Chapter Eight — Nobody Leaves - She Drove Him Into the Dark
By Hasnainhr
The two men stopped at the bottom of the stairs less than ten metres from where Maya, Daniel and Sophie were hiding. A torch beam travelled slowly across the old locker-room walls, pausing over the green doors until it reached 2147.
“Open,” one of the men whispered.
Metal scraped.
Maya tightened both hands around the cardboard box pressed against her chest. Her father’s recorder, photographs and cassette shifted softly inside. Daniel stood directly in front of her with his pistol held close to his body, while Sophie crouched behind the next row of lockers. Nobody breathed normally.
The first man swore. “Empty.”
“Then they’ve been here.”
“You sure this is it?”
“Mercer said twenty-one forty-seven.”
Maya looked at Sophie through the darkness.
Adrian Mercer was supposed to be in Singapore. Daniel had said police had confirmed it. Yet these men had arrived at the exact locker within minutes of Maya opening it, and they were taking instructions from someone they called Mercer.
The second man spoke more quietly. “Check the room.”
The torch beam moved again.
Daniel leaned close to Maya’s ear. “When I move, stay behind the lockers. Do not run for the stairs.”
She barely whispered, “What are you doing?”
“Buying time.”
“That sounds unhealthy.”
Daniel ignored her.
One of the strangers kicked something aside near locker 2147. “There’s fresh dust on the floor.”
“They can’t be far.”
Maya felt Sophie touch her arm. She turned.
Sophie pointed behind them.
At first Maya saw only darkness. Then she noticed a narrow opening between the last locker row and the wall.
A doorway.
No door remained, only a rectangular gap leading farther beneath the old building.
Maya remembered it.
Not clearly, but enough.
When Northbank was still a racquet club, staff used that passage to bring towels and cleaning supplies into the changing rooms. It connected to a service corridor running behind the squash courts.
She leaned toward Daniel. “There’s another way out.”
He glanced over his shoulder.
Maya pointed.
Daniel considered it for less than a second. “Go.”
Sophie moved first.
Maya followed with the box.
Daniel backed toward them.
Then one of the men shouted, “There!”
The torch beam hit Daniel.
Everything happened at once.
“Police!” Daniel yelled. “Stay where you are and show me your hands.”
The light vanished.
A gunshot exploded through the locker room.
Maya dropped instinctively.
Metal rang above her as the bullet struck a locker door.
Daniel fired once.
Someone shouted.
“Move!” Daniel ordered.
Sophie grabbed Maya’s sleeve and pulled her into the service passage.
Another gunshot cracked behind them.
The corridor was narrow enough that Maya’s shoulders nearly brushed the walls. Darkness swallowed everything beyond the weak light leaking from the locker room. She stumbled over a pipe, caught herself against damp brick and kept moving.
“Where does this go?” Sophie whispered.
“Old courts.”
“You remember that?”
“I was nine.”
“That wasn’t the reassurance I wanted.”
Behind them, Daniel fired again.
Then footsteps entered the passage.
Fast.
Maya did not know whether they belonged to Daniel or the attackers.
She pushed forward.
The corridor turned sharply left.
A rusted emergency light glowed weakly at the far end, revealing an old wooden door.
Maya reached it.
Locked.
“Of course.”
Sophie pushed beside her. “Move.”
She kicked near the latch.
Nothing.
Maya tried the handle again.
Behind them, footsteps grew louder.
“Sophie.”
“I’m working on it.”
“You’re kicking a door.”
“Yes. Very technical.”
Maya put the box down and searched the wall.
A memory returned.
Her father carrying two squash racquets through this corridor while Maya complained that the vending machine had eaten her money. A staff member had opened this door by lifting something before pushing.
Not the handle.
Maya reached beneath an old metal cover beside the frame.
Her fingers touched a lever.
She pulled.
The lock released.
“Got it.”
They pushed through.
