Matt said, “It was pitch-black, but now there’s a faint light.” He gestured with their joined hands at the area on the far side of the hall, past the elevator. The light flickered, but it only turned the black to dark gray.
“Maybe the elevator crashing set off an alarm or hit some switch or I don’t know, jostled a wire?”
“No light the way I came.” He gestured down a black hall.
“I say we go toward the light, but with extreme caution.”
“Okay. Just a sec. I thought—hell, Kara, I thought you were dead.”
“I feel like I was hit by a truck, but I’m alive.”
She felt his lips on her forehead.
“Any chance Garrett Reid was released from jail?” she asked.
“They would have told me,” Matt said.
Again, silence for a long minute before she asked quietly, “Did we arrest the wrong guy?”
“No,” Matt said. “We caught him in our room. He put ketamine in our food—we have the tests to confirm.”
Matt was right, though Kara had a bad feeling they’d missed something.
“The question,” Matt continued, “is were we targeted because we’re cops or for another reason?”
“Two killers targeting newlyweds?” Kara said with a bitter laugh. Then she stopped. “He has a partner.”
“Oh, shit,” Matt said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Catherine never talked about him having a partner,” Kara said. “Maybe we’re thinking about this all wrong. Maybe thisissomeone else after us.”
She didn’t believe that. Who knew where they were? Who knew how to get to them?
“No, I think we’re right.” He touched her face. “You okay? I mean, nothing broken? Not bleeding?”
“Just sore with a pounding headache. I want to get out of here.” She hated being trapped, not knowing where she was or what dangers she faced.
“Stick close. We don’t know what condition this building is in, or if whoever brought us here is still around.”
Matt got up, then helped Kara stand.
“What floor do you think we’re on?” Kara asked. “The elevator hit pretty quick.”
“My guess is the elevator fell two to three stories. This is some sort of multilevel warehouse. Maybe a factory. Abandoned. I woke up in what seemed to be a break room. Tables and lockers, but mostly empty, and there were no windows. Ready?”
“Yeah,” she said and squeezed his hand as they walked cautiously down the hall toward the flickering green light.
There was nothing distinguishing on the walls to tell them where they were—no signage, no names, no directions. They tried each door that they came across and found them locked. At the end of the hall they turned and saw that the flickering was an exit sign.
“Staircase?” Kara said.
The door was different from the others; this had a push-in handle.
“I think so,” he said and reached for it.
“Wait!” she said, pulling his hand back. “Remember, I think the elevator was booby-trapped, set up to fall when I opened the door.”
“It’s old. Maybe your added weight compromised the already decaying mechanisms.”
