The Files Behind the Bookshelf
Chapter 02 - The Files Behind the Bookshelf
Maria pressed herself against the wooden panel while Daniel entered the library.
He moved slowly, scanning the shelves.
“I know someone has been in here,” he said.
Maria held her breath.
Behind the panel, her phone continued transferring the files to a secure server Anna’s father had created years earlier. The progress bar moved painfully slowly.
Daniel pulled books from the shelves and threw them onto the floor. He found the small brass latch but did not yet understand how to open it.
Then Maria deliberately knocked over a vase on the opposite side of the room.
Daniel turned.
She stepped out from behind a curtain, pretending to be frightened.
“I was cleaning, sir.”
“At midnight?”
“You told me the files had to be removed.”
Daniel stared at her, then smiled.
“Good. Help me find them.”
Maria obeyed, placing worthless folders into a box while the real files continued uploading inside her pocket.
Upstairs, Anna lay listening through a tiny wireless earpiece Maria had hidden beneath her pillow. She could hear Daniel’s voice through Maria’s phone microphone.
The upload reached ninety percent.
Then Daniel’s hand closed around Maria’s wrist.
“What is in your pocket?”
Maria pulled away.
The phone fell to the floor.
Daniel saw the screen.
FILES UPLOADED.
His face changed instantly.
“What did you send?”
Maria stepped back. “The truth.”
Daniel grabbed the phone, but the upload had already finished. He tried to delete the files, unaware that copies had been sent to three locations: Anna’s attorney, a police detective, and a journalist who had once investigated Daniel’s company.
He locked the library door.
“You should have stayed loyal.”
“I was loyal,” Maria replied. “Just not to you.”
Daniel searched the phone and found the live audio connection to Anna’s bedroom.
For the first time, he understood.
He ran upstairs.
Anna closed her eyes before he entered.
Daniel stood over her bed, breathing hard.
“You can hear me, can’t you?”
Anna remained still.
He leaned closer.
Her fingers moved beneath the blanket.
Only once.
But Daniel saw it.
A slow smile appeared on his face.
“Then you know exactly what happens next.”
He locked the bedroom door from the inside.
Downstairs, Maria pounded against the library door.
Outside the house, a police car turned onto the street.
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But Daniel had already disconnected the security system.
And in his hand was a syringe prepared by the doctor who had been helping him keep Anna silent.
