Chapter 3

3: 3

Dustin was dead too?

The world tilted black. My knees nearly buckled.

What was going on?

I raised a shaking hand, staring at the time clock in front of me, terror pushing straight through me.

Once was coincidence. But twice?

Why was it that the instant I clocked in, someone dropped dead at that exact moment, every time?

Yesterday Reginald had said a few coworkers here had died in strange ways before, too.

There was no way my clocking in had caused those, was there?

While my head was a tangled mess, chasing an answer I couldn't find,

a crowd suddenly poured through the office door. I looked closer, and it was all my former coworkers.

"Clara Henson, get out here!"

"Was it you? Did you kill Supervisor James and Dustin and the rest of them?"

They rushed me without a word. I couldn't dodge in time, and someone smashed a brick into my forehead.

Blood came pouring out. The pain almost knocked me out cold on the spot.

Seeing it, my coworkers hurried to block them, shouting furiously:

"What are you doing! People died at your company, so call the police and get the cops. What are you doing making trouble at our office!"

But the furious crowd didn't care about any of that.

Every one of them was worked up, glaring at me through gritted teeth:

"Who else could it be if not her!"

"In this whole company, she's the only one who had bad blood with Supervisor James and Dustin! And she clashed with the others too, Alex and the rest of them, and every single one of those people is dead!"

Someone shot back:

"So on what basis do you decide she killed them? Just because they had bad blood?"

"You need evidence to accuse someone of murder. Security footage, fingerprints, a witness, anything. You've got none of it. On what basis are you calling her a killer!"

My coworkers backed me one after another, demanding they produce proof.

The Yuhui Tech crowd instantly lost their nerve.

"But Dustin told us Supervisor James was killed by Clara Henson, and he said he had evidence!"

I fired straight back:

"He said he had evidence? Then why didn't he hand it to the police!"

"Dustin loved bragging and running his mouth. He says something and you just believe it? Well, I say I didn't kill anyone. Why don't you believe that?"

They hesitated, watching me.

"But he also said... that you were going to kill every one of us."

I almost laughed from the anger.

I pulled up the company's security footage, pointed at myself on the screen, and said furiously:

"Take a good look. When Irene James and Dustin died, I wasn't anywhere near the scene."

"I don't have a damn body double. How could I have killed them?"

Watching myself clock in at the front desk on the footage, my palm tightened without my meaning it to.

Yes, the times Irene and the others died matched the times I clocked in.

But that didn't prove I'd killed them.

Even if they noticed it, it couldn't pin the crime on me!

But by that afternoon, they had me cornered at the office door again.

"Clara Henson, you're still saying it wasn't you!"

I stood there blank.

Then they shoved Reginald out in front, and he looked at me, face full of guilt:

"Clara, I'm sorry. The video... they found the video!"

My head went off like a blast.

Last night, hadn't he deleted the video right in front of me?

"It wasn't me. I didn't kill anyone!"

I waved my hands, panicked, but they flung down an attendance log:

"Still lying. If you didn't kill anyone, then explain these clock-in times!"

"Dustin already dug into all of it. Ever since you came to this company, they started dying off one by one in bizarre ways. You planned every one of these murders!"

I looked down, and the clock-in times on that attendance log

matched the times Irene and Clark and the others died, exactly!

I froze, stunned.

"No, I didn't! I'm being framed!"

I was just about to explain when a group of cops walked in:

"Clara Henson, we suspect you of involvement in the deaths of Irene James, Dustin Armstrong, and others. Please come back to the police station with us for questioning."