Chapter 4 - The Stairwell
“Fire escape,” Vincent said.
Sarah grabbed Emily’s coat.
Emily reached for the jar.
“Leave it.”
“It’s all my money.”
Vincent took it from her.
“I’ve got it.”
Marco pulled open the bedroom window.
Cold air struck the room.
Below, flames flickered through the front stairwell.
Somebody screamed on the second floor.
Sarah climbed onto the narrow metal landing.
Emily hesitated.
“It’s high.”
“Look at me,” her mother said.
Emily stepped through.
Vincent passed her the jar, then climbed out.
Luca stayed behind.
“Mrs. Alvarez is next door,” Sarah said.
“She can’t manage those stairs alone.”
Vincent looked at Marco.
“Take them down.”
“What about you?”
“Go.”
He followed Sarah’s pointing hand into the apartment next door.
Mrs. Alvarez sat in an armchair, clutching a phone.
“I called my son.”
“Can you stand?”
“My walker—”
Luca grabbed it.
Vincent helped her up.
Smoke pushed under the door.
For a moment, the old woman looked at his face.
“I know who you are.”
“Then yell at me outside.”
They moved her through Sarah’s bedroom window.
Marco returned halfway up the fire escape and helped carry her down.
By the time Vincent reached the alley, neighbors stood shivering in slippers.
Sarah was counting heads.
“Where’s Ben from the first floor?”
A teenage boy emerged carrying a frightened cat.
“Here.”
Emily held the jar against her stomach.
A fire engine swung around the corner.
Vincent’s phone rang again.
Carlo.
He answered.
“People live here.”
“People live everywhere.”
“You could have killed them.”
“You used to understand warnings.”
Across the alley, Sarah heard enough.
She snatched the phone.
“You kept my husband from his daughter for eight years.”
Carlo paused.
Then his voice changed.
“Sarah. He’s mentioned you.”
“Where is he?”
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
“What should I ask?”
“What he left behind.”
The line went dead.
Sarah looked toward the burning windows.
Daniel’s old coat was still inside.
The coat she had kept because throwing it away felt like burying him.
In its lining, he had sewn a little brass key.
He’d once told her it belonged to a cabinet.
She had never found the cabinet.
Vincent saw recognition in her face.
“What?”
May you like
Sarah looked up at the third floor.
“The thing he wants is in that fire.”
