Brandon heard the squawk of radios as the paramedics stepped off the elevator. He came out of the bedroom. “He’s in here. Hurry! His breathing is shallow.”
They followed him to Merchant. “How long has he been like this?”
“I don’t know. At least twenty minutes, I think.”
“What happened?”
“A detective was here. Detective Codella. She found him. She told me to tell you he might have been drugged with a narcotic. He was partly conscious until a little while ago.”
Brandon watched the paramedics strip off Merchant’s silk shirt. One paramedic checked his pulse and airways. The other one prepared an IV.
“Do you have Naloxone?” asked Brandon. “If somebody gave him a narcotic, Naloxone would help, wouldn’t it? It couldn’t hurt to try it.”
One of the paramedics lifted Merchant’s eyelids. He nodded. “Let’s do it.”
As they dug into their equipment, Brandon backed out of the room. He was no longer needed. He went to the kitchen and pressed the lighted service elevator button. When it came, he stepped in and pushed the button for the basement. When he reached the bottom, the door opened onto darkness.
“Detective?” he called tentatively, but Codella did not answer. He stepped out. He called out for her again. Had she already found whoever she was looking for? Had she gone up to the lobby?
The darkness was absolute. It felt alive and malevolent. He reached for his iPhone and flipped on the flashlight app. Its little beam was no match for the black cave in front of him. He turned and looked for the illuminated elevator button, but it wasn’t where it should have been.
Instead, his little iPhone beam illuminated the gray barrel of a weapon pointed at his face.
“Step back,” said the voice, “three steps and put your hands in the air. If you hesitate at all, you’re dead.”