The old squash court beyond had been converted into a storage unit filled with stacked furniture, cardboard cartons and wrapped office equipment. A green emergency exit sign glowed above another door across the room.
Sophie grabbed the box.
They ran.
The service door behind them opened.
A man entered.
Tall, broad shoulders, dark jacket.
Not Daniel.
He raised a pistol.
Maya froze.
The man saw Sophie.
His expression changed.
“Sophie?”
Sophie stopped too.
She knew him.
“Noah.”
The name came out like a curse.
The man lowered his weapon slightly. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Maya looked between them.
Sophie whispered, “You followed us?”
Noah took another step forward. “Give me the box.”
Daniel’s voice came from somewhere behind him. “Don’t.”
Noah turned.
Daniel appeared in the service doorway with his weapon aimed directly at him.
For three seconds nobody moved.
Daniel said, “Drop it.”
Noah stared at him.
“You shoot me, Reid, you’ll never find out who sent us.”
“You just said Mercer.”
Noah gave a small smile. “Did I?”
Maya’s stomach tightened.
Daniel had heard.
So had Noah.
Maybe that was exactly what they wanted them to hear.
“Weapon down,” Daniel repeated.
Noah slowly lowered the pistol.
Then Sophie said, “Where’s Elliot?”
Noah’s eyes moved toward her.
That hesitation answered something.
Sophie stepped forward. “Where is he?”
“This isn’t about Elliot.”
“You work for him.”
“I worked for his father.”
“Worked?”
Noah’s expression tightened.
Daniel said, “Sophie, back up.”
She ignored him. “Did Elliot send you?”
“No.”
“Adrian?”
Noah looked at her almost pityingly.
“You still think your father’s war was with Adrian Mercer.”
Sophie went still.
Maya saw Daniel react too.
“What does that mean?” Maya asked.
Noah looked at her for the first time.
Really looked.
“So you’re Michael’s daughter.”
Maya tightened her grip on the box.
“How do you know my father?”
Noah smiled faintly. “Everyone who mattered knew Michael Carter.”
Daniel moved closer. “Last warning. Put the gun down.”
Noah looked at him.
Then his eyes flicked toward something behind Daniel.
Daniel sensed it a fraction too late.
The second attacker appeared.
He slammed into Daniel from behind.
Daniel’s shot went into the ceiling.
Sophie screamed.
Noah raised his weapon.
Maya did the only thing close enough to thinking.
She threw the cardboard box at him.
It struck Noah in the chest.
The recorder and photographs spilled across the floor.
His pistol fired.
The bullet struck a storage cabinet beside Maya.
Daniel twisted beneath the second man, drove an elbow backward and broke free.
“Run!”
Maya grabbed Sophie.
They sprinted toward the emergency exit.
Noah shouted after them.
Sophie reached the door first and pushed.
Alarm.
A violent electronic siren filled the building.
Cold air hit them.
They emerged into a fenced loading yard behind the storage facility.
Rain had started again.
Maya looked around.
High fence on three sides.
Locked vehicle gate ahead.
No obvious exit.
“Perfect.”
Sophie ran toward the gate.
“No keypad on this side.”
Maya followed.
“Can we climb it?”
“Not unless you want to donate skin.”
The fence was topped with angled steel spikes.
A gunshot sounded inside.
Then another.
Maya looked back at the emergency door.
“Daniel.”
Sophie grabbed her wrist. “He has a gun.”
“So do they.”
“He told us to run.”
“That doesn’t make leaving him attractive.”
The emergency door burst open.
Daniel came through.
Blood ran down the side of his face.
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“You’re hit.”
“Not by a bullet.”
He shoved the door closed and jammed a metal bar through the handle.
“They’re thirty seconds behind us.”
Sophie pointed to the locked gate. “We’re trapped.”
Daniel scanned the yard.
A row of large commercial bins stood against the fence.
“Help me.”
