Chapter 10 - Fire in the Walls
The blast threw Sarah against the wine-cellar floor.
For several seconds she heard nothing but a high metallic ringing.
Then smoke rolled through the tunnel door.
“Daniel!” she screamed.
“I’m here.”
He pulled her up.
Marcus was bleeding from the forehead but conscious. Detective Ortiz shouted for everyone to move.
Flames climbed the wooden supports inside the service passage.
The fire raced upward toward the nursery wall.
“The twins!” Sarah shouted.
They ran for the main staircase.
Emily was already carrying Noah down. A police officer had Mia.
Smoke spilled from the upstairs vents.
Daniel grabbed both children and rushed them outside.
Fire crews arrived within minutes, but the hidden passage burned like a chimney.
From the lawn, Sarah watched flames punch through the nursery window.
Emily stood beside Daniel wrapped in a blanket, one arm around each twin.
Then Sarah noticed Charles.
He was gone.
“Where is he?”
Ortiz turned.
An officer near the driveway looked confused. “He was right here.”
Daniel’s face darkened.
Charles had vanished during the evacuation.
Later, after the fire was contained, investigators found the explosive device had been small and deliberate. It was designed to destroy the tunnel, not the house.
Evidence.
Someone had tried to erase the route Vanessa used.
At 6:10 that evening, Marcus recovered a cloud backup from Vanessa’s phone.
One audio file had uploaded seconds before the explosion.
Daniel, Sarah, Emily, and Ortiz listened together.
Vanessa’s voice whispered, breathless and angry.
“You said the tunnel would be empty.”
A man answered.
“You were supposed to bring the children before they found Emily.”
Charles.
Daniel’s eyes closed.
Vanessa spoke again. “I’m done. I want my money.”
Charles laughed.
“You think there’s an ‘after’ for you?”
Then came a sound like a door opening.
Vanessa gasped.
The recording ended.
Ortiz looked up.
“If she’s alive, she may be running from him now.”
Sarah’s phone buzzed.
A photo message appeared from Vanessa’s number.
It showed Noah and Mia sleeping in the guest room of the emergency hotel.
May you like
The picture had been taken through the doorway.
Someone had already found them.
