Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE THAT STOLE MY LIFE
I showed the message to Elena.
“We call the state police,” she said.
“Carter will see them coming.”
“You can’t go alone.”
“I won’t.”
My father grabbed my wrist.
“There’s another entrance to the cellar. Your mother had it built behind the detached garage.”
Reagan had torn down the garage and replaced it with a pool house, but the tunnel might still exist beneath the foundation.
Elena contacted Investigator Dana Cole, the state officer handling Victor’s arrest. Dana agreed to approach without sirens while we entered from the rear.
At midnight, Elena and I crossed the neighboring yard.
The pool house door was unlocked.
Beneath a rubber exercise mat, we found an old metal ring set into the floor. I pulled it, revealing concrete steps descending into darkness.
The tunnel smelled of mold and wet earth.
At the far end, we heard Carter yelling.
“You should’ve stayed in the diner, June!”
I pushed through a wooden panel behind a wine rack.
June was tied to a chair.
Carter stood beside her with a pistol.
Reagan waited near the stairs, still perfectly dressed. She looked almost relieved to see me.
“Finnley,” she said. “You’ve caused so much unnecessary trouble.”
“You framed me.”
“You were convenient.”
“Dad knows everything.”
“Your father spent his life knowing things too late.”
Carter pressed the gun against June’s head.
“The keys.”
I tossed the brass key onto the floor.
Carter picked it up.
“The silver one too.”
“Let June go first.”
Reagan smiled.
“You’re in no position to negotiate.”
A siren sounded in the distance.
Carter spun toward his mother.
“You said the police were handled.”
“I said the local police were handled.”
June threw herself sideways with the chair.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck the ceiling.
I rushed Carter. He swung the pistol into my face, but Elena came through the hidden panel and hit him with a wine bottle.
Carter dropped.
Reagan ran to the far wall and pressed a hidden switch.
A steel door opened behind a cabinet.
She disappeared inside.
I cut June loose while Elena grabbed Carter’s gun.
“You came back for me,” June said.
“You lied to the police for me. It seemed fair.”
We followed Reagan into the vault.
Shelves held financial ledgers, photographs and old videotapes. At the center stood a fireproof document chest.
Reagan was stuffing files into a leather bag.
“Step away,” Elena said, aiming the pistol.
Reagan looked at her and smiled.
“You always were difficult to kill.”
Dana and two state officers entered behind us. Carter was handcuffed upstairs.
Reagan raised her hands.
For one second, I thought it was over.
Then smoke drifted from the ceiling vent.
Reagan had triggered an old fire-suppression system, but it wasn’t releasing water.
The bitter smell hit my throat.
Dana coughed.
“What is that?”
Elena’s eyes widened.
May you like
“Carbon monoxide.”
The steel vault door slammed shut behind us.
