Chapter 1 - THE FLOOR ANSWERED
“Daddy… my brother is crying beneath the floor.”
David Vance stopped breathing.
His six-year-old daughter lay with her cheek against the polished oak in his sister’s living room. One small hand pressed flat against the wood.
“Maya. Get up.”
“He says he’s freezing.”
Her brother had been missing for fourteen months.
Leo was eight when he disappeared from a family gathering at his grandfather’s estate in the Texas Hill Country. One minute, cousins were chasing each other through the backyard. The next, the iron side gate stood open.
A blue sneaker lay beside the garden hose.
That was all they found.
Now David stood in Elena’s beautiful new house in Sedona, staring at a daughter who looked more frightened than she ever had during her nightmares.
His sister appeared in the kitchen doorway carrying vanilla tea.
“What is she doing down there?”
Maya moved her palm an inch.
“He says he’s scared of the dark.”
One mug rattled against its saucer.
Tea splashed over Elena’s fingers, but she didn’t look down.
David noticed that.
He noticed everything suddenly—the stiff smile, the quick glance toward the rug, the way she stepped forward before catching herself.
“David,” she said. “You know how children process grief.”
He lowered himself beside Maya.
The floor felt cool against his cheek.
At first, he heard the air conditioner.
Then came three taps.
A pause.
Three more.
David ripped the rug backward. The coffee table scraped across the room.
“Stop!” Elena caught his shoulder.
He shoved her hand away.
Near the baseboard, one seam was wider than the others. Something pale had caught in the gap.
A broken piece of fingernail.
“What have you done?”
Elena’s lips parted.
David grabbed the brass poker beside the decorative fireplace.
His sister dropped to her knees.
“Please. I didn’t want to hurt him.”
“Move back, Maya.”
He struck the wood near the seam. Once. Twice. The board split.
David dropped the poker and tore at the broken plank, opening a narrow space between two floor joists.
Something moved below.
A small hand reached through the darkness and closed around his wrist.
David made a sound he had never heard come from a human being.
“Leo?”
The fingers tightened.
Behind him, Elena began to cry.
But David was looking into the gap, trying to find his son’s face.
A thin voice rose through the floor.
“Dad?”
“I’m here. I’ve got you.”
May you like
The boy’s next words turned David’s stomach to ice.
“Don’t let her close it again.”
