Chapter 11 - Sacred Ground
The cabin smelled like damp wood, dust, and gasoline.
That last smell hit me first.
I shoved past Ortiz before she could stop me.
“Emma!”
“Ethan, wait—”
Too late.
I hit the living room and found it empty except for a tipped chair, a child’s shoe, and a red plastic gas can sitting beside the fireplace.
My daughter’s cardigan was draped over the arm of the couch.
I grabbed it.
“Emma!”
A voice answered from upstairs.
“Daddy!”
I started for the staircase, but Claire stepped out of the kitchen holding the cabin’s old revolver with both hands.
The gun shook.
So did she.
“Stop.”
Every officer behind me went still.
Claire’s blonde hair had come loose around her face. Mascara streaked the skin under her eyes. She didn’t look elegant anymore. She looked cracked.
“Where is Emma?” I said.
“She’s upstairs.”
“Let her come down.”
“No.”
Ortiz moved one inch. Claire swung the gun toward her. “I said no.”
“Claire,” I said, forcing my voice low, “put the gun down.”
She laughed weakly. “You always use that voice when you’re trying not to panic.”
“Because I am panicking.”
“Good.”
She took a shaky breath. “Do you know what it felt like living in that house? Every room had Melissa in it. Every picture. Every story. Every holiday. Even your daughter’s face.”
“Emma is a child.”
“She is a weapon,” Claire hissed. “She keeps you chained to a ghost.”
“No,” I said. “My love for my daughter does that all by itself.”
Something in Claire’s face twisted. “I needed you. I needed this marriage. I needed one thing in my life not to collapse.”
“Then you should have asked for help, not tortured a little girl.”
Claire’s mouth quivered. “You don’t get it. My debts were eating me alive. My apartment was gone. Everything was gone. I thought if I got us married, I could finally breathe.”
The words made my skin crawl.
Upstairs, a door banged.
Then Emma screamed.
I moved without thinking.
Claire jerked toward the stairs.
Ortiz lunged.
The gun went off.
May you like
The shot shattered the lamp beside me.
And from the back of the cabin came the sound of a door slamming open.