They pushed the first bin beneath the lowest section of spikes.
The metal wheels squealed loudly across the concrete.
Maya climbed first.
The bin lid bent beneath her weight.
She grabbed the top rail.
“Careful,” Daniel said.
“Excellent timing for that advice.”
She pulled herself up.
The spikes looked much sharper from here.
Maya swung one leg over.
Her jacket caught.
She nearly fell.
Sophie steadied her from below.
The emergency door behind them shook.
Once.
Twice.
Maya tore her jacket free and dropped to the other side.
Pain shot through her ankle.
She stayed upright.
Sophie climbed next.
Daniel remained behind.
The door shook again.
Metal bent.
“Hurry!” Maya whispered.
Sophie reached the top.
A hand appeared through the gap as the emergency door partially opened.
Daniel fired once toward the ground beside it.
The hand disappeared.
He climbed onto the bin.
Sophie dropped beside Maya.
Daniel reached the top of the fence just as the door burst open.
Noah entered the yard.
He aimed.
“Maya!” Daniel shouted.
She saw the gun.
Daniel was exposed on the fence.
No cover.
Maya grabbed a loose brick from beside the wall and threw it toward Noah.
It missed him completely.
But he flinched.
Daniel dropped.
The bullet hit the fence where his leg had been.
He landed badly but immediately stood.
They ran.
No destination.
No plan.
Only away.
The neighbouring street was empty.
Daniel led them between two industrial buildings and into a narrow lane filled with delivery vans.
“Car’s this way.”
Sophie was breathing hard. “They’ll know where it is.”
“Which is why we’re not using it.”
Daniel took out a phone.
Maya stared. “You said phones were compromised.”
“This one isn’t connected to my identity.”
“Everybody in my life owns secret phones except me.”
“Consider yourself fortunate.”
He made one call.
“Corner of Bedford and Yarra. Three passengers. Now.”
He ended it.
Maya asked, “Who?”
“Someone I trust.”
“That phrase has become meaningless.”
Daniel wiped blood from his forehead.
It came from a cut near his hairline.
Maya looked back.
Nobody followed yet.
“What happened inside?”
“Second man surprised me.”
“Who is he?”
“Never seen him.”
“You know Noah?”
Daniel looked at Sophie.
“No.”
Maya turned toward her.
Sophie leaned against the brick wall, pale and wet.
“Who is Noah?”
She did not answer immediately.
Maya felt anger rising.
“Sophie.”
“Noah Voss. Former private security contractor.”
“For Mercer?”
“For Adrian. Years ago.”
“And Elliot?”
“They were close.”
“How close?”
“Noah trained his security staff, drove for the family, handled problems.”
Daniel said, “What kind of problems?”
Sophie laughed bitterly. “The kind rich people call problems because they don’t want to call them crimes.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Why did Noah know you?”
“I dated Elliot for almost three years.”
“You said two.”
“Almost three.”
“And Noah was around?”
“Constantly.”
Maya said, “Would he hurt you?”
Sophie hesitated.
“Yes.”
The answer surprised all of them.
“Why?” Maya asked.
“Because Noah was loyal to Adrian before anyone else. If Adrian believed I had something dangerous, Noah wouldn’t care who my father was.”
Daniel said, “Yet he didn’t shoot when he first saw you.”
“No.”
“He lowered his weapon.”
“Yes.”
“Which suggests his instructions weren’t to kill you.”
Sophie looked at him. “Maybe not yet.”
Headlights appeared at the end of the street.
Daniel immediately moved Maya behind a parked van.
A white sedan approached slowly.
It flashed headlights twice.
Daniel relaxed slightly.
“Come on.”
The driver was a woman in her fifties with short silver hair.
Daniel opened the rear door.
“Maya, Sophie, get in.”
The woman looked at Daniel’s face. “You look awful.”
“Good morning to you too, Elaine.”
“Is that blood?”
“Mostly mine.”
