Chapter 3 - The Detective Who Found Her Too Fast
“Everybody stay where you are,” Pike said.
Mark stared at him.
“How did you get here?”
Pike’s gun remained low, but not low enough.
“Silent alarm.”
Jack whispered, “There was no alarm.”
Pike looked at him.
“Kid, don’t make this harder.”
Lucy moved in front of Jack.
“Seven months and that’s still your favorite sentence.”
Pike’s eyes narrowed.
Mark stepped between the gun and his family.
“You told me she ran away.”
“She did.”
Mark pointed toward Lucy’s tied wrists.
“Does that look like running?”
Pike glanced toward the kitchen exit.
“Where’s Diane?”
“That’s what I was going to ask you.”
The detective’s expression changed by half an inch.
Enough.
Mark understood.
“You’re not here because of an alarm.”
Pike raised the gun.
“Phone on the floor.”
Mark did not move.
“Dad,” Jack whispered.
Lucy said, “Do it.”
Mark placed his phone down.
Pike pointed at Jack.
“Yours too.”
Jack slowly removed his phone.
As he bent, Lucy said, “Don’t.”
Pike snapped, “What?”
“Don’t pretend you’re cleaning this up.”
“You don’t know what I’m doing.”
“I know exactly what you’re doing. Diane called because the freezer door opened. You came through the alley because she gave you a key. You’re going to say Mark found me, panicked, and attacked everyone.”
Pike gave a thin smile.
“Always smart.”
Mark felt rage explode inside him.
“You framed my wife.”
“Ex-wife.”
“That doesn’t make this better.”
Jack suddenly threw his phone.
Not at Pike.
At the stainless-steel wall beside him.
Pike flinched toward the sound.
Lucy grabbed a metal sheet pan and slammed it into his gun arm.
The weapon fired.
The bullet punched into the ceiling.
Mark charged.
He hit Pike around the waist and drove him into the prep table.
Jack scrambled under a counter.
Lucy kicked the gun away.
Pike elbowed Mark hard in the cheek.
Mark staggered.
Pike reached for the weapon.
Jack slid a mop handle across the floor.
The gun skidded beneath the industrial stove.
Pike cursed.
Then the restaurant’s back door opened.
Diane stood there holding a second gun.
“Enough!”
Everybody froze.
Diane aimed at Lucy.
Mark moved in front of her.
“Put it down.”
Diane’s eyes filled with furious tears.
“You always choose her.”
Mark almost laughed.
“I thought she abandoned our son because you helped make me believe it.”
“She did abandon you.”
Lucy snapped, “You kidnapped me.”
Diane shook her head.
“No. I contained you.”
Jack stared at her.
“You locked my mom in a freezer.”
“Tonight. Not for seven months.”
Silence.
Mark’s eyes narrowed.
“Then where was she?”
Diane smiled faintly.
“That’s the part Lucy hasn’t told you yet.”
Lucy’s face went pale.
— — —
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