Chapter 5 - Smoke Under the Stairs
“Noah!”
Hannah’s scream tore through the dark.
Emergency lights flickered red along the hallway, then one of them died.
I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight.
Eli grabbed Hannah’s coat. “He went downstairs.”
A burning smell reached us.
Not smoke yet.
Hot plastic.
Electrical insulation.
I ran.
The basement stairwell was black except for my phone light bouncing against concrete walls. Hannah followed even after I told her to stay with Eli.
“Not a chance,” she snapped.
We found Noah near the bottom landing. He had frozen beside a cardboard box covered in construction paper planets.
Behind him, gray smoke leaked under the boiler-room door.
“Come here,” Hannah said.
“I wanted my project.”
“Forget the project.”
“But I got an A.”
Even terrified, the kid cared about the stupid solar system.
I grabbed the box. Hannah grabbed Noah.
Then someone pounded from the other side of the boiler-room door.
“Help!”
Manny.
I handed the project to Noah. “Go upstairs with your sister.”
Hannah caught my arm. “Don’t be an idiot.”
“He’s trapped.”
“So call the fire department.”
“I already did.”
The pounding came again, weaker.
I wrapped my hand in my coat and pulled the handle.
Locked.
There was a fire extinguisher on the wall. I used the metal base against the small window in the door until the glass cracked. Smoke rolled through.
Manny appeared inside, coughing, waving one hand.
“The latch jammed!”
I reached through the broken window, found the interior release, and shoved the door open just enough to drag him out.
The smoke alarm finally began screaming.
Firefighters arrived within minutes and cleared the building. Everyone stood outside in sleet under blankets and umbrellas while red lights washed over the brick walls.
Noah still held his science project.
Manny sat in an ambulance with oxygen under his nose.
A fire marshal came over to me.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes.”
He held up a small scorched piece of wire inside an evidence bag.
“This wasn’t normal wear.”
“What was it?”
“Someone bypassed a safety and overloaded the circuit after the boiler was shut down.”
“Accident?”
He looked back at the building.
“I wouldn’t bet on it.”
Then Manny pulled off his oxygen mask and called my name.
May you like
When I stepped closer, he whispered six words that changed the entire case.
“Westbridge told me to keep it off.”
