Page 51 of Say Nothing
"Where are you?"she whispered.
The living room was open to the right, and a hallway ran to the left of the open door that faced her, where stairs descended down into the basement.Left and right felt like safer options, but she knew Derek and whatever else awaited her lay in the basement.
She pointed her gun down and took the steps one at a time, stepping lightly to stop the wood from creaking.She was at a disadvantage.Whoever was in the basement would see her a lot better than she would see them.She knew it was foolish.If they wanted her dead, they could shoot her before she even saw their face.Still, Derek was down there, and that meant she would face the danger with him.
A shuffling to her right caught her attention, but she couldn’t see who was there.She knew she was a sitting duck, so she ran down the last six stairs, spinning around to see—"
"Whoa!"Derek shouted."Don't shoot!"
Alison immediately lowered the gun."I thought you were… the line was dead."
"The reception down here is not great," Derek admitted."There’s no one in here."
"Hello?"The shout came from upstairs."Police!"
"We’re down here," Derek said."Special Agent Sullivan."
"Officers Williams and Duncan," the man called.
"One of you on the door and the other start a search on the main level and the upstairs," Derek ordered."I’ve already put in the call for a forensic team."
"You got it."
Alison looked around the dark basement, and her eyes narrowed.There was no doubt now that they were in the right place.A wall of monitors sat on the large desk at the far end of the room, all of them blank.Below the desk was a large computer tower, the front of it opaque, with lights inside and fans running.Three keyboards and a mouse sat on the desk.The desk was littered with what looked like empty energy drink cans.
"This is where she controlled it all from," Alison commented.
"Yeah," Derek said."I think you were right about Bennet.I don't know if this is all password protected, but digital forensics and the tech guys can take a look and see if they can get into the system.This is where she controlled the security systems from.This is where she controlled everything.Then, there’s this."Derek pointed to the corkboard he stood beside, the one she hadn’t noticed until then.
Alison stepped toward it, recognizing many of the faces on the board, including her own.She traced the red threads from her photo to the three dead women.There were dozens more photos, maybe a hundred.
"She had to change her plan," Alison said."Maybe we were getting too close, and she knew it.She would have wanted to kill as many others as possible first, then come for me, but she needed to kill me next to stop me."
"We have it confirmed; it’s all right in front of us now.We just need to find Vanessa," Derek said.
"She was here ten minutes ago," Alison said.
"Was she?"Derek asked."They’re tracing her phone back at the office, but how do we know we’re not chasing our tails again?If she’s been using the equipment down here to bypass security systems and remotely download information to frame other people, then she’ll have rerouted her phone signal.I have no doubt about that.We don't know the last time she was here.When we get the location of the phone, it might still say it’s here, and even if it’s moved, she might be leading us on a wild goose chase.The best we can do right now is to get her description out there and hope we get lucky."
"Or we use me as bait," Alison said.
"What?No," Derek said.
"It’s me she wants, and she obviously knows we’re onto her.If she can't get to me, then what?Leave the city?The State?Goes off-grid?Remains in the grid, but wipes any digital footprint so we can never find her.If her brother is still in the UK, she might be on her way over there.I can flush her out."
"You know I don't like that, but I also want to catch her.If we do this, we do it under my supervision," Derek said."You don't leave my sight until we have her in custody."
"Okay," Alison said.
"So, how do we get to her?"Derek asked.
"She reached out to me," Alison said."Let’s see what happens when I reach out to her."She took out her phone."Let’s go upstairs first to make sure I can get through."
Derek and Alison left the basement and headed back up to the main level, where they found the two officers, one at the door and the other searching the building.Alison found the incomprehensible message she’d been sent, and hit the phone icon at the top of the message to dial the number.She put her phone on speakerphone and listened to it ring, not expecting her to answer, until she did.
"Hello?"Vanessa said.
"Hello, Vanessa, it’s Alison Payne.I’d really like to talk to you face to face," Alison said.
