Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN'S NAME WAS LILY
Caleb did not run.
Not immediately.
Fear held him still for half a second too long.
Then instinct took over.
He grabbed the corridor door and slammed it between them.
The hooded man hit the other side almost instantly.
The frame shook.
Caleb shoved a kitchen table against it.
Then another chair.
The woman screamed from the hall.
“CALEB!”
He froze.
She knew his name.
The hooded man struck the door again.
Caleb grabbed his phone and ran toward the front of the apartment where his signal returned.
911 connected.
He told the dispatcher:
“There’s a woman trapped inside the building.”
“What address?”
He gave it.
Then:
“There’s a man in the hallway. He threatened me.”
Police arrived in seven minutes.
The corridor was empty.
No woman.
No hooded man.
Only the handprints.
And a metal restraint bolted to the wall near the far end.
Officer Mara Chen stared at Caleb.
“You’re saying she was sitting here?”
“Yes.”
“Name?”
“I don’t know.”
Then he remembered.
She had called him Caleb.
Mara noticed his expression.
“What?”
“She knew my name.”
The officer looked toward the broken door.
“Could she have heard someone say it?”
“I don’t know.”
They searched the building.
No hidden room.
No second exit they could find.
The corridor ended at a blank plaster wall.
But the woman had vanished.
Victor Shaw arrived at 3:11 a.m.
He looked furious.
Not frightened.
“What did you do?”
Caleb stared.
“There was a woman back there.”
Victor laughed.
“No.”
“I saw her.”
“You broke into a condemned service space.”
Officer Chen stepped between them.
“We found a restraint fixture.”
Victor’s face changed slightly.
“Old plumbing bracket.”
Caleb almost shouted.
“It had a cuff attached!”
Mara looked at Victor.
“Who has access to this corridor?”
Victor answered:
“Maintenance.”
“Names?”
“Several contractors.”
Then Caleb heard something from the stairwell.
A woman crying.
Not the trapped woman.
The elderly tenant from downstairs, Mrs. Adler.
She looked at Caleb.
Then at Victor.
Her face went pale.
“Not again,” she whispered.
Everyone turned.
Victor snapped:
“Go back inside.”
Mrs. Adler stared at him.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Her name is Lily.”
