Chapter 13 - The House Across the Field
Rosa’s car was easy to follow because one brake light was out.
Grace hated that she knew this.
She stayed four cars behind until the town lights thinned and the road cut through soybean fields.
Her phone rang twice.
The deputy.
She silenced it.
That was mistake number two.
Rosa turned onto a gravel lane leading to an abandoned farmhouse with a collapsed red barn. Grace parked near a drainage culvert and killed the headlights.
A single lamp burned inside the house.
Rosa went in.
Grace waited.
Thirty seconds.
A minute.
Then another car appeared at the far end of the field.
Black SUV.
Daniel.
Grace’s blood went cold.
She reached for her phone.
No signal.
“Perfect,” she whispered.
The baby kicked hard under her ribs.
“I know.”
She got out anyway.
The farmhouse door stood open.
Grace heard voices before she reached the porch.
Emily was crying.
“I didn’t kill Ellis.”
Rosa said, “Then why run?”
“Because I moved the backup drive.”
Grace stopped outside the door.
Emily continued. “Daniel told me it was insurance fraud. He said nobody was supposed to get hurt. He paid me to change maintenance records after the fire.”
Rosa’s voice was flat. “Six people died.”
“I know.”
“No, you know a number.”
Silence.
Then Emily said, “The drive is here.”
Grace stepped inside.
Both women spun.
Rosa’s face went furious. “What are you doing?”
“Being dumb with you.”
Emily looked thinner than Grace remembered. Her hair was unwashed. She held a small silver hard drive in both hands.
Grace stared at it.
“Is that Cedar Pines?”
Emily nodded.
“And Ellis?”
Emily looked toward the kitchen.
“He found out the sprinkler valves were shut off before the fire. Daniel paid him to keep quiet. Ellis took money, then changed his mind.”
Rosa whispered, “Where is he?”
Emily’s mouth trembled.
“I don’t know. I swear.”
A floorboard creaked behind Grace.
Daniel’s voice came from the doorway.
“She really doesn’t.”
Grace turned.
Daniel held a pistol low against his thigh.
Not pointed.
Not yet.
His expression looked almost tired.
“Grace,” he said, “you never could stay where it was safe.”
Rosa moved in front of her.
Daniel laughed softly.
“That woman again.”
Emily clutched the drive tighter.
Daniel looked at her.
“Give me the recorder.”
Emily swallowed. “No.”
May you like
Daniel raised the gun.
And from somewhere beneath the farmhouse floor, a man began pounding on wood.
