Chapter Seven — One of Them Is Lying - She Drove Him Into the Dark
By Hasnainhr
For several seconds after Victor’s video ended, nobody in the underground garage moved. Maya stood between Daniel Reid and Sophie Hale holding her father’s silver key so tightly that its teeth pressed into her palm. The tablet screen had gone black, but Victor’s final warning seemed to remain in the air between them. One of them has been lying to you from the beginning. The problem was that Maya could already prove both of them had lied.
Daniel had hidden his history with Victor, hidden his investigation involving Michael Carter, hidden that Sophie had once worked as his source and somehow known about the USB before Maya admitted having one. Sophie had lied about never meeting Michael, concealed the key for eight years and followed Victor through Melbourne in a black SUV while claiming she barely understood what her father had been doing.
Maya stepped away from both of them.
Daniel noticed first. “Maya, don’t make a decision based on a recording we don’t understand.”
“Interesting advice from the man Victor specifically told me not to tell where the archive is.”
“He also said I could help you.”
“And then immediately told me to leave if Sophie was with you.”
Sophie shook her head. “He said leave both of us.”
Maya looked at her. “You sound strangely pleased that you’re included.”
“I’m pointing out that Victor didn’t trust me either.”
“That isn’t comforting.”
Daniel reached for the tablet, but Maya took another step backward. “Nobody touches anything.”
The forensic officer glanced between them. “Detective?”
Daniel lifted one hand without looking away from Maya. “Give us space.”
The officer hesitated, then moved toward the other side of the garage.
Maya said, “I want the video copied to me.”
Daniel shook his head. “Not to your phone.”
“Then another device.”
“We can arrange that.”
“Now.”
“Maya.”
“Now.”
Daniel studied her for a moment, then nodded to the forensic officer. “Offline copy. Clean device.”
Sophie folded her arms. “And then what?”
Maya looked at the silver key.
“Then neither of you comes with me.”
Daniel almost laughed. “That isn’t happening.”
“You don’t get a vote.”
“I’m a homicide detective investigating the murder of the man who dragged you into this.”
“And I’m apparently the only person who can find what he died protecting.”
“That makes you more vulnerable, not less.”
Sophie stepped closer. “He’s right about that.”
Maya turned sharply. “You don’t get to agree with him and suddenly become trustworthy.”
Sophie stopped.
Maya continued, “I need both of you to tell me everything you’ve hidden. No clever omissions. No protecting investigations. No promises to dead people. I decide what matters now.”
Daniel’s expression hardened. “That isn’t how homicide investigations work.”
“Then arrest me.”
The words landed harder than Maya expected.
Daniel stared at her.
“For what?”
“Obstruction. Withholding evidence. Whatever makes this easier for you.”
“I’m not arresting you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re frightened, exhausted and being manipulated by at least two parties.”
“Three if we count you.”
Daniel looked away briefly.
Maya said, “Exactly.”
Sophie lowered her voice. “Maya, your father gave me that key because he thought one day you would need it. I held onto it because Victor told me never to return it unless he was dead.”
Maya stared at her. “That is a very specific instruction you somehow forgot to mention.”
“I didn’t forget.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
The direct answer surprised Maya.
Sophie continued, “I lied because I didn’t know whether Daniel had killed my father.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened. “You know I didn’t.”
“No. I know you say you didn’t.”
Maya looked between them. “Start there.”
Daniel shook his head. “This is not the place.”
Maya almost laughed. “You say that every time something important comes up.”
“Because garages have cameras.”
Maya looked toward the ceiling.
He had a point.
She hated that too.
Daniel said, “We move somewhere private, we separate, and you hear both versions independently.”
Sophie gave a humourless smile. “Like witnesses in interview rooms.”
“Exactly.”
“No.”
Maya looked at Sophie.
Sophie said, “If he separates us, he controls what each of us hears.”
Daniel’s expression hardened. “And if we stay together, you can coordinate lies.”
“I don’t need to coordinate anything.”
Maya raised her voice. “Stop.”
Both went silent.
Maya looked at Daniel first. “No police station.”
