Chapter 1 - The Three Knocks
The heavy oak door rattled under the sheer force of his aggressive knocking.
I looked at Lucy, whose pale face had just completely drained of whatever color she had left.
I pointed a trembling finger toward my small guest bathroom and shoved her inside without saying a single word.
I gently closed the bathroom door, leaving her and baby Emiliano hidden in the dark.
I took a deep breath, smoothed out my floral cardigan, and grabbed my wooden cane.
I walked slowly toward the front door, making sure my footsteps sounded heavy and ancient.
"Who is it?" I called out, forcing my voice to tremble just enough to sound like a frail, confused old woman.
"Mrs. Carmen, it is Adrian from down the hall," a smooth, unnervingly calm voice replied from the other side of the wood.
I unlocked the deadbolt and pulled the door open just a few inches, keeping the heavy chain attached.
Adrian was standing in the hallway, wearing a perfectly tailored business suit and a polite, charming smile.
He looked like the kind of successful, respectable man that any mother would be proud to call her son.
But his dark eyes were completely dead, constantly scanning the visible corners of my living room.
"Good morning, Adrian," I said, squinting up at him as if I was struggling to recognize his face.
"I am so sorry to bother you, Mrs. Carmen, but I seem to have misplaced my wife," he said smoothly.
"Lucy went out to buy groceries, but she left her phone on the kitchen counter."
"I was just wondering if you had seen her in the hallway this morning."
I shook my head slowly, gripping my cane with both hands to hide my rising panic.
"I have not seen anyone today, young man," I lied effortlessly, looking directly into his cold eyes.
"I was just sitting down to drink my morning coffee and watch my television programs."
Adrian stared at me for a long, suffocating moment, his polite smile never leaving his handsome face.
"Thank you, Mrs. Carmen," he finally said, taking a slow step backward into the dim hallway.
"Have a wonderful day."
I closed the door, slid the deadbolt back into place, and let out a massive, exhausted breath.
I waited for the sound of his expensive leather shoes walking away toward the elevator bank.
When the hallway fell completely silent, I leaned forward and looked through the small glass peephole to make sure he was gone.
Adrian was not walking toward the elevator.
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He was standing on a chair right outside my apartment, screwing a tiny, black wireless camera directly into the ceiling above my door.
He knew she was inside.
