Flash

button.
    "Let's take the stairs," Jasper said. "If he's looking for a way out, he'll probably use them rather than the elevator."
    "What if he hears us in the stairwell and decides to use the elevator?" Olivia asked.
    "Lock it out," Jasper told Silas.
    "Okay, okay. Take it easy." When the elevator opened, Silas reached inside and pulled out a red knob. "There. It ain't goin nowhere."
    Jasper opened the stairwell door and listened for a few seconds. No footsteps echoed on the concrete. He moved inside and started up the first flight, taking the steps two at a time.
    Olivia followed, silent on her bare feet. Silas brought up the rear. He was panting heavily by the time they hit the second floor. He wheezed on the third.
    Jasper opened the door on the fourth level and looked at the blocks of storage lockers.
    "He turned the lights back on." Olivia peered past Jasper's shoulder. "I wonder why he did that?"
    "Maybe he never turned 'em off," Silas gasped behind her.
    She glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
    "Nothin', honest."
    She narrowed her eyes. "You think I made it all up, don't you?"
    "Look, lady, the lights are on, that's all I'm sayin'…"
    "Quiet," Jasper said. He glanced at Silas. "Stay here to make certain that he doesn't try to use the stairs. I'll check the aisles."
    "Sure." Silas looked relieved to have someone else take command. He sagged against the wall to catch his breath. "Right."
    Olivia stepped out of the stairwell. "I'll come with you, Jasper."
    "All right But stay close, understand?"
    "Yeah, sure."
    He did not like the sound of that, but he could not think of anything else to do except conduct a meticulous search.
    There was a pattern to the way the blocks of lockers had been laid out. Jasper quickly identified the main aisles and walked through them, checking each cross aisle whenever he came to an intersection. Olivia paced at his side, her eyes flicking back and forth. He was acutely aware of the tension in her.
    "The place feels empty now," she said when they paused in an intersection three aisles from the rear wall. "But he was here. I swear it, Jasper."
    "I believe you."
    "The platform truck should be in the next aisle." Olivia hurried forward.
    "Damn it, I told you to stay close." He caught up with her just as she came to a sudden halt and stood staring down a corridor.
    "There it is," she whispered. "I told you."
    Jasper studied the platform truck parked innocuously in the middle of the aisle. There was no sign that it had recently been used to mow down a stalker. There was no evidence that anything at all out of the ordinary had occurred.
    "Hang on while I check the last two aisles," Jasper said.
    Both were empty.
    Olivia watched him with somber eyes as he walked back to join her. "He's gone."
    "Looks like it." Jasper glanced down the long center aisle to where Silas stood guard at the stairwell door. "Are there any empty lockers on this floor?" he called.
    "Nope." Silas shouted back. "Rented the last one about a month ago. Only open lockers are down on the first floor."
    "So much for the possibility that he's hiding in an empty locker," Jasper said.
    "He must have escaped down the stairs and out the emergency exit while I was in the office with Silas."
    "Maybe." Jasper walked into the aisle occupied by the platform truck.
    Olivia followed slowly. "This is spooky, Jasper. Silas thinks I got scared when the lights went out and made up the whole story. Now I can't prove that I didn't."
    "I believe you." He edged past the platform truck. "You said you thought you knocked him down with this thing?"
    "Yes. But I didn't hang around to see if he was hurt. I ran for the stairs."
    "Smart."
    Jasper crouched to study the front edge of the wooden platform. It was scarred and nicked from years of heavy use. There was no way to tell if it had collided with a man's leg during the past half hour.
    Then he saw the crushable khaki canvas hat lying beneath the front right caster just as he started to rise. "I think you may have managed to score yourself a souvenir of today's events, after all."
    She followed his glance to the mashed hat. "Do you suppose he dropped it when the truck hit him?"
    "Maybe." He picked up the hat and took a closer look It was a soft, wide-brimmed affair studded with metal grommets for ventilation. It was designed so that it could be rolled up and stuffed conveniently into a back pocket. "Could have fallen out of his pants or his shirt when he fell."
    Olivia grimaced. "I