Chapter 6 - THE CHILD WHO KNEW THE WAY OUT
"We can't use the front door," Owen said.
Ryan looked at Lily. "Sweetheart, is there another way outside?"
She nodded.
Caroline had turned the house into a maze, but children notice what adults ignore. Lily led them through a narrow crawlspace behind the laundry room, then down a ladder hidden inside a linen closet.
At the bottom was an old storm tunnel.
"Mommy said never come here," Lily whispered.
"Tonight you can break that rule."
They had gone twenty yards when footsteps echoed behind them.
"Move," Ryan said.
Owen carried Emma despite his limp. Ryan lifted Lily and ran.
The tunnel ended beneath the detached garage. Ryan shoved open a rusted hatch and pulled everyone into cold night air.
His truck sat ten feet away.
The windshield exploded.
Ryan dropped behind a stone wall with Lily.
A second shot struck the garage door.
Owen crawled toward an old SUV.
"Keys?"
"Inside."
"Of course they are."
Ryan threw a landscaping brick through the driver's window, reached inside, and found the emergency key Caroline kept in the console.
The engine roared.
They sped through the rear service gate as a black sedan chased them down the estate road.
Ryan called 911 again, this time from Owen's cheap prepaid phone.
A real dispatcher answered.
He gave the address, the names, everything.
Then Emma spoke from the back seat.
"Daddy, the bad man has Lily's mommy."
Ryan looked in the mirror. "What bad man?"
Emma held up a tiny black device.
"The man who comes at night. He puts this under the table."
Owen took it.
A GPS tracker.
Ryan looked behind them.
The black sedan was getting closer.
May you like
Then his phone rang.
Caroline's name appeared on the screen.
