Chapter 11 - The Knock at the Door
The room seemed to tilt beneath my feet.
"Detective," I whispered, glancing over at Maisie, who was happily singing along to a cartoon song on the television screen, completely oblivious. "You’re telling me those men didn't rescue her."
"We don't think so," Reynolds replied, his voice deadly grim. "We think they extracted her to find out where the rest of the missing data went. And according to the court transcripts from your small claims hearing six months ago... you publicly testified that you personally extracted and analyzed the physical hardware from that purse."
The line went dead.
A sudden, chilling draft blew through the living room, even though the windows were shut tight against the August heat. Outside, the cicadas in the oak trees abruptly stopped their buzzing.
Total, unnatural silence descended over the property.
I quickly walked over to the front window, keeping behind the linen curtains, and peered down the long gravel driveway.
Parked at the edge of the tree line, fifty yards past my mailbox, was a nondescript black SUV with heavily tinted windows and out-of-state plates. The engine was idling, a thin wisp of gray exhaust curling into the humid air.
"Daddy?" Maisie’s soft voice broke the silence.
I turned around. Maisie was standing near the hallway, holding her stuffed rabbit, looking at me with wide, perceptive eyes.
"Daddy, who was on the phone?"
Before I could answer, a heavy, deliberate sound echoed through the entire house.
*THUD. THUD. THUD.*
Three slow, measured knocks on the heavy oak front door.
I reached instinctively behind the bookcase near the door, my fingers wrapping around the cold steel of the Sig Sauer 9mm I kept locked in the biometric safe. My pulse pounded in my ears like a war drum.
Through the frosted glass panel beside the door frame, a tall, broad silhouette stood motionless on my porch.
May you like
Then, a smooth, unfamiliar voice spoke through the wood—not with anger, but with chilling, polite precision:
"Mr. David Miller. We know Courtney didn't tell you the whole truth about what was in that fire. Open the door, please. We have something that belongs to your late wife, and you have something that belongs to us."
