My Fake Husband's AI Predicted My Murder

The Man Who Kept a Key

Theo left his bag beside the door, as if placing it farther inside would count as presuming something.

"The wording came from an early safety project," he said. "When people were being moved between shelters, we needed to tell the transport team which address was current."

"You told people to stay in a dangerous home?"

"We told staff not to lose someone between addresses. Then it became a message sent to the person. Nadia hated it."

"And you kept it."

"Yes."

Mara stood at the sink rinsing a cup that was already clean. Aria wished she would stop. The water made it difficult to hear when Theo's voice fell.

"I'm going to June," Aria said. "There's a threat with my face on it. That's enough to tell the police. I don't need to decide whether it's accurate first."

Theo nodded. He had worked with Detective June Bell during a previous Helix complaint and knew better than to promise he could make her act quickly.

"Will you stay with Mara?" he asked.

"For tonight."

Something moved across his face. Relief, perhaps. Aria had become less willing to put names to his expressions in the last hour.

Her suitcase was under the bed. She packed shirts without folding them while Mara sat on the floor, sorting charger cables. The absurdity of needing the right plug to escape a murder forecast made Aria laugh. Mara laughed too, then both stopped too soon.

"You don't have to decide your marriage tonight," Mara said.

"It isn't a marriage."

"Then whatever you've been doing for eleven months."

Aria pulled the zip too hard. It caught a sleeve.

Theo knocked. "The lobby door won't release."

She went out with the suitcase. On the wall console, a yellow banner said RESIDENT SAFETY HOLD. It did not physically imprison them; the fire stairs led to the street, and the concierge could open the manual exit. It did mean a service somebody controlled had decided their ordinary front door should stop obeying them.

Theo was already calling the building manager.

"Tell him about the stairs," Aria said.

"I know where the stairs are."

"I meant tell him we're using them."

His mouth tightened. For the first time that night, he looked irritated rather than injured. It made him easier to recognize.

The manager answered. Theo said the integration had activated without his request. Aria heard that word and turned toward him.

"What integration?"

He closed his eyes briefly.

"An emergency access service. After the man followed you into the lift last winter."

She remembered. A stranger had reached for her camera bag. She had pushed him away, and a neighbor had called the concierge. Theo had arrived afterward, pale with anger, and replaced the broken strap himself because the repair shop said it would take a week.

She still used the bag.

"You told me you changed the lift code."

"I did. I also kept a remote emergency key."

"For my doors?"

"The apartment entrance. Not your room."

Aria looked toward her bedroom. Its lock had always felt excessive and therefore reassuring. The front door had felt like something both of them could use.

"Can Helix use the key?"

"The service was sold by a subsidiary. I thought it was separate."

"You helped build a company that sells people's lives as signals, and you thought its subsidiary wouldn't send it signals?"

He had no answer that survived saying aloud.

Mara lifted Aria's suitcase. "We can argue outside."

The stairs smelled of detergent. Theo followed two flights behind them until Aria stopped and told him he could walk beside her. She did it because dragging a suitcase down six floors was difficult and because she did not want the machine choosing the precise distance between their bodies.

He took the case when she gave it to him. Neither treated it as forgiveness.

At the street door, the concierge opened a mechanical latch and apologized repeatedly. He looked at Theo while apologizing, though Aria was the person whose departure had been obstructed. She noticed Theo notice it.

"It's Ms. Knox you need to tell," Theo said.

The concierge turned red. Aria had no kindness available for him at that moment. She walked out.

June met them at the precinct shortly after one. She watched the rehearsal video on Mara's phone, asked about immediate threats, then turned the screen facedown.

"I'm not arresting anyone because a company made a film," she said. "I do want to know who commissioned it and who interfered with your access home."

Theo put the emergency service number on her desk. "I authorized the installation. I didn't authorize tonight's hold."

"Did your wife know?"

"No."

June looked at Aria. "Do you want him in this room?"

Aria had been ready for him to say he had done it out of concern. He had not, and she refused to reward him for avoiding one familiar excuse.

"Not while I give my statement."

Theo got up. At the door, he stopped as if he wanted to say something, then left. The little act of leaving when asked had once made their arrangement easy. Now she resented how much she wanted to count it in his favor.

When she finished, he had gone. His bag was gone too. The suitcase stood beside the desk, and the trapped sleeve had been gently freed from its zip.

Mara drove her to the apartment Mara shared with her brother. He was away for work, but his laundry covered the spare bed. Aria moved it into a chair and lay down without taking off her shoes.

At three twelve, Theo sent a message.

The building manager has disabled my key. I'm at a hotel. June has the address.

No plea followed it. Aria read it six times anyway.

She woke at seven to Mara shaking her shoulder. On the television, a presenter stood outside Helix. Behind him was a blown-up page from Aria's marriage agreement. Somebody had highlighted the separate-bedroom clause.

"It appears she feared him for months," the presenter said.

Aria sat up. Her phone was full of messages from clients asking whether their case money had come from a sham marriage.

Mara muted the television.

"I'm sorry."

Aria looked at the date in the corner of the screen. October eleventh. Six days and a little over sixteen hours until the threatened time.

"They found the one thing I actually did," she said.

The marriage had been a lie. She could challenge the forecast all she wanted; somebody was about to make her answer for that truth.