Then Sophie. “No private property belonging to either of you.”
Daniel asked, “Then where?”
Maya thought of the only place connected to her father that neither Daniel nor Sophie had chosen.
“Northbank.”
Daniel immediately shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“That reaction makes me want to go more.”
“We don’t know who owns access systems, whether the building is monitored or whether Mercer’s people are there.”
“That sounds like useful information we could learn by looking.”
Sophie said, “Victor wanted us to follow the key.”
Daniel turned on her. “Victor also deliberately endangered Maya tonight. Stop treating every instruction he left as sacred.”
Sophie’s expression changed.
For the first time, Maya saw anger rather than grief.
“You don’t get to lecture me about what Victor did.”
“I spent six years cleaning up the consequences of what Victor did.”
“And still somehow he ended up dead.”
Daniel went still.
Sophie regretted the words immediately, but she did not take them back.
Maya watched both.
There was history here far deeper than anything either had admitted.
She said, “We’re going to Northbank.”
Daniel started to object.
Maya lifted the key.
“If you stop me, I go alone later.”
He stared at her.
She continued, “You know I will.”
Daniel exhaled through his nose. “Unfortunately, yes.”
Sophie looked toward him. “Then we do it quietly.”
Daniel gave her a cold look. “You’re not giving operational advice.”
“I’m the only person here who knew Victor intended to use the building.”
“You knew one sentence.”
“One more than you.”
Maya felt the beginning of another argument and walked away.
“If you two want to keep fighting, I’ll take a taxi.”
They followed.
Twenty minutes later, the three of them were travelling north in an unmarked sedan Daniel had borrowed from another unit. Maya sat in the rear this time. She had insisted on keeping both Daniel and Sophie where she could see them. Daniel drove. Sophie sat in the passenger seat staring through the rain.
No one spoke for the first five minutes.
Maya broke the silence. “Tell me what happened between you and Victor.”
Daniel kept his eyes on the road. “Which part?”
“The part that makes his daughter think you killed him.”
Sophie turned slightly toward the window.
Daniel said, “Victor became an informant during the original corruption investigation. Not officially. He supplied information through Michael because he didn’t trust police channels.”
“Because police were involved.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Victor was supplying Dad?”
“Eventually.”
“Did you trust him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Victor only told the truth when the truth benefited Victor.”
Sophie said quietly, “That sounds familiar.”
Daniel ignored her.
Maya asked, “Did he ever give false evidence?”
“Not exactly.”
“That sounds like lawyer language.”
“He gave partial evidence. Enough to damage rivals, rarely enough to expose himself.”
“Adrian Mercer?”
“Especially Mercer.”
Sophie turned. “My father believed Adrian was using police contacts to steal from him.”
Daniel said, “Your father was stealing from Adrian too.”
Maya looked between them. “So both were criminals?”
Daniel answered carefully. “Both engaged in conduct that would have justified serious charges if we had secured enough admissible evidence.”
“That means yes.”
“Broadly.”
Sophie’s face tightened but she did not argue.
Maya said, “And my father?”
“Michael wasn’t involved financially.”
“But he helped Victor.”
“He believed Victor’s evidence could expose the corruption network.”
“Did Dad know Victor was a criminal?”
“Yes.”
“And still worked with him.”
“Yes.”
Maya looked at the passing streetlights.
Her father became more unfamiliar with every answer.
Daniel continued, “Michael wasn’t naive. He knew Victor was using him. He believed he could use Victor too.”
“Did you tell him to stop?”
“Many times.”
“Did he listen?”
Daniel gave a faint, sad smile. “Did your father generally enjoy being told what to do?”
Despite everything, Maya almost smiled.
“No.”
“Then you have your answer.”
The city thinned around them.
Sophie said, “Ask him what happened the week before Michael died.”
Daniel’s hands tightened slightly on the wheel.
Maya noticed.
“What happened?”
Daniel remained silent.
Sophie continued, “Victor told me Michael called Daniel three times and Daniel didn’t answer.”
Daniel turned his head sharply. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then explain.”