“Comforting.”
They climbed inside.
Daniel took the front passenger seat.
Elaine drove away without asking another question.
Maya sat beside Sophie.
For five minutes nobody spoke.
The industrial streets gave way to wider roads as dawn began turning the sky from black to deep grey.
Maya looked at Daniel.
“You left the box.”
“I know.”
“My father’s tape was inside.”
“I know.”
“The photographs.”
“I know.”
“And now Noah has them.”
Daniel turned slightly.
“No.”
Maya frowned.
“I grabbed the recorder before I followed you.”
He reached inside his coat.
The small recorder was there.
Maya felt relief.
“What about the cassette?”
“Still inside.”
“So we have Dad’s recording.”
“Yes.”
“Photos?”
“No.”
“Note?”
“No.”
“Key?”
Maya touched her pocket.
Still there.
“Token?”
Sophie touched the chain around her neck.
“Here.”
Daniel nodded.
“We kept the important parts.”
Sophie looked out the window. “Noah saw the key.”
Maya’s hand tightened around it.
“Did he?”
“He was looking directly at you when you dropped the box. He may have seen it earlier.”
Daniel said, “Then assume they know locker 2147 wasn’t the archive.”
Maya looked at the recorder.
“And they’ll know there’s another location.”
“Yes.”
“Which means we’re racing them.”
Daniel did not answer.
That meant yes.
Elaine drove them to a small veterinary clinic in Brunswick that had not yet opened for the morning. She used a rear entrance and parked inside a locked courtyard.
Maya stared at the sign.
“This is your safe location?”
Elaine looked back. “Criminals rarely search veterinary clinics before breakfast.”
Daniel opened his door. “Elaine was a forensic pathologist.”
“Was?”
Elaine smiled. “I developed opinions.”
Daniel added, “Police management developed different ones.”
“That sounds more accurate.”
Inside, Elaine led them upstairs to a small office above the treatment rooms. She gave Daniel antiseptic and told him to stop dripping on her floor.
Maya sat at a desk with the recorder in front of her.
Sophie stood by the window.
Nobody mentioned sleep.
Elaine brought coffee anyway.
Daniel examined the recorder.
“There might be more after where we stopped.”
Maya nodded.
They had interrupted the tape when the men arrived.
She pressed play.
Static returned.
Then Michael Carter’s voice.
“If you are still listening, you found the first locker.”
Maya swallowed.
Her father sounded calm.
Too calm for a man recording instructions in case he died.
“The key and token do not open the archive directly. I did that deliberately. If someone takes either one from you, they should learn nothing useful.”
Daniel glanced toward Sophie’s token.
Michael continued.
“Twenty-one forty-seven is not an address. It is not a locker number except for the one you have already opened. It is a reference.”
Maya leaned closer.
“A reference to what?” she whispered.
Her father’s recorded voice continued.
“Maya will understand it when she remembers our Sunday drives.”
Maya frowned.
Sunday drives.
Her father used to take her and Luke out on Sundays when they were children.
Beaches.
Markets.
Lookouts.
Sometimes nowhere.
He enjoyed driving without telling them the destination.
Maya hated it.
Luke loved it.
Michael continued.
“May, you always complained I took the long way. You were right. I did.”
Maya felt something twist in her chest.
She remembered.
Her father refusing navigation even before smartphones became common.
Roads are more interesting when you don’t know where they end.
Victor had done the same thing.
Ignore the navigation.
Take another route.
Maya sat straighter.
Daniel noticed.
“What?”
“Victor copied him.”
“Who?”
“My father. The way Victor made me drive.”
Michael’s recording continued.
“There were three places I used when I needed to know whether someone was following me. You have been to all three.”
Maya closed her eyes.
Sunday drives.
Long routes.
Her father checking mirrors.
Had she seen it and never understood?
