Chapter 19 - SOMEONE UPSTAIRS
The old house settled loudly in the dark.
Emily heard the refrigerator hum die.
Wind scratched branches against the windows.
Then another floorboard creaked above them.
Peter whispered, “Back door.”
Helen caught his sleeve.
“No.”
“Why?”
“I locked it from the inside.”
Emily pulled out her phone.
The screen lit her face.
Matthew was still on the call.
“Emily?”
“Someone’s in the house.”
His voice changed immediately.
“Get out.”
“Back door may be blocked.”
“Front.”
A shadow moved at the top of the stairs.
Emily lowered the phone.
The shadow stopped.
Then a woman’s voice said, “Don’t run.”
Margaret stepped into the phone light.
Emily’s entire body went loose with relief and anger.
“What the hell?”
Margaret came down two steps.
“Quiet.”
“You could have said something.”
“I heard a car behind me.”
Helen went pale.
“Whose?”
“I don’t know.”
Outside, headlights swept across the curtains.
Everyone moved at once.
Peter killed Emily’s phone light.
Matthew’s voice crackled faintly.
“Emily, talk to me.”
She whispered, “Car outside.”
“I’m twelve minutes away.”
“You found me?”
“Yes.”
“That is creepy.”
“Be angry later.”
“Planning on it.”
A vehicle door shut outside.
Then another.
Helen moved toward a cabinet and pulled out an old shotgun.
Emily stared.
“My grandfather kept that unloaded.”
Helen opened the chamber.
“Your grandfather lied about lots of things.”
Fair.
Margaret motioned toward the cellar door.
“Tunnel.”
Emily closed her eyes briefly.
“Of course there’s a tunnel.”
“It goes to the boathouse.”
They hurried down the cellar stairs.
Glass broke upstairs.
Someone entered the house.
Peter stumbled in the dark.
Emily grabbed his arm.
“Keep moving.”
The tunnel was barely high enough to stand in.
Cold mud sucked at Emily’s borrowed sneakers.
At the far end, Margaret pushed open a hatch beneath the boathouse floor.
They climbed out beside an old aluminum fishing boat.
Emily looked at the lake.
Fog covered the water.
“Does that thing run?”
Margaret looked at the boat.
“Probably.”
“That is not confidence.”
“It’s forty years old.”
“Great.”
The engine coughed twice and started.
Helen untied the rope.
A flashlight beam burst through the trees.
“Go!”
They pushed off.
A man appeared on the dock and fired.
The bullet hit the side of the boat with a metallic crack.
Emily ducked.
Peter shouted.
Margaret opened the throttle.
The little boat bounced across black water.
Emily called Matthew back.
“We’re on the lake.”
“What?”
“Boat.”
“I heard that part.”
“West side.”
“Stay moving. Police are approaching the house.”
Helen looked behind them.
The gunman did not follow.
That bothered Emily.
“Why did they stop?”
Margaret said, “Maybe they weren’t after us.”
Emily’s stomach dropped.
The lake house.
Helen’s files.
Peter’s ledger.
“What did you leave inside?”
Helen’s face changed.
“The original ledger.”
Peter swore.
“You brought it?”
“I hid it there years ago.”
Margaret turned the boat around.
Emily grabbed her arm.
“No.”
“We need it.”
“No.”
“It connects Ambrose to everything.”
“And there are armed men in the house.”
Helen said, “Without it, he walks.”
Emily looked at her.
“No.”
Helen stared.
Emily’s voice was steady now.
“My father thought paper could protect people. Pike said that was his mistake.”
She looked back at the dark shore.
“I’m not trading a human being for a ledger.”
Helen’s eyes filled.
Nobody turned the boat around.
Ten minutes later, police reached the lake house.
The intruders were gone.
So was the ledger.
Helen sat on the dock wrapped in a blanket.
She looked destroyed.
Emily sat beside her.
Neither spoke.
Finally Helen said, “You may have just lost the case.”
Emily looked at the water.
“Maybe.”
“Your father would have gone back.”
“I know.”
Helen looked at her.
Emily continued.
“That’s one reason he’s dead.”
Helen flinched.
Emily did not mean it cruelly.
It came out cruel anyway.
She let the mistake sit between them.
A state investigator approached carrying a plastic evidence bag.
“We found this under the porch.”
Inside was a small recording device.
Helen frowned.
“That’s not mine.”
The investigator played the last saved file.
A man’s voice filled the speaker.
Graham Ambrose.
“East Dock. Midnight. Bring the girl if Carter wants his company to survive.”
