The patrol car drove away with Emily, Alex, and Sarah standing at the base of their own apartment building. The late afternoon sun stretched long shadows on the pavement, though the warmth seemed useless in calming the chill of uncertainty gripping Emily's heart. They had made strides, but Victor was still out there, waiting in the wings, and that threat felt all the more substantiated.
'Up the stairs,' Sarah said, her tone unwavering as she led on. 'We need to regroup and figure things out.'
Once inside the building, Emily's instincts were working overtime. The well-known sounds of the lobby-the shush of the elevator and assorted gabbling of neighbors-felt unusually out-of-sight. She still couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, that Victor was more present than they th
