Chapter 3
The heavy restaurant doors were locked from the inside, plunging the dining room into a deep, eerie twilight pierced only by the amber streetlights filtering through the floor-to-ceiling front windows. In the kitchen, the atmosphere crackled with urgent tension. Lucy sat on a stainless steel stool, wrapped in a thick wool blanket that David had retrieved from his car. A cup of warm water sat between her trembling hands, though she had yet to take a sip. Jack refused to leave her side, his fingers clutching the edge of her blanket as if letting go would cause her to vanish back into the walk-in cooler.
David paced the length of the prep line, his heavy footsteps echoing sharply in the quiet kitchen. He held his phone tightly, the screen illuminating his hardened features. “I called the police, but dispatch says it’s going to take twenty minutes for a unit to reach this side of town because of the bridge construction,” David said, his jaw tight with frustration. He stopped pacing and looked toward Claire, who was slumped against the counter, staring numbly at the floor. “You need to call Marcus right now. Act normal. Tell him there’s an urgent refrigeration failure that requires his immediate attention.”
Claire flinched at the suggestion, hugging her black blazer tightly around herself as though it could shield her from the coming storm. “I… I don’t know if I can do that, David. What if he knows I found out?” Her voice cracked with genuine fear. She had spent years building her reputation as a meticulous, respected restaurateur, and the thought that a monster had been operating inside her establishment shook the very foundation of her identity.
“You have to,” Lucy intervened, her voice carrying a quiet, unyielding authority that commanded the room’s attention. She looked up at Claire with steady, bruised eyes. “If you don’t stop him tonight, Claire, he will finish what he started. He didn't just lock me in the dark for fun. He found out about the discrepancies in the supply audits I was running for corporate. He’s embezzling tens of thousands of dollars, and he was willing to let me freeze to death to cover his tracks.”
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Jack looked up at his mother, a sudden wave of protective anger washing over his youthful features. “He almost killed you,” the boy whispered, his knuckles tightening again. “We can’t just wait for the cops. We have to find him before he runs.”
David placed a heavy, reassuring hand on Jack’s messy brown hair, softening his expression for a fleeting moment before looking back at Claire. The unspoken demand hung heavily in the air. Claire swallowed hard, reached into her blazer pocket, and pulled out her smartphone. Her fingers hovered over the screen, searching for Marcus’s contact card. With a deep, shuddering breath, she tapped the glowing glass and held the phone to her ear, praying that the man who had worked loyally for her for three years would pick up the line and walk straight into the trap they had set.
