Chapter 1 - The Missing Seconds
Caleb Ross heard the scream before he saw the girl.
“HELP ME!”
The sound tore through the predawn fog hanging over Blackridge Reservoir.
Caleb stopped beside the maintenance shed.
Another scream.
Then splashing.
He ran.
Frost covered the concrete crest of the dam, making every step dangerous. Beyond the railing, the reservoir looked almost black beneath the fading night.
Then he saw her.
A little girl.
Maybe nine.
Her fingers clawed at the wet concrete below the railing while freezing water pulled at her body.
“Hold on!”
Her face lifted.
“Please!”
Caleb threw off his jacket.
He never thought about the temperature.
Never thought about his boots.
Never thought about the restricted archive room he had just entered without authorization.
He jumped.
The cold hit him like a collision.
His lungs locked.
For half a second he could not breathe.
Then he surfaced.
The girl disappeared beneath the water.
Caleb lunged.
His hand caught fabric.
He pulled.
She surfaced coughing wildly.
“I’ve got you!”
She grabbed his shoulders with terrifying strength.
“Don’t let me go!”
“I won’t.”
The current moving toward the auxiliary intake pulled them sideways.
Caleb kicked against it.
His fingers reached for the lowest maintenance rail.
Missed.
Again.
Caught.
Metal tore the skin across his palm.
He held on.
“Climb!”
The girl could barely move.
Caleb pushed her onto the lowest steel step.
Then the next.
By the time they reached the concrete platform, his arms were shaking.
The child collapsed.
Caleb stripped off his inner fleece and wrapped it around her.
“What’s your name?”
“S-Sophie.”
“Sophie what?”
“Kane.”
Caleb froze.
Kane.
For the briefest instant, another name entered his mind.
Thomas Ross.
His father.
Dead eleven years.
Same dam.
Same family.
Sophie’s teeth chattered.
“Stay with me.”
Headlights burst through the fog.
Two black SUVs raced down the access road.
Men in dark jackets jumped out.
Then a woman emerged from the second vehicle.
“Sophie!”
She ran past everyone.
Victoria Kane dropped beside her daughter.
Her expensive coat hit the wet concrete.
She pulled Sophie into her arms.
“Oh God.”
“Mom…”
“I’m here.”
Victoria held her so tightly Sophie winced.
Caleb stepped back.
He knew Victoria Kane from business magazines.
Chief executive of Kane Industrial Holdings.
Daughter of the late billionaire Conrad Kane.
Forty-one years old.
Controlled companies employing thousands.
And now looked like any terrified mother in the world.
Until she noticed Caleb.
Her eyes traveled over his soaked clothes.
His bleeding hand.
The railing.
The water.
Something changed.
“Who are you?”
“Caleb Ross.”
One of her security men stepped between them.
“What happened?”
“She was in the water.”
Victoria stared at him.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Caleb hesitated.
That hesitation cost him.
Victoria saw it.
Before he could answer, a dam technician came running with a tablet.
“Ms. Kane.”
“What?”
“You need to see this.”
He opened the maintenance feed.
Timestamp 5:41:12.
Sophie appeared beside the railing.
Then static swallowed the screen.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Eleven missing seconds.
The picture returned.
Caleb stood beside the railing.
Sophie was gone.
Then Caleb jumped.
Nothing showed the fall.
Nothing showed anyone else.
Nothing showed the woman Caleb had never seen standing behind him.
Victoria slowly lifted her eyes.
“What were you doing beside my daughter?”
“Saving her.”
The security guard reached for Caleb.
Sophie stirred.
“Mom…”
Victoria turned.
“Sweetheart?”
“Someone…”
Her breathing broke into violent coughing.
Victoria immediately held her.
“Don’t talk.”
But Caleb had heard.
Someone.
He looked toward the railing.
A sharp section of metal protruded near the access gate.
Something white was caught there.
Fabric.
Caleb walked over.
“Stop,” the guard ordered.
Caleb ignored him.
He pulled the torn cloth loose.
Attached to it was a silver emblem.
A small wolf.
Victoria saw it.
All color disappeared from her face.
Caleb held it up.
“You know this?”
Victoria said nothing.
The head of security, Grant Hale, stepped closer.
His eyes widened.
“Ma’am…”
Victoria looked at him sharply.
Grant swallowed.
“Lydia used to wear that.”
Caleb frowned.
“Who’s Lydia?”
Victoria’s voice came quietly.
“My sister.”
“Where is she?”
Grant answered before Victoria could.
“She disappeared eleven years ago.”
Caleb felt something tighten inside his chest.
Eleven years.
The same year his father died.
Sirens approached.
Victoria took the wolf emblem from Caleb with trembling fingers.
“This isn’t possible.”
“Why?”
“My sister had this custom-made.”
“Could someone copy it?”
“Perhaps.”
Her expression hardened again.
“But you still haven’t told me why you were here.”
Caleb looked toward the dam buildings.
Police cars appeared through the fog.
He had a reason for being there.
Just not one he wanted to give her.
Not yet.
He had been inside the old engineering archive forty minutes before Sophie fell.
Looking for the original inspection report his father had mentioned days before he died.
The report Kane Industrial Holdings claimed had never existed.
Caleb said, “I work here.”
Grant checked his phone.
“Your shift starts at seven.”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
Victoria noticed.
“So what were you doing here before six?”
“Walking.”
“Inside a restricted industrial facility?”
Caleb looked at her.
“Ask your security system.”
“I intend to.”
An ambulance arrived.
Paramedics surrounded Sophie.
As Victoria followed the stretcher, Caleb saw movement across the reservoir access road.
Near the pine trees.
A white winter coat.
A woman stood in the fog.
Still.
Watching.
“Victoria.”
She turned.
Caleb pointed.
The woman moved backward.
Then disappeared between the trees.
Grant ran toward the road.
By the time he reached it, nobody was there.
Only footprints.
Victoria stared at the empty fog.
Caleb looked at the silver wolf in her hand.
His father had died at Blackridge Dam eleven years earlier.
Victoria’s sister had vanished the same year.
And now someone wearing her symbol had pushed a nine-year-old girl into freezing water while the cameras conveniently failed.
A police officer approached Caleb.
“Sir, we need you to come with us.”
Victoria looked at him.
Suspicion had returned.
Caleb raised his hands.
He could not blame her.
May you like
Because the camera did show him beside Sophie.
And the truth about why he had come to the dam before dawn was going to make him look even guiltier.