Maya leaned forward. “Did Dad call you?”
Daniel’s voice became controlled. “Yes.”
“How many times?”
“Three.”
“Why didn’t you answer?”
“I was undercover on another operation.”
“Did you call him back?”
“Twelve hours later.”
“And?”
“He said it didn’t matter.”
Maya felt anger rise. “Then he died?”
“Six days later.”
“What did he want?”
“I never learned.”
Sophie whispered, “Victor did.”
Daniel looked toward her.
Maya asked, “What did Victor say?”
Sophie hesitated.
Maya’s expression hardened.
“No more omissions.”
Sophie nodded. “Victor said Michael had found the name of the second officer.”
Daniel’s eyes moved toward the mirror.
“Which officer?”
“He never told me.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened. “Did Victor know?”
“Yes.”
“And you waited until now?”
“I said he never gave me the name.”
“But you knew Michael discovered it.”
“Yes.”
Daniel swore quietly.
Maya looked at him. “You didn’t know that?”
“No.”
“So there really were two?”
“We confirmed one corrupt officer. The second was always suspected.”
“Who was the confirmed one?”
Daniel hesitated.
Maya laughed bitterly. “Here we go again.”
“Detective Sergeant Paul Vance.”
“Where is he now?”
“Dead.”
“How?”
Daniel’s eyes stayed on the road. “Suicide. Seven years ago.”
“Do you believe it?”
“I believe the evidence supports it.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Daniel glanced at her in the mirror. “I don’t know.”
Maya leaned back.
Every dead person in this story seemed to come with that answer.
Michael Carter. Victor Hale. Paul Vance.
Maybe others.
Sophie said, “If Michael found the second officer, the archive might identify them.”
Daniel nodded. “Which is exactly why someone killed Victor if they believed he was about to expose it.”
Maya looked at the silver key.
“And why they need this.”
“Possibly.”
Daniel turned off the main road.
The old Northbank Racquet Club appeared five minutes later behind a high security fence. The original brick building still stood, but modern metal units had been built along both sides. A large sign read MERCER PRIVATE STORAGE — 24 HOUR SECURE ACCESS.
Maya felt a strange ache when she saw the entrance.
She had been here as a child.
Not often.
Maybe six or seven times.
Her father would play squash while Maya sat near reception with chips and a soft drink, pretending to read while watching adults slam tiny black balls against white walls.
The building looked smaller now.
Daniel stopped two streets away.
“We walk from here.”
Sophie frowned. “Why?”
“No licence plate at the gate.”
“That won’t stop cameras seeing our faces.”
“I know.”
Daniel opened the boot and removed three caps.
Maya stared. “Your brilliant disguise is a hat?”
“It’s four-thirty in the morning. Staff reviewing footage later are more likely to identify a plate than facial structure beneath rain and poor lighting.”
Sophie took one. “I hate that this makes sense.”
They approached through a side street.
The main gate required an access code.
Locked.
Daniel inspected it without touching.
“No forced entry.”
Maya looked along the fence.
“There used to be a pedestrian entrance around the side.”
“You remember?”
“Barely.”
She led them along the perimeter.
The side entrance still existed, though the old glass doors had been replaced by steel.
Beside them was a keypad and card reader.
Daniel looked toward Maya. “Any childhood password?”
“Very funny.”
Sophie pointed higher.
A faded brass plaque remained above the modern signage.
NORTHBANK RACQUET CLUB — EST. 1978
Maya stared at it.
A memory surfaced.
Her father standing beside the entrance, laughing because Maya had forgotten his locker number again.
Twenty-one, forty-seven. You’re hopeless with numbers, May.
She stopped.
Daniel noticed.
“What?”
“The key.”
She removed it.
Not a locker number.
Two numbers.
Twenty-one.
Forty-seven.
Daniel looked at the building. “Court twenty-one?”
“There weren’t that many courts.”
Sophie asked, “Could be a date.”
“Twenty-first of April, 2007?”
Maya shook her head.
No obvious meaning.
Then she remembered her father’s old joke more clearly.
