Chapter 3: A Warning in the Dark
John immediately moved Emily and Lily into a protected police residence.
Plainclothes officers followed them everywhere.
Lily did not understand why she could no longer attend school or play in the yard.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked one evening.
John knelt in front of her.
“No.”
“Then why are there police outside?”
“Because someone dangerous is still missing.”
Lily’s expression changed.
“The man from the warehouse?”
John hesitated.
“Yes.”
She looked toward the window.
“Is he coming back?”
John took her hands.
“I won’t let him near you.”
The next afternoon, Emily drove Lily to a private music lesson inside a police training facility. Two unmarked cars followed them.
As they approached an intersection, every traffic light suddenly went dark.
The entire block lost power.
A delivery truck came speeding from a side street.
It headed directly toward Emily’s car.
One of the protective vehicles slammed into the truck, knocking it off course.
Emily’s car spun and stopped against the curb.
Lily screamed.
Officers rushed toward them and pulled both mother and daughter from the vehicle.
The truck driver had vanished before the crash.
Inside the cab, police found a small black envelope.
John opened it at headquarters.
There was only one sentence inside.
TODAY WAS A WARNING.
Across the street from the crash, Victor watched from inside a parked sedan.
He saw John arrive and embrace his family.
May you like
Victor smiled.
“Now you understand.”