“First was Northbank,” Michael said. “If you found this recording, you already have that one. Second is where your mother thought I took you for the view. Third is where Luke broke his wrist.”
Maya opened her eyes.
Sophie looked at her.
“Do you remember?”
“Yes.”
The second place was obvious.
“Mount Dandenong.”
Daniel shook his head. “That covers a large area.”
“SkyHigh lookout. Dad took us there constantly.”
“And the third?”
Maya almost laughed.
“I remember that too.”
Luke had been twelve.
He had ignored every warning, climbed onto a concrete barrier and fallen while trying to jump between two levels.
“Brighton Beach.”
Daniel frowned. “The bathing boxes?”
“No. Farther north. There used to be an old pier access near Green Point.”
Michael continued.
“Those three places form the route. Twenty-one and forty-seven tell you where to stop.”
Maya frowned.
“How?”
The recording crackled.
Then:
“Twenty-one minutes from the first location. Forty-seven minutes from the second.”
Daniel reached for a map.
Sophie said, “Driving times change.”
“Not eight years ago before traffic predictions mattered,” Maya replied.
Her father had always timed drives.
He knew exactly how long every route took.
Daniel opened an offline map.
“Northbank to SkyHigh is much more than twenty-one minutes.”
“So maybe first location doesn’t mean Northbank.”
Michael’s voice continued as if answering.
“The first place is not the locker. The first place is where Maya learned to drive.”
Maya stopped.
Daniel looked at her.
“Where?”
Her mind returned seventeen years.
An empty industrial road.
Her father beside her in an old blue Ford.
Hands at ten and two, May.
Stop riding the brake.
Look where you want the car to go.
She knew exactly where.
“Fishermans Bend.”
Daniel began searching.
Maya remembered the specific place.
An old training car park near the river, mostly empty on Sundays.
The land had changed completely since then.
Warehouses had become developments.
Roads shifted.
But perhaps something remained.
Michael continued.
“From where Maya first drove alone, follow the route north for twenty-one minutes without using the motorway. Stop where the city disappears behind you. That will give you the second number.”
Daniel said, “That isn’t an archive location. It’s another clue.”
“Dad made a scavenger hunt.”
“No,” Sophie said quietly. “He made sure somebody couldn’t force one location out of him.”
Maya looked at the key.
Her father had designed a trail that existed partly inside her memory.
A map no criminal could steal because most of it had never been written down.
Michael’s recording crackled again.
“Do not try to solve everything at once. That is how Victor thinks, and it is why he gets people killed.”
Sophie looked down.
Maya said nothing.
“Follow the route. At each point you will find something small. Nothing matters alone. Together, they open the archive.”
Daniel asked, “How many points?”
Michael answered.
“Four.”
Maya felt the scale of it.
Four locations.
The first clue had taken them into a building where armed men arrived within minutes.
Three remained.
Then Michael’s voice changed.
More serious.
“May, there is something else you need to know before you decide whether to continue. The corruption investigation was never about Adrian Mercer alone. Mercer paid people. Victor manipulated people. But somebody else built the system that protected both of them.”
Daniel leaned closer.
Michael continued.
“I never learned the name. I learned the position.”
Static swallowed several words.
Maya increased the volume.
“…inside Homicide.”
Daniel froze.
Sophie looked at him.
Michael’s voice returned clearly.
“The person protecting the network was a homicide detective.”
Maya slowly turned toward Daniel.
He said nothing.
The recording continued.
“Not Daniel.”
Daniel released a breath.
“But somebody close enough to him to see what he saw.”
Maya’s stomach tightened.
A colleague.
A partner.
A superior.
Somebody who could monitor Daniel’s cases for years.
Michael continued.
“If Daniel is still serving when you hear this, do not tell him the archive location until he identifies who had access to his old case notes.”
Daniel stared at the recorder.
Maya asked quietly, “Who had access?”
He did not answer immediately.
“Daniel.”
“Several people.”
“How many?”
