Not as cop and suspect.

Not as enemies.

They were partners.

“I told you to handle this before it got to this point,” Julian said.

His footsteps moved across the kitchen, stopping right outside my door.

I shrank back, pulling my knees to my chest on the floor.

“She knew too much,” Harris said. “She was going to the state investigators tomorrow.”

“Because you let her get access to the bank records,” Julian said.

“I didn’t let her do anything,” Harris snapped. “She’s smarter than you think, Julian. She’s been logging everything.”

A silence fell over the kitchen.

I could hear the rain lashing against the broken window pane.

“It doesn’t matter now,” Julian said. “The power is cut. The backup generator is disabled.”

“What about the cameras?” Harris asked.

“Dark,” Julian said. “The local feed is wiped. The cloud backup won’t sync without the router.”

I reached into my pocket and felt the cold plastic of my phone.

I pulled it out, keeping my thumb over the screen to block the glare.

One bar of signal.

The battery was at eighteen percent.