Chapter 14 - Fire in the Hallway
“Everybody out!” Ruiz yelled.
Flames climbed the kitchen curtains and rolled across the ceiling.
The front hallway filled with black smoke in seconds.
David grabbed the metal evidence box.
Emma took Evelyn’s arm.
“Come on!”
Evelyn froze.
The crackling fire, the smoke, the red light—it pulled her somewhere else.
“The car,” she whispered.
“Mom, we have to move.”
“Richard locked the door.”
Emma stopped.
“What?”
Evelyn’s memory broke open all at once.
“The crash. I tried to leave. He followed me. He hit my car. I went into the ditch.” Her eyes widened. “I woke up and the engine was smoking. He was outside.”
Samuel stared at her.
“He left you there?”
“He opened my door.” Evelyn started crying. “I thought he was helping me. He took Emma from the back seat and said, ‘Now nobody will believe you.’ Then he walked away.”
A window exploded downstairs.
Ruiz shoved them toward the back stairs.
“Move!”
They escaped through the laundry room seconds before flames swallowed the hallway.
Outside, Emma coughed until her knees hit the grass.
Fire engines screamed toward them.
A detective ran around the side of the house.
“Vehicle leaving the alley! Dark pickup!”
Ruiz sprinted to her cruiser.
Samuel grabbed her arm. “Richard?”
“Maybe.”
She drove off.
Emma held Evelyn under the flashing red lights.
“You remembered.”
Evelyn nodded, trembling.
“He caused the crash.”
“And then told me you died.”
“Yes.”
David came toward them holding the scorched metal box.
“Evidence is safe.”
Samuel looked up at the burning house.
One upstairs window shattered.
Something fluttered out and landed in the wet yard.
A cassette tape.
The missing third cassette.
Samuel picked it up.
The plastic case was cracked but intact.
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On the label, Evelyn had written:
RICHARD CONFESSES — DO NOT LOSE.
