Chapter 14 - HOW THE KILLER GOT OUT
Evan finally talked after prosecutors offered to consider cooperation.
He admitted entering through the shaft at 9:03.
How?
Roof.
Stolen fire-system badge.
Rope descent to Michael’s level.
He waited on a maintenance platform behind the wine cabinet.
At 9:12, Ward entered through front door.
Michael locked it.
Evan listened.
At 9:26, Ward climbed into shaft and went upward.
Evan moved aside in darkness.
Ward passed without seeing him.
Then Evan entered apartment.
Michael turned.
Recognized him.
“What are you doing here?”
Evan demanded the encrypted drive.
Michael refused.
Grabbed the cane.
Evan knew the cane contained a spring spike.
He twisted the handle release first.
The spike deployed.
During the struggle, Evan drove the cane forward.
One puncture.
Michael collapsed into chair.
Evan panicked.
Removed the carbon-fiber spike from the mechanism.
Put it in a sealed tool pouch.
Took the encrypted drive.
Returned through the hidden panel.
Climbed down twelve floors.
Then what?
The maintenance door was alarmed.
He never used it.
Instead he climbed back up.
All the way to the roof.
Badge out through roof fire access.
Then crossed to the adjacent parking structure using a maintenance bridge used by window contractors.
Not on resident plans.
From there:
service elevator.
garage.
Black Ridge van.
No hallway camera.
No apartment exit.
No smart-lock event.
The room remained locked because Michael himself had locked it before the murder.
Jack listened.
Then asked:
“What about the knife?”
Evan looked at him.
“There was no knife.”
May you like
Exactly.
The imagined reconstruction had been wrong from the beginning.
