Chapter 14 - The Fire Alarm
Smoke rolled across the ballroom ceiling.
Jack grabbed a bronze pedestal table and drove it into the glass inset beside the locked door.
Once.
Twice.
The glass cracked.
A deputy joined him with a baton.
On the third hit, the pane collapsed.
Jack reached through, found the manual latch, and opened the door.
“Claire!”
She was already moving.
Ethan had pulled a tablecloth down and was beating at the burning curtain.
“Leave it!” Jack shouted.
Claire ran to him.
Then she stopped.
Ethan had fallen.
A section of decorative molding had dropped from the wall and struck his shoulder. He was conscious, but pinned under the edge of a heavy table.
“Go!” he yelled.
Claire looked at Jack.
For one second, everything they had lived through that day sat between them.
Then Claire ran back.
Jack swore and followed.
Together, they lifted the table enough for Ethan to crawl free.
They made it through the ballroom doors as sprinklers finally activated.
Outside on the lawn, Ethan collapsed coughing.
Claire stood over him.
He looked up at her.
“You saved me.”
She wiped soot from her cheek.
“Don’t confuse that with forgiveness.”
Deputies moved in and separated him from the family.
Charles sat on a stone bench, staring at the mansion.
“Where is Margaret?” he asked.
No one knew.
Dana checked the basement feed from her tablet.
The hidden equipment was shutting down one rack at a time.
“Remote wipe,” she said.
Jack looked at the house.
“Can you stop it?”
“Maybe from inside.”
“No one goes back in.”
Dana shook her head. “Then we lose the recordings.”
Claire touched Jack’s arm.
“I copied some.”
“How many?”
“Not enough.”
A black SUV suddenly accelerated from behind the guest house.
It tore across the service drive toward the west gate.
Luis shouted into his radio.
“Vehicle moving!”
Jack saw the driver through the windshield.
Margaret.
Then he saw the passenger.
May you like
Rebecca Lane.
Her hands were bound.
