Westside Haven Goes Dark
Chapter 07 - Westside Haven Goes Dark
The power outage hit only one floor.
That was how Arthur knew.
Westside Haven was old, underfunded, and badly maintained, but even bad buildings failed honestly most of the time. One breaker. One wing. One boiler.
Not one hallway.
Not one apartment.
Not only Nora Harper’s door and the two units beside it.
Arthur reached the building before police because he broke three traffic laws and did not regret any of them.
Denise came with him.
Mags called the police, the building owner, the fire department, and two reporters she described as “useful when frightened.”
The hallway outside Nora’s apartment was dark.
Lily’s voice came from inside.
“Mom?”
Arthur’s heart slammed.
“Nora!”
No answer.
Denise pushed him aside and used her master ring of old maintenance keys. The lock opened on the third try.
Inside, the apartment was black except for a battery lantern on the table.
Lily stood beside it in pajamas, clutching her backpack.
“Nora?” Arthur called.
“In the bedroom,” Lily whispered. “She told me to stay by the light.”
Nora was on the floor near the bedroom closet, conscious but dazed. A bruise darkened her temple. Her phone lay smashed under the dresser.
Arthur knelt.
“Nora.”
Her eyes focused.
“Lily.”
“She’s here. She’s safe.”
Nora tried to sit up and winced.
“He came through the fire stairs.”
“Who?”
“The hallway man.”
Peter Vale.
Denise checked the window.
“Fire escape,” she said. “He went down.”
Sirens approached.
Lily stood frozen in the doorway.
Children should not have to learn the shape of adult danger, Arthur thought.
But Lily was learning anyway.
Nora reached for her.
“I’m okay.”
Lily shook her head.
“You’re bleeding.”
Nora touched her own temple, saw blood on her fingers, and looked angry before she looked scared.
Good, Arthur thought.
Anger meant she was still inside herself.
The police arrived, then paramedics.
At first, the responding officer treated it as a break-in.
Then Mags arrived, heels clicking down the dark hallway, silver hair pinned, winter coat flying open.
“This is witness intimidation tied to a corporate fraud investigation,” she announced before anyone asked.
The officer blinked.
Mags handed him three printed pages, two names, and a timeline.
The investigation improved immediately.
Nora refused the hospital until Lily was allowed in the ambulance.
Arthur rode behind them.
At County General, Lily sat beside her mother’s bed, holding Nora’s hand while a doctor stitched the cut near her hairline.
Arthur waited in the hallway.
He had spent his life in private hospitals, donor wings, executive medical suites.
County General at midnight was a different country.
A woman slept in a chair with a baby on her chest. An old man argued with a vending machine. Nurses moved with the tired grace of people holding civilization together with coffee and tape.
Arthur looked at the floor and thought of every Bellamy Systems press release that used words like community while people like Nora sat under broken heat.
Mags arrived with coffee.
“You look old,” she said.
“I am old.”
“No. You look newly guilty.”
He accepted the cup.
“What if this company cannot be saved?”
Mags looked through the glass at Lily holding Nora’s hand.
“Companies don’t deserve saving. People do.”
At three in the morning, Nora woke fully.
Arthur stepped inside.
“I can put you and Lily somewhere safe,” he said.
Nora looked at him.
“I am not being hidden.”
“It isn’t hiding if—”
“It is if men like Martin keep their offices and I lose another home.”
Lily looked up.
“Mom.”
Nora softened.
“I’m not being reckless. I’m being specific.”
Arthur nodded slowly.
“What do you want?”
Nora’s eyes were tired, bruised, and clear.
“I want my employee file. The original. Not the cleaned one. The one they forgot existed.”
Arthur frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Tanya told me something before she died. She said Bellamy keeps a shadow archive for executive liability. If they fired me, someone created a second file explaining why.”
Mags went still.
Arthur turned to her.
“What shadow archive?”
Mags looked unhappy.
“The founder created it after the 2009 bribery scare.”
Arthur stared.
“I created it?”
“You were very dramatic that year.”
“Where is it?”
Mags sighed.
“Off-site.”
“Who has access?”
She looked at him.
“You. Me. And Martin, after you made him CEO.”
May you like
Arthur closed his eyes.
The next battlefield was his own locked archive.
