Chapter Twenty Three - Basement

Trust was a fragile thing.

I'd learned that lesson in a dozen different ways,in foster homes where promises dissolved like sugar in rain, in group homes where alliances shifted with the wind, in the cold fluorescent silence of hospital waiting rooms where no one came to claim me.

But sitting on that rooftop, with Ashley's hand on my knee and Madden's shoulder pressed against mine and Myles watching the shadows like he'd been born to guard them, I felt something I hadn't felt in years.

Hope.

It was dangerous. Hope made you sloppy. Hope made you believe in happy endings, and happy endings were for people who hadn't watched their mother's casket disappear into frozen ground.

Still. It was there. Warm and stubborn, like a spark in wet kindling.

"So how do we get into the basement? " Ashley asked.

"The door requires a key card and a code. Earl said the janitorial staff has access to most buildings. He had a master key."

"Had," Madden said quietly. "Past tense, which means someone else has it now. The person who killed him."

Myles stood up, pacing the edge of the roof. "So we need a key card and a code. Any ideas?"

I pulled out my phone and opened the photograph of the door. The keypad was visible, ten digits, a card reader beneath.

"Security footage," I said. "If we could see who goes in and out, we might spot a pattern. Someone's schedule."

"I can get the footage." Madden's voice was flat, matter-of-fact. "The security office is in the BioMed building basement. Different sections, but the same network. I still have access from when I was a research assistant."

"Won't they notice?"

"I know how to wipe logs."

Ashley stared at her. "How do you know how to wipe logs?"

Madden's jaw tightened. "Natalie taught me. She said if you're going to dig up secrets, you need to know how to bury your tracks."

The name hung in the air like smoke. Natalie Vasquez. Madden's exgirlfriend. The girl who disappeared two years ago and never came back.

"I'm sorry," Ashley said softly.

Madden shook her head. "Don't be. Not yet. Save your sorry for when we find out what really happened to her."

---

We stayed on the roof for another hour, hammering out details.

Madden would access the security footage tomorrow morning. Ashley would create a distraction near the main entrance of the BioMed building,something attention-grabbing but not suspicious. A fake allergic reaction, maybe. She'd done drama in high school.

Myles would watch the perimeter, keep an eye out for anyone following us or watching from the shadows.

And I would go inside.

"Absolutely not," Myles said when I laid it out. "You're not going in alone."

"I'm the only one who fits through the vent."

"The vent?"

I pulled up a diagram I'd found in the maintenance records. Earl had shown me where to look, back before he died, back when he was still alive and scared and willing to help.

"The basement has a secondary ventilation system. Old, from when the building was first constructed. Most of it's been sealed off, but this section" I pointed to a narrow shaft near the loading dock, "leads directly to the lab. It's small. I'm small. So I fit."

"How do you know it's not sealed?"

"Because Earl used it. He showed me the blueprints. He said he'd been using it for years, checking on things the security cameras didn't see."

Ashley's face was pale. "Earl was spying on the lab?"

"Earl was trying to stay alive. He saw something down there. Something that scared him so badly he spent twenty-three years mopping the same floors and pretending he hadn't noticed."

"And now he's dead," Madden said.

"Now he's dead."

The wind picked up. Somewhere below, a door slammed. Laughter echoed across the quad. Normal sounds. The sounds of a campus that had no idea what lurked beneath its foundations.

"We do this tomorrow," I said. "No heroics. No deviations. We get in, we get evidence, we get out. Then we go to the police."

"The same police who closed Natalie's case?" Madden's voice was sharp. "The same police who called Alice's death an accident?"

"Detective Cross is different. She believes us."

"She's one person."

"She's enough."

Madden held my gaze for a long moment. Then she nodded slowly.

"Whatever ," she scoffed and walked to the other side of the roof

---

We climbed down the fire escape one by one, our footsteps careful, our voices hushed.

The quad was nearly empty at this hour, just a few students hurrying between buildings, heads down against the cold. The moon had slipped behind clouds, casting everything in shades of gray.

