Flash

had a gun.
    She did the only thing that made sense at that moment.
    She ran toward the glowing green exit sign.

19
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    J asper planted both hands flat on the desk and leaned forward. He kept his voice very soft because he did not trust himself to speak in a normal tone. The rage that had been swirling inside him all morning made him extremely cautious.
    "What do you mean, she left a message about a
facility
?"
    On the other side of the desk, Rose flinched. Her mouth worked tremulously. "I… I really can't tell you anything else, Mr. Sloan. Olivia called and said to let you know that her appointment schedule for the day had been ch… ch… changed. She said she was going to check out the facility in south Seattle this morning, since she had time."
    "Damn."
    Rose swallowed. "I'm sorry, sir, if I didn't get the message right."
    "Don't worry about it, Rose." Jasper straightened. "I'll take care of the problem."
    "Yes, sir."
    He glanced at his watch as he went into the inner office. "I'm going to be out of the office for the rest of the day. Call Tyler. Tell him what's going on. He can handle things until tomorrow."
    "Yes, sir."
    Jasper grabbed his jacket off the back of the door and walked swiftly through the outer office. He could feel Rose's curious, nervous eyes on him as he went out the door and headed toward the elevator.
    He was well aware that his odd reaction to the phone message from Olivia would be all over the office by noon. Rose might not know quite what to make of it, but one thing was for certain. It constituted Chantry family gossip.

    He was overreacting, he told himself as he drove into the small lot in front of the Pri-Con Self-Storage company. There was no reason for the chill in his gut. What could possibly happen to Olivia in a storage locker facility?
    He parked his Jeep next to Olivia's sleek red Nissan and got out. He walked swiftly toward the battered red, white, and blue sign that pointed to the office.
    Relief shot through him when he reached the grimy one-window room and saw Olivia inside. She had cornered a harassed-looking man with tattoos behind a battered metal desk. Her angry, outraged voice floated through the open door.
    "I'm telling you there's some idiot on the fourth floor with a flashlight He's stalking people up there. Don't you care?"
    "Look, lady, the lights up there are a little tricky, y'know? They're always goin' out."
    "He deliberately turned them off, I tell you."
    "Calm down, ma'am. There ain't no other customers here."
    "Someone is upstairs playing vicious games."
    The attendant put up his hands as if to ward her off. "I'll take a look if it will make you feel any better."
    "Don't you dare speak to me as if I'm hysterical. There is a person up there who stalked me through the aisles."
    "But I'm tellin' you there's no other customers around—" The attendant broke off as he caught sight of Jasper standing in the doorway. "Leastways, there wasn't until now."
    "What's going on here?" Jasper asked.
    Olivia spun around. "
Jasper
."
    The relief in her face had an unexpectedly warming effect. He glanced down and saw that she was barefoot. Her nylons were shredded.
    "What the hell happened?" he asked.
    "I found Uncle Rollie's locker, but before I could get it open someone turned out the lights upstairs, and then, I swear to God, he came through the aisles with a flashlight. It was as if he was hunting me. I knocked him down with a platform truck and—"
    "Is he still up there?" Jasper interrupted.
    She frowned. "Well, yes. I think so. At least I haven't seen anyone else come down the stairs or use the elevator since I got back to the office. But, Silas, here, just told me that there's an emergency exit door on the other side of the building. He might have escaped through it."
    Jasper looked at the hapless Silas. "Let's go take a look."
    "Sure, sure. Whatever you say."
    Silas came out from behind the barricade of his desk with alacrity. Jasper got the impression he was grateful for the excuse to flee the office.
    Jasper looked at Olivia. "Wait here."
    "Not a chance." She was already in motion, striding crisply toward the door. "I'm coming with you."
    There was no time to argue. Besides, Jasper consoled himself, if there was a stalker prowling the grounds, Olivia was safer in a crowd than she was on her own down here in the office. "Stay close."
    She did not bother to respond to that. She went past him out the door.
    Silas reached the elevator first and punched the