Chapter 2 - Behind the storage door
Officer Holloway found me in the rear utility section.
Not tied up.
Not unconscious.
Not bleeding dramatically.
Locked inside a wire-mesh storage room with a solid steel service door behind it.
The basement had once housed coal storage before the building was renovated.
Most tenants used the cages for bicycles, holiday decorations, and boxes.
The rear service room contained plumbing shutoffs and old maintenance equipment.
I had been trapped there for roughly twenty-six minutes.
Long enough to hear my children crying above me.
Long enough to understand I had made a terrible mistake going downstairs alone.
I was hitting a metal pipe with an adjustable wrench when Officer Holloway’s flashlight appeared.
“Police!”
I nearly collapsed.
“Here!”
He reached the door.
Padlock.
Not ours.
New.
Cheap.
Officer Holloway asked:
“Are you injured?”
“No.”
“Anyone in there with you?”
“No.”
“Who locked this?”
I could not answer immediately.
Not because I didn’t have a name.
Because saying it made the situation real.
“Derek.”
My estranged husband.
Lily and Noah’s father.
Officer Holloway looked through the mesh.
“Is Derek still in the building?”
“I don’t know.”
That changed his posture.
He radioed upstairs.
Officer Walsh moved the children into Mrs. Turner’s apartment.
Additional officers were requested.
Holloway could not simply open the padlock with a key because I had none.
A firefighter unit arrived with cutting tools.
Three minutes later, the lock came off.
I stepped out.
My hands were shaking.
My right palm was scraped from gripping the wrench.
No major injuries.
One bruise on my shoulder from hitting the wall when the door slammed.
That was all.
The psychological part was worse.
My first question:
“Lily and Noah?”
“Safe.”
I closed my eyes.
“Where?”
“Upstairs with another officer.”
Then Holloway asked:
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
I looked toward the electrical panel.
Our apartment breaker was still off.
Then toward the rear service exit.
It stood slightly open.
May you like
Cold night air moving through it.
Derek was gone.
