Chapter 5: B: Premature Arrest

👉 [Previous choice]: You chose Option B – Threaten to arrest Silas immediately on felony trespass charges.

“Silas Finch,” I stated, pulling out my police-issue phone and tapping the screen. “I’m a 911 dispatcher. I can have officers here in minutes. You’re facing felony trespass, accessory to breaking and entering, and whatever other charges Kincaid’s occult activities might entail. Talk. Now.”

Silas’s face crumpled. His eyes darted wildly, not at me, but towards the street, towards something unseen. Panic seized him. “No! You can’t! He’ll know!”

He fumbled in his pocket, pulling out a burner phone. He dialled quickly, his fingers shaking. “Mr. Kincaid, she knows! The dispatcher! She’s threatening me with arrest!”

My heart sank. I had pushed too hard.

A cold, calm voice filtered through Silas’s phone, audible even to me. “Silas, my boy. Calm yourself. Put her on speaker. Maya Holloway, is it? Did you really think such crude tactics would work on my associates?”

“You won’t get away with this, Kincaid,” I snapped into the phone.

“Oh, but I already have,” he purred. “My dear Silas, you’re a brilliant improviser. Tell your story, my boy.”

Silas, emboldened by Kincaid’s voice, suddenly looked at me with a strange, defiant glint. “She attacked me! She tried to steal my bag! She’s a thief!”

Before I could react, two burly men in suits appeared from the antique shop, responding to a silent signal. They grabbed Silas, wrenching his phone from his hand.

“She tried to mug me, she said she was a cop!” Silas yelled, pointing a trembling finger at me. “She needs to be arrested!”

Kincaid’s voice came over the phone again, louder now. “I’ve already called your department, Holloway. Told them a deranged dispatcher was harassing my staff. And now, she’s committed assault. You’ll be in county jail by midnight, my dear. While I, however, will be unsealing my relic.”

Sirens wailed in the distance. Not for Kincaid, but for me. I watched, helpless, as the suited men held Silas. I was being framed, outmaneuvered, all because I had underestimated Kincaid’s reach and Silas’s fear.