Chapter 5 - THE MAN IN THE DARK
The children screamed.
I pulled them to the floor behind the kitchen island.
“Stay down.”
Glass shattered somewhere near the study.
Daniel drew his weapon.
Robert whispered, “She wasn’t working alone.”
Emergency lights flickered on.
Vanessa was gone.
A side window stood open.
Rain blew across the floor.
Daniel cursed and ran toward the hall.
I grabbed the children and moved them into the pantry.
“Lock this door,” I told Lily.
“Don’t open it unless you hear my voice and the word sunrise.”
“Sunrise,” she repeated.
I kissed both their foreheads.
Then I joined Daniel.
The study door had been forced open.
My wall safe stood open.
The backup drive containing company records was missing.
So was Rachel’s sealed evidence box.
A dark figure ran across the terrace.
Daniel chased him into the rain.
I followed.
The man reached the garden wall, but Robert tackled him before he could climb.
They crashed into the mud.
Daniel pulled off the man’s hood.
I knew him.
“Uncle Henry?”
My father’s younger brother stared back at me.
He had been the chief financial officer of Carter Industries for twenty years.
He had also delivered Rachel’s eulogy.
Henry spat mud from his mouth.
“You should have left this buried.”
“You helped Vanessa.”
“She helped me.”
Robert hauled him upright.
“Where is she?”
Henry laughed.
“Already gone.”
Daniel searched his coat and found a phone.
The screen showed a live location moving away from the estate.
A car.
Heading north.
Then a message appeared.
PACKAGE SECURED. CHILDREN NEXT.
I ran back toward the house.
The pantry door was open.
Ethan stood alone inside.
“Where’s Lily?”
He pointed toward the service hallway.
May you like
“A lady said you sent her.”
And from somewhere beneath the house came Lily’s scream.
