Chapter 6 - The Parking Garage
Mason reached the parking garage in eleven minutes.
Two police cruisers arrived less than a minute later.
Sabrina’s car sat on Level Three.
Driver’s door open.
Engine running.
No Sabrina.
Mason ran toward it.
An officer stopped him.
“You need to stay back.”
“She called me.”
“We’re searching.”
Mason looked around the concrete structure.
“Sabrina!”
His voice echoed.
No answer.
Then someone shouted from the stairwell.
They found her one level below.
Alive.
Shaking.
A security guard had hidden her inside a maintenance room after seeing a man following her.
Sabrina rushed toward Mason.
“He took my phone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you see his face?”
“No.”
The security guard did.
His description matched Peter Voss.
Within hours, police issued an alert.
The case was no longer simply an internal university scandal.
It had become a criminal investigation.
The recovered classroom video was turned over to investigators.
By Wednesday morning, the complete footage had been authenticated.
Westbridge reinstated Evelyn pending final review.
She refused to return.
Not yet.
“The university released a statement clearing you of initiating the kiss,” Rachel said.
Evelyn stared through the apartment window.
“They waited until they had no choice.”
“It still matters.”
“Does it?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn turned.
Rachel continued.
“Because there are students out there who believed you.”
Evelyn sat down.
“I don’t know whether I can walk back into that building.”
“You don’t have to today.”
“What if I never can?”
“Then you build something else.”
Evelyn smiled sadly.
“You always make leaving sound easy.”
“It isn’t. But staying somewhere that protects powerful people at your expense isn’t automatically brave.”
That afternoon, Mason came by.
He stood at the door rather than entering.
Evelyn noticed.
“You can come in.”
“I thought you might want space.”
“I do.”
He nodded.
“Then I’ll stay here.”
Despite herself, she smiled.
“What do you need?”
“I wanted to tell you I withdrew from your course.”
“I know.”
“And I transferred sections for two other requirements.”
“That was probably wise.”
“I’m also taking a leave from Westbridge after this semester.”
Evelyn looked surprised.
“Why?”
“I don’t know what I want anymore.”
“Mason, don’t throw away your degree because of me.”
“I’m not.”
“Then because of your father?”
“Not him either.”
“Why?”
He looked down the hallway.
“Because I spent my entire life believing Westbridge was part of my family’s legacy.”
“And now?”
“Now it feels like a crime scene with a library.”
Evelyn laughed unexpectedly.
Mason smiled.
It was the first easy moment they had shared.
Then silence returned.
He looked at her.
“I meant what I said in the classroom.”
“What?”
“That I thought there was something between us.”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
“Mason.”
“I know.”
“You are still a student.”
“I know.”
“And what happened was not okay.”
“I know.”
“You cannot make me responsible for your feelings.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
He took a breath.
“I’m apologizing again. Not because the video exists. Not because I got caught. Because I crossed your boundary.”
Evelyn studied him.
“You embarrassed me.”
“I know.”
“You frightened me.”
His face tightened.
“I’m sorry.”
“I believe you.”
He looked up.
“But forgiveness does not turn what happened into romance.”
“I understand.”
“Good.”
He nodded.
Then left.
Evelyn closed the door.
She leaned against it.
Her heart was beating too fast.
That frightened her too.
Because part of her had noticed him long before the kiss.
She had simply refused to name it.
Not desire.
Not yet.
But awareness.
The kind a responsible professor knows to lock away.
And that was where it would stay.
For now.
Three days later, Peter Voss was arrested at a motel in New Hampshire.
Inside his room police found forged IDs, forty thousand dollars in cash, and a storage key.
The storage unit contained university records.
Old contracts.
Burner phones.
And a laptop.
On the laptop was a folder labeled CR.
Caroline Reed.
Investigators discovered surveillance photographs covering the final month of her life.
Grocery store.
Home.
Westbridge campus.
Evelyn’s old apartment.
And the courthouse where the photograph of Caroline and Evelyn had been taken.
Someone had been watching them.
There was also an audio recording.
Victor Hale’s voice.
Clear.
“Caroline cannot reach the board with those documents.”
Peter Voss asked, “What exactly do you want me to do?”
Hale replied, “Stop the meeting.”
The recording ended there.
Not a direct murder order.
But enough to change the case.
Hale resigned from Westbridge that afternoon.
He claimed the decision was intended to “protect the institution from distraction.”
By nightfall, federal investigators executed a search warrant at his home.
The next morning, Charles Reed called a press conference.
Mason watched from Evelyn’s living room.
Charles stepped toward a row of microphones.
“My wife tried to expose misconduct at Westbridge University nine years ago.”
He paused.
“I failed her.”
Reporters shouted questions.
Charles continued.
“I became aware of financial irregularities and chose to protect my company instead of immediately reporting what I knew.”
Mason stared.
Evelyn stood beside him.
Charles said, “That decision may have contributed to circumstances that placed Caroline in danger.”
His voice broke.
“I cannot undo that.”
For once, Charles Reed did not look powerful.
He looked human.
Flawed.
Ashamed.
“I am resigning from the Board of Trustees and placing fifty million dollars into an independently managed scholarship fund for students harmed by the financial misconduct.”
Mason whispered, “Fifty million?”
Evelyn said nothing.
Charles continued.
“I will cooperate fully with investigators, regardless of the personal consequences.”
The press conference ended.
Mason sat.
For several seconds, neither he nor Evelyn spoke.
Then he said, “I spent years hating him because he never talked about Mom.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Maybe he hated himself.”
“That doesn’t excuse him.”
“No.”
“But it explains something.”
“Yes.”
Mason turned toward her.
“Do explanations matter?”
“Sometimes.”
“Even when they don’t fix anything?”
“Especially then.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then Evelyn’s phone buzzed.
An email from Westbridge.
Official reinstatement.
Formal apology.
Offer of promotion.
Back pay.
Independent review.
Rachel leaned over Evelyn’s shoulder.
“That’s everything you wanted.”
Evelyn read the email again.
Then quietly said, “No.”
Mason looked at her.
“What?”
May you like
Evelyn closed the laptop.
“That isn’t what I want anymore.”
