Chapter 13 - The Man in the Backyard
Nathan dropped to the floor as glass exploded across the tile.
Ruiz drew her gun.
"Lights off!"
Another crack came from the backyard.
A bullet struck the wall above the sink.
Nathan's first thought was not fear.
It was Lily and Noah.
He sprinted toward the stairs.
Ruiz caught his sleeve.
"Stay low."
They crawled through the hallway as officers outside shouted into radios.
Upstairs, Lily had already pulled Noah into the bathtub, exactly where Nathan had taught them to go during severe storms.
"Daddy!"
"I'm here. Stay down."
The house alarm began screaming.
A patrol officer yelled from outside, "Movement at the rear fence!"
Footsteps pounded across the yard.
Then came a single gunshot, followed by a man's shout.
Ten minutes later, police dragged a stranger from the neighboring alley.
Not Grant.
The gunman broke fast.
"I didn't know there were kids!"
"Who paid you?" Ruiz asked.
"Grant Keller. Cash. He said scare Nathan and shoot the windows."
Nathan's phone still lay in the kitchen where Victoria's call had ended.
The trace came back to a prepaid phone near an abandoned motel thirty miles north.
Officers raided it before midnight.
Victoria was gone.
But they found blood in the bathroom.
And a woman's purse containing Victoria's driver's license.
On the motel desk sat a handwritten note.
HE WILL KILL ME TOO.
Ruiz stared at it.
"Either Victoria wants us to think Grant has turned on her..."
Nathan finished the thought.
"Or he actually has."
Then one of the motel officers called from the parking lot.
They had found security footage.
At 7:12 p.m., Victoria entered room 18 alone.
At 7:46, Grant arrived.
May you like
At 8:03, Grant left carrying something wrapped in a blanket.
The blanket was roughly the size of a human body.
