Chapter 8 - The Tape in the Wall
Ruth ran upstairs.
Thomas went after her.
Ethan tackled him at the foot of the stairs.
The pry bar clattered into the water.
"Get Mia out!" Ethan shouted.
Claire and Lily pushed the girl toward the porch while rain blew through broken windows.
Ruth screamed upstairs.
Lily turned back.
"Take Mia!"
Claire grabbed her daughter.
Lily ran up.
She found Ruth in the sewing room ripping a vent cover from the wall while Thomas pounded on the locked door from the hallway.
"Help me!"
Behind the vent sat a rusted cookie tin.
Inside was a microcassette wrapped in wax paper.
Rachel's handwriting covered the label.
IF I DIE, PLAY THIS FOR LILY.
Lily's knees nearly gave out.
The door cracked.
Ruth shoved the cassette into Lily's palm.
"Go through the closet. There's an attic hatch."
"Come with me."
"He wants me, not you."
The door split near the lock.
Lily refused to move.
Then Ethan appeared from the stairwell and slammed his shoulder into Thomas from behind.
All three men and women crashed against the wall.
Sirens grew louder outside.
Thomas tore free and ran toward the attic hatch.
Lily backed away.
He stared at the cassette.
"Your mother destroyed two families over that thing."
"No," Lily said. "You did."
Thomas lunged.
Ethan caught him around the waist.
The rotten floor beneath them cracked.
Thomas fell through to the room below.
He hit hard but moved.
Then a flashlight beam swept through the hall.
"Fire department! Call out!"
Thomas crawled toward a broken rear window.
Before anyone could stop him, he vanished into the flood.
Ruth stared after him.
"He'll go to the pump station."
Ethan frowned.
"Why?"
May you like
Ruth looked at the cassette in Lily's hand.
"Because that's where your father kept the original levee controls."
