Chapter 16 - THE HOUSE WITHOUT LIGHT
Thomas locked the kitchen door. Madison clung to Rachel as Marla’s voice came again.
“Madison, sweetheart, I just want to talk.”
Thomas’s expression turned murderous.
Rachel grabbed a cast-iron skillet. A shadow crossed the hallway.
Thomas pushed Madison and Rachel behind the island.
“Stay down.”
“You stay down,” Rachel hissed. “You were dead this week.”
Even now, he almost smiled.
Then the kitchen window exploded.
Rachel covered Madison.
A canister rolled across the floor hissing smoke.
“Back door!” Thomas shouted.
They ran into the mudroom.
The door was chained from outside.
Marla had prepared the house.
Thomas kicked at the chain until pain folded him over.
Rachel grabbed gardening shears from a shelf and hacked at the plastic-coated link.
Behind them, footsteps entered the kitchen.
“Rachel,” Marla called. “You don’t understand what they’ll do if those ledgers come out.”
Rachel cut harder.
“You poisoned my husband.”
“I dosed him. Mercer did the rest.”
“You watched my daughter.”
“I needed to know what she heard.”
“She’s eight.”
“And eight-year-olds talk.”
The chain snapped.
Thomas shoved the door open.
They burst into the backyard.
A second figure stepped from behind the garage.
Neil Pritchard.
The funeral director held a shotgun.
Rachel stopped.
Madison whispered, “The coffin man.”
Neil’s face looked sick with shame.
“I’m sorry.”
Thomas moved in front of his family.
“For what?”
Neil lifted the gun.
“For not burying you when I had the chance.”
A shot cracked through the yard.
Neil spun and dropped.
Marla stood in the doorway holding a pistol.
She looked at Thomas.
May you like
“I never trusted him.”
Then she aimed at Madison.
