“Find him!”Commissioner Rhoades’ voice cut through the hallway like a whip.“I want every exit covered. Check the cameras. Check the vents. Check the damn walls if you have to. He could not have gone far!”The officers moved at once, boots echoing loudly against the tiled floor as they scattered in different directions. Radios crackled. Doors opened and slammed shut. The entire station, which had been calm just minutes ago, now felt like a place under attack.Rhoades stood in the middle of it all, his jaw tight, his eyes burning with a mix of anger and something else he refused to name.Confusion.No.Not confusion.Something worse.Loss of control.He turned back toward the interrogation room again, as if expecting Johnny to suddenly reappear in the chair, hands cuffed, like nothing had happened.But the room remained empty.The cuffs still hung loosely from the table.Mocking him.Rhoades clenched his fists.Impossible.There was no way a man could just vanish like that. Not in a

Johnny did not wait to see how the conversation ended.The moment the officers stepped fully into the room and Margaret’s attention shifted away from him, he moved. Quiet. Careful. Invisible.He couldn’t force her. If he tried to drag her out of here now, it would only make things worse. It would look exactly like what she feared.Like he was someone dangerous. Someone she should run from.Johnny’s hands clenched slightly, as he slipped past the doorway without a sound.One step.Then another.By the time the officers began speaking again, he was already gone.---Johnny stood still for a moment just outside the building, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders slightly tense.Margaret’s voice replayed again in his head.“Who are you, Johnny?”He exhaled slowly.“Yeah…” he muttered under his breath. “Good question.”“I don’t even know,” he muttered.And that was the problem.He kept walking.Step after step.Until the answer, or something close to it, started forming in his mind.May