Twenty-one, forty-seven. Two winners.
Maya frowned.
“What did he mean?”
Daniel asked.
“I don’t know.”
She closed her eyes.
Her father loved numbers because he attached stories to them.
Football scores.
Addresses.
Birthdays.
Horse races.
He hated random numbers.
Twenty-one and forty-seven meant something.
Maya looked toward the sign.
No.
Then another memory arrived.
Her father teaching her to play squash.
He had insisted every game ended at eleven points.
Old scoring rules.
Twenty-one.
No.
“What if it isn’t the building code?” Sophie asked. “What if the key number tells us where inside?”
Daniel said, “We still need inside first.”
Maya walked farther along the wall.
Behind a row of shrubs she found something she had forgotten completely.
A narrow service door.
Old metal.
Not modernised.
No keypad.
Only a traditional lock.
Daniel stared at the silver key in Maya’s hand.
“No.”
Maya looked at him.
“You have to be kidding.”
She inserted the key.
It slid in perfectly.
Nobody spoke.
Maya turned it.
The lock clicked.
Sophie whispered, “Michael knew.”
Daniel shook his head. “Or someone preserved the lock deliberately.”
“That’s worse.”
Maya opened the door.
A stale smell drifted out.
Dust. Concrete. Damp timber.
Daniel stepped in first with a torch.
The old corridor beyond had not been fully renovated. Pipes ran along the ceiling. Storage cages replaced what Maya remembered as changing rooms.
They closed the door behind them.
Daniel said, “No lights unless necessary.”
Sophie whispered, “Because darkness has been working so well tonight.”
Daniel ignored her.
Maya led them farther in.
Memory came back in fragments.
Reception should have been left.
Courts right.
Changing rooms downstairs.
The locker room had been below ground.
“There,” Maya said.
A concrete stairwell descended behind another door.
Daniel went first.
At the bottom, they found rows of storage lockers built into the old walls.
Modern numbered steel doors covered most of them.
Maya searched.
Numbers continued upward.
Then a separate row of narrow original lockers appeared around the corner.
Old brass numbers.
Maya stopped.
The locker was waist-high, painted dark green beneath decades of scratches.
Daniel looked at her.
“This could be nothing.”
Maya inserted the key.
It turned.
The door opened.
Inside sat a single cardboard shoebox.
No dust on top.
Maya stared.
Daniel immediately noticed the same thing.
“Someone has been here recently.”
Sophie whispered, “Victor.”
Maybe.
Maya reached for the box.
Daniel stopped her.
“Gloves.”
This time she allowed it.
He passed her a pair.
Maya lifted the lid.
Inside was no hard drive.
No files.
No archive.
Only a cassette tape.
A small voice recorder.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed Maya at twenty-one standing outside her university.
She felt her stomach tighten.
Someone had taken it from across the street.
A second photograph showed Luke leaving school.
A third showed their mother loading groceries into the boot of her car.
The same surveillance photographs Daniel had described.
Maya’s hands began trembling.
Beneath them lay a note in her father’s handwriting.
She knew it instantly.
Maya, if you ever see these, then I failed to keep this away from you. Listen before you decide who to trust.
Maya stared at the cassette.
Daniel said quietly, “We need to take everything somewhere controlled.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
“My father wrote this to me.”
“And whoever preserved this locker may know we’re here.”
“I’m listening now.”
Daniel looked toward the corridor, then reluctantly nodded.
The recorder still contained batteries.
Maya pressed play.
Static.
Then her father’s voice filled the locker room.
For one second, Maya stopped breathing.
Eight years vanished.
Michael Carter sounded exactly as she remembered.
A little impatient.
A little tired.
Alive.
“If you’re hearing this, May, then somebody has finally dragged you into the mess I spent years keeping away from you. I’m sorry.”
Maya closed her eyes.
Sophie looked away.
Daniel remained completely still.
Michael continued.
“First thing you need to understand is that Victor Hale is not a good man. He helped me because he was afraid of people worse than him, not because he suddenly discovered a conscience. If Victor ever tells you otherwise, he’s lying.”
Maya thought of the dead man in her back seat.
The recording continued.
“Second, the police investigation is compromised. Daniel Reid is not corrupt.”
Daniel’s head lifted slightly.
Maya looked at him.
Michael continued.
“But Daniel makes mistakes when he thinks protecting someone is more important than telling them the truth. If he’s with you now, tell him I said that.”
Despite everything, Maya almost laughed.
Daniel muttered, “Sounds like Michael.”
The recording continued.
“The second officer is still unidentified. I know how they move money. I know which cases they interfered with. I do not have a name I can prove.”
Sophie frowned.
That contradicted what Victor had told her.
Maya glanced toward Sophie.
She looked unsettled.
Michael continued.
“I told Victor I had the name because I needed to see what he would do with it.”
Daniel whispered, “Jesus.”
Maya understood.
Her father had lied to Victor.
The recording went on.
“If Victor believes you know something, watch where he looks. Watch who contacts him. That is how you find the person behind him.”
A loud sound interrupted the tape.
Michael paused.
Then his voice returned, lower.
“The archive is not here. This locker is only proof that I expected someone to find you eventually. The real archive can only be opened with two things. The first is this key.”
Maya looked at the silver key.
“The second belongs to Victor.”
Sophie stared.
Michael continued.
“If Victor is dead, Sophie should have it.”
All three froze.
Maya slowly turned toward Sophie.
Her face had gone pale.
Daniel looked at her. “What does he mean?”
Sophie said nothing.
Maya’s voice became quiet.
“Sophie.”
She backed away.
Daniel stepped between her and the exit.
“Sophie, what do you have?”
“I don’t know.”
Michael’s recording continued behind them.
“Do not let Sophie tell you she doesn’t know. She knows exactly what I mean.”
Maya stared at her.
Sophie closed her eyes.
The tape kept playing.
“And Maya, if Sophie has already given you my silver key before you hear this, then Victor is dead, and she has decided to follow the plan.”
Maya’s heart pounded.
Sophie whispered, “I can explain.”
Michael continued.
“But if she gives you the key and claims she doesn’t know what the second piece is, she is lying.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Sophie.”
She looked trapped.
Maya said, “What do you have?”
Sophie’s eyes filled with tears.
“My father made me promise.”
“No more promises to dead men.”
Sophie reached beneath her shirt and pulled out a thin chain.
Something hung from it.
A small brass token.
Circular.
Stamped with a number.
47.
Maya looked down at her silver key.
2147.
Twenty-one.
Forty-seven.
Two pieces.
Sophie removed the token.
“I’ve had this since I was seventeen.”
Daniel asked, “What does it open?”
Sophie looked at Maya.
“I don’t know.”
Michael’s recorded voice answered before anyone else could.
“The key opens the first lock. The token identifies the second location. Put them together, and you’ll understand where I hid the archive.”
Maya held the silver key beside the brass token.
21 and 47.
Daniel stared at them.
Then the recorder clicked.
Michael’s voice became quieter.
“One last thing, May. If Victor is dead, whoever killed him will know about this locker eventually.”
A sound came from upstairs.
Metal striking metal.
All three froze.
Michael’s recording continued.
“So when you hear this, do not stay.”
Another sound.
Closer.
Footsteps on the concrete stairs.
Daniel drew his weapon.
Sophie switched off the recorder.
Darkness swallowed the locker room.
Someone was coming down.
Not one person.
At least two.
Daniel whispered, “Behind the lockers. Now.”
Maya grabbed the box.
They moved into the narrow gap between two storage rows.
Footsteps reached the bottom of the stairs.
A torch beam swept across the far wall.
A man whispered, “Locker 2147.”
Maya’s blood ran cold.
They knew exactly where to look.
A second voice answered.
“Mercer said nobody leaves with what’s inside.”
Daniel raised his weapon.
Maya looked at Sophie.
Sophie looked equally terrified.
Then Maya realised what the men had said.
Not Victor.
Not police.
Mercer.
Adrian Mercer was supposed to be in Singapore.
Someone had lied about that too.