Chapter 3 - Someone in the Hall
Daniel pushed Emma behind the furnace wall and put one finger to his lips.
Another creak came from above.
Not the settling noise of an old house.
A footstep.
Rachel’s voice hissed through the phone. “Daniel, get out.”
“Call 911.”
He ended the call and reached for the heavy flashlight on the workbench.
The basement door eased open.
A man in a dark rain jacket came down three steps, saw Daniel, and stopped.
“Wrong house,” Daniel said.
The man ran.
Daniel chased him through the kitchen and out the back door. He caught the stranger at the porch rail and grabbed his jacket.
The man twisted hard, drove an elbow into Daniel’s ribs, and tore free.
Emma appeared at the doorway with her phone raised.
“I got the car!”
“Inside!”
The stranger jumped into a gray sedan parked near the alley and sped away.
Police arrived six minutes later.
Emma had captured the plate, but Officer Kim frowned when she ran it.
“Stolen yesterday.”
Daniel showed her the basement room.
The officer’s expression changed when she saw the shelves.
“You need to treat this like evidence. Don’t remove anything until we photograph it.”
Rachel arrived while the officers were still there.
Daniel met her in the kitchen.
“You knew.”
Her eyes went to the basement door.
“I knew your father had a room.”
“You stood inside it.”
Rachel looked at Emma, then back at him.
“Not here.”
“Everything is here.”
Rachel’s jaw tightened. “Your father made me promise I would never tell you unless someone came looking for the files.”
Daniel pointed toward the back door.
“Someone just did.”
Officer Kim called from the basement.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Daniel went down.
She was holding a white envelope found beneath the desk.
His name was written across it.
Below his name, his father had added one sentence:
IF MARTIN HALE IS STILL ALIVE, DO NOT TRUST HIM.
May you like
Daniel looked up.
Martin had eaten Thanksgiving dinner in this house two months ago.
