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The basement was empty. No barrels.
She swept her flashlight over the basement, but all she could see was concrete floors and brick walls.
She turned to leave when she realized one brick was missing from the wall.
She stared at it for a long moment. How had one brick fallen out?
She moved closer to it, realizing there was a button in the wall. Anna looked over her shoulder, her heart in her throat. Had Jackson left the brick out, knowing she’d come here tonight? Or was this a trap?
Anna looked back toward the stairs. She could leave and run back to the diner. But if Diaz had left this brick out, there was a chance he already knew she—or someone—was here. So, if she was going to die, she might as well find out what this button did first.
She pushed the button and heard a click, but nothing else happened.
She frowned, then pushed it again.
She heard the same click but nothing happened. The click sounded like it came from within the wall.
Anna ran her fingers along the wall, looking for any sealed compartments. Diaz loved games and he was always playing pranks on people. He would love a hidden room.
She couldn’t believe she hadn’t known about it, though.
She pressed the button, waited for the click, then leaned her weight on the bricks. It shifted slightly. She groaned, pushing all her weight against the bricks, and eventually the door moved, opening to a secret room with a staircase... and her breath hitched.
That report may not be a fake.
She quickly moved toward the stairs, because she needed to get back to the diner soon.
Her footsteps echoed on the steel steps as she descended into the darkness.
Her chest was so tight she could barely breathe by the time she stepped onto the concrete floor of the lower basement. It smelled musty, like it had been closed up for years. It was as empty as the rest of the warehouse too, but in the corner was a mark on the floor.
One round circle that Anna estimated was exactly the size and shape of the barrels Diaz used.
She squeezed her eyes shut as they filled with stinging tears.
Had Olivia been here the entire time?
Her beautiful body stuffed into a barrel?
It was too much for Anna to think about. She pushed the mental images from her mind and concentrated. If she didn’t get back to the diner soon, she’d find herself in a barrel of her own.
She walked the length of the basement, but it had been completely cleaned out.
Anna took the stairs two at a time again, pushing the heavy brick door closed behind her. She didn’t replace the brick—she didn’t want anyone, Jackson included, to know she’d been in here. So she left things exactly as she’d found them.
She climbed the stairs back to the ground floor, pausing at the top, listening for any sound of life besides her own—but her pounding heartbeat was the only noise she could hear.
She moved quickly toward the sliding door, pulled it open enough to slip through, then locked it and darted toward the trees.
A lump was in her throat the entire time.
Had someone seen her?
Had that been a trap?
She didn’t feel like she’d been watched, but she couldn’t be sure.
She held her phone in her hand as she walked back into the diner, but her veins turned to ice when she realized her table wasn’t empty.