Myles walked me back to my dorm. Ashley and Madden went ahead, their arms linked, their whispers trailing behind them like smoke.

"You should sleep in my room again," Myles said quietly.

"I can't hide forever."

"It's not hiding. It's staying alive."

I stopped walking. Turned to face him. The streetlight above us flickered, casting his face in alternating light and shadow.

"Why do you care so much?" I asked. "You barely know me. You knew me as Nova for a few weeks. Now you know I'm Alexa. A stranger. A liar."

"I know you're brave." He stepped closer. "I know you're stubborn. I know you love your sister so much you'd burn your whole life down to find out what happened to her."

"You don't know that."

"I know you didn't sleep in my bed because you were scared. You slept in my bed because you were tired of being alone."

My throat tightened. "That's not..."

"It's okay." His voice was soft. "I'm tired too."

We stood there, inches apart, the cold air between us charged with something I couldn't name. His hand brushed mine. Just a brush. Just a question.

I didn't pull away.

"I can't," I whispered.

"I know."

"It's not because I don't..."

"I know."

He stepped back, giving me space, giving me air. His eyes were dark, unreadable, but his hands were steady at his sides.

"Tomorrow," he said. "We finish this."

"Tomorrow," I agreed.

He walked away. I watched him go, his silhouette shrinking into the darkness, until the campus swallowed him whole.

---

The dorm was quiet.

Ashley was already in bed, her back to me, her breathing deliberately even. She wasn't asleep. I could tell by the way her shoulders tensed when I closed the door.

"Ashley."

No response.

"I know you're awake."

She rolled over. Her eyes were red, wet. "You should have told me. From the beginning. You should have trusted me."

"I couldn't."

"Why? Because I'm too loud? Too cheerful? Too busy drawing cats on your notes to be useful?"

"Because I didn't want you to get hurt." I sat on the edge of her bed. "Everyone I get close to end up hurt. My mother. My sister. Earl. I'm poison, Ashley. I ruin things."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"It's true."

"No, it's not." She sat up, grabbing my hands. "You're not poisonous. You're scared. There's a difference."

I wanted to believe her. I wanted to curl up in her words like a blanket and let myself be warm.

But the photograph was still under my pillow. The warnings were still in my pocket. And somewhere out there, in the dark, someone was still watching.

"Tomorrow," I said. "After tomorrow, I'll tell you everything. No more secrets."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

She squeezed my hands, then let go and lay back down. Within minutes, her breathing evened out into sleep.

I sat there for a long time, watching her chest rise and fall, listening to the creak of the old building settling around us.

Then I pulled out my phone.

A message from Detective Cross: Warrant came through. We go in tomorrow night. 10 PM. Don't be late.

I typed back: I won't.

But I already knew.

I wasn't going to wait for her warrant.

I was going in first.

---

Morning came gray and cold.

I dressed in dark clothes, dark jeans, a black hoodie, boots that didn't squeak. I packed my bag with the essentials: lockpick set, flashlight, gloves, the photograph of Alice, the notes, my phone on silent.

Ashley watched me from her bed, her arms wrapped around her knees.

"You're not waiting for Detective Cross," she said. It wasn't a question.

"The warrant gives her access at 10 PM. That's fourteen hours from now. Fourteen hours for someone to destroy evidence. Fourteen hours for someone to clean up whatever's in that basement."

"So you're going now."

"Madden's getting the security footage. Myles is watching the perimeter. You're creating a distraction."

"And you're crawling through a vent into God knows what."

I zipped my bag and slung it over my shoulder. "That's the plan."

Ashley stood up. Walked to me. Grabbed my face in both her hands.

"Don't you dare die," she said. "Don't you dare leave me alone in this room with your ghost."

I covered her hands with mine. "I won't."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

She let go. I walked to the door.

"Alexa?" she called.

I turned.

"Your sister was lucky to have you."

The words hit me like a fist.

I nodded, not trusting my voice, and walked out