Chapter 1 - The Voice Behind the Steel Door
“DON’T OPEN IT!”
Diane Mercer screamed so loudly the empty restaurant seemed to shake with her.
Twelve-year-old Jack Nolan swung the meat tenderizer anyway.
The steel padlock on the walk-in freezer jumped against the latch.
“Jack!” his father shouted.
Mark grabbed his son around the waist and pulled him backward.
Jack kicked at the tile floor.
“Mom’s inside!”
“Your mother left us seven months ago.”
“She called me!”
Diane stood near the prep counter, breathing too quickly. “He’s destroying my restaurant because he can’t accept reality.”
Jack twisted in Mark’s arms.
“I heard her breathing! She said my name!”
Mark’s face tightened. “When?”
“Ten minutes ago. The restaurant number called my phone. Nobody talked at first. Then Mom whispered, ‘Jack.’ Then somebody took the phone.”
Diane laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“That’s impossible.”
Then something thumped behind the freezer door.
Everyone stopped.
A second thump.
Slow.
Heavy.
Diane’s anger vanished.
“It’s nothing.”
Jack looked at her.
For the first time since Mark had married Diane four months earlier, Jack saw fear on his stepmother’s face.
Not irritation.
Not impatience.
Fear.
Jack broke free.
He grabbed the meat tenderizer and swung with everything he had.
The padlock snapped.
Diane lunged for the handle.
Mark caught her wrist.
“Why are you stopping him?”
“I’m not. I’m stopping you.”
Jack yanked the freezer open.
Cold vapor rolled across the kitchen floor.
Behind the clear plastic strip curtains, someone sat against a stack of flour bags.
A woman.
Heavy restaurant coat.
Wrists tied in front of her.
Tape over her mouth.
Hair tangled across a face Mark had spent seven months trying to forget.
“Lucy?”
Jack screamed, “Mom!”
Lucy Nolan looked thinner than Mark remembered.
Bruised.
Exhausted.
Alive.
Jack ran toward her.
Lucy shook her head violently and tried to speak through the tape.
Mark stepped inside.
“It’s okay. It’s us.”
Lucy ignored him.
Her terrified eyes fixed over his shoulder.
On Diane.
Mark turned.
Diane had backed toward the kitchen exit.
“Diane?”
She reached behind her.
For the wall-mounted fire alarm.
Except she did not pull it.
She pressed a hidden black button beneath it.
Every light in the restaurant went out.
And somewhere above them, a steel security shutter began dropping over the only front exit.
— — —
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://metro.treeiq.biz
May you like
New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
