Chapter 6 - The Setup
The digital clock on the dashboard of Sarah’s battered Honda Civic blinked 8:45 PM.
We sat parked two blocks away from our apartment complex. The neon lights of the city hummed against the rainy windshield, casting eerie red and blue reflections across the dashboard.
"Are you completely sure about this, Dani?" Sarah asked, her hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were stark white. "If he catches you in that apartment before the police arrive, he will kill you."
"He won't have the chance," I replied, checking the weight of the heavy iron tire iron resting on the floorboard. "Marcus thinks I'm running away scared. He thinks I'm hiding in fear. But predators get sloppy when they think the prey is trapped."
I pulled out my burner phone—the one Sarah had bought us at a local bodega—and dialed Marcus’s personal cell.
It rang twice before he picked up. His voice was icy, devoid of any pretense of warmth.
"Where are you, Danielle?"
"I'm tired of running, Marcus," I said, putting a pathetic, trembling quiver in my voice. "I went back to the apartment. I'm waiting for you in the living room. Let's... let's talk this out. Please don't hurt me."
A heavy silence hung on the line. Then, a dark, chilling chuckle echoed through the receiver.
"Smart girl. Stay right there. Don't move an inch."
Click.
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"He's heading home," I said, looking at Sarah. "Call the detectives tied to the cold case report from five years ago. Give them the corporate metadata and the old pharmaceutical file. Tell them Marcus Vance is about to commit a murder in real-time."
I opened the car door, stepped out into the pouring rain, and walked back toward the apartment building that had almost become my tomb.
