My Driver Picked Up The Cleaning Lady Every Tuesday — I Had No Idea She Was About To Save My Life
Part 2
Inside the lobby, the polished stone floor and the high ceiling made everything feel a degree cooler than the street outside.
Leo was standing exactly where I had told him to stand beside the long marble security desk.
His hands were still firmly gripping the strap of his backpack.
Tom was holding his post by the glass doors.
Behind the desk, two members of the morning security shift looked up rapidly as I approached them.
They knew my face and my habits.
They knew that I did not walk toward the security desk on an ordinary morning.
“Dave,” I said quietly to the older of the two guards.
“I need you to do three things in the next sixty seconds, and I need you to do them without raising your voice.”
“Are you with me?”
Dave straightened immediately in his chair.
“Yes, sir.”
“First, I need you to put the building on a soft lockdown.”
“No alarm, no public announcement, just close the side exits and put a man at the loading dock.”
“Second, I need you to call the police.”
“Not the front desk, not the precinct line, but the police lieutenant directly.”
“Her number is in the emergency book.”
“Tell her I am asking for her personally, and that there is a man in a sedan in front of my building who is impersonating my driver.”
“Third, I need you to find Mr. Higgins.”
“His name is George Higgins and he works for the car service.”
“I want to know exactly where he is, and I want to know that he is safe.”
“Do not under any circumstances allow anyone to leave the building who is not already in this lobby.”
“Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
Dave picked up the heavy phone receiver.
The other guard was already moving swiftly toward the side corridor.
I exhaled once slowly and turned to look at Leo.
The boy was watching me with the same steady, unflinching eyes.
I knelt down on one knee so that my eyes were exactly level with his.
I set my expensive leather portfolio on the floor beside me.
“Leo,” I said gently.
“Where is your mother right now?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“She said she would meet me in the lobby, but she hasn’t come down.”
“I waited fifteen minutes by the elevators.”
“Then I came outside because I saw your car pull up.”
“I thought if my mom isn’t here, somebody has to tell him.”
I looked toward the long bank of elevators at the back of the massive lobby.
“Dave,” I said without turning my head.
“Do you have eyes on Sarah Tyler from the cleaning service?”
“She works the thirty-eighth floor.”
Dave spoke rapidly into a handset, listened, and looked up at me.
“She clocked in at six-fifty-two, sir.”
“She has not clocked out.”
“The supervisor says she stepped away from her cart about twenty minutes ago to take a phone call and has not come back.”
My mouth went dry in a way I had not felt in many years.
“Pull the cameras,” I said quietly.
“Thirty-eighth floor, every angle, right now.”
My security team was sweeping the floors to find Sarah, but as I looked out the glass doors at the imposter gripping the steering wheel, I only had one thought—what had they already done to George to get his phone?