“At the time? Seven.”
“Alive?”
“Five.”
“Still police?”
Daniel looked at Maya.
“Three.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Elaine appeared in the doorway.
“Daniel.”
Her tone made him turn.
“What?”
“You need to see the television.”
They followed her downstairs.
A news channel played silently above reception.
Elaine raised the volume.
A reporter stood outside Northbank Storage.
Police vehicles filled the background.
Maya’s pulse increased.
The caption read:
SHOOTING AT BRUNSWICK STORAGE FACILITY — ONE MAN DEAD
Daniel stared.
“We didn’t kill anyone.”
The reporter continued.
“Police have confirmed the body of a man was discovered shortly before five this morning following reports of gunfire. A second person is believed to have fled the scene.”
Sophie whispered, “Noah.”
Daniel took out his secure phone.
The news camera changed angle.
Paramedics rolled a covered body toward an ambulance.
A photograph appeared beside the reporter.
Maya recognised the face immediately.
Noah Voss.
Sophie covered her mouth.
“No.”
Maya stared at the television.
Noah had been alive when they climbed the fence.
Daniel said, “Someone went back.”
“To kill him?” Maya asked.
“Or silence him.”
The reporter continued.
“Police sources say a firearm recovered at the scene may be connected to the murder of Melbourne businessman Victor Hale earlier this morning.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“That’s impossible.”
Maya looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because the weapon used to kill Victor hasn’t been recovered.”
The report continued.
“The dead man has been identified as former private security contractor Noah Voss. Police are investigating possible links between Voss and Hale.”
Sophie whispered, “They’re making Noah the killer.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Someone is closing the case.”
Maya understood.
Victor murdered.
Noah killed.
Victor’s murder weapon suddenly found beside Noah.
A convenient story.
The trail could end there.
Unless somebody refused to accept it.
Daniel’s secure phone rang.
He looked at the number.
His expression became unreadable.
“Who is it?” Maya asked.
“My commander.”
He answered.
“Reid.”
They watched him listen.
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“No, I’m not at the scene.”
His eyes moved toward Maya.
“I understand.”
He listened longer.
Then his face tightened.
“What?”
Maya stepped closer.
Daniel said, “Say that again.”
Silence.
“No. Nobody had authorisation to do that.”
He ended the call.
Maya asked, “What happened?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Your car was seized from your apartment garage twenty minutes ago.”
“By police?”
“That’s what the paperwork says.”
“You didn’t order it?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Daniel looked toward the television.
“The request carries my authorisation code.”
Maya stared.
“But you didn’t send it.”
“No.”
Sophie whispered, “Someone inside police took the car.”
Daniel nodded.
Maya felt a cold certainty settle over her.
The anonymous messages.
The missing booking.
The compromised cameras.
The people who knew Daniel’s movements.
The person Michael said had once sat close enough to Daniel to read his case.
The enemy had never been outside the investigation.
They were inside it.
Maya asked, “Where did police take my car?”
Daniel checked the secure system.
For several seconds he said nothing.
Then his expression became worse.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward Maya.
The seizure record listed no evidence facility.
No impound yard.
No police station.
Only an address.
Maya recognised it.
24 Linden Street, Fitzroy.
The old safe house where her father had hidden eight years earlier.
Beneath the address was a name approving the seizure.
Daniel read it once.
Then again.
Maya watched the colour leave his face.
“Who is that?”
Daniel looked at her.
“My old partner.”
“Is he one of the three homicide officers still serving?”
Daniel nodded.
Maya felt the entire night shift again beneath her skin.
“What’s his name?”
Daniel turned the screen toward her.
Detective Superintendent Marcus Vale.
Maya stared at it.
Daniel’s voice came quietly.
“Marcus was the first person I told Michael Carter was cooperating with us.”
And for the first time since Victor Hale climbed into Maya’s car, Daniel Reid looked genuinely afraid.