed.
"My mom works here sometimes," Noah said suddenly. Ortiz lowered herself to his height. "Can you tell me her name?" He swallowed. "Sarah Reed. She counts the money."
Lila gripped her backpack. "My mom is Jasmine Brooks," she added. "She asked questions about the cars. Then a man told her questions cost something."
Ortiz exchanged a brief glance with Ava. Neither child sounded confused about who they were. They sounded like two witnesses carrying pieces of a story adults had tried to bury.
A crash sounded behind the service hall. Through an open side window, Ava glimpsed a white delivery van reversing toward the loading gate, its lights slicing the rain.
"Vehicle exiting rear," Ortiz called into her radio. Police moved outside, but the van struck a rolling barrier and burst through a service lane hidden behind the neighboring garage.
For an instant Ava saw Grant in the passenger seat. He was clutching a flat black equipment case, and his face looked pale behind the rain-streaked window.
"He took the recordings," Ava said. Ortiz wrote down the van's partial plate, then turned toward the rear hallway as another officer's voice erupted over the radio.
Victor had been found behind a maintenance door, attempting to force open a private stairwell. The officers secured him, and his shouted demands for an attorney echoed faintly through the building.
Noah barely reacted. His attention had fixed on the mezzanine offices overlooking the floor, where one rectangle of light still burned behind a frosted glass partition.
"My mom was behind the blue door," he whispered. "I heard her talking yesterday. They told her to sign something before I could go home."
Lila looked upward too. "There was another woman," she said. "She kept telling them we weren't things they could trade. Then someone made her stop talking."
Ortiz called for officers to search the upper floor. Ava watched their flashlights travel along the glass passage, while the children leaned together beneath the paramedic's protective blanket.
The black coupe's trunk stood open now. Across the showroom the red supercar gleamed beneath cracked lighting, its spotless paint an obscene contrast to what had happened inside it.
An officer at the mezzanine shouted that one office had been locked from the outside. Ortiz looked toward Ava, and for the first time her controlled expression showed real alarm.
May you like
The detective moved for the stairs. Ava held Noah's hand tighter as something heavy slammed against the locked office door above them, followed by a woman's unmistakable cry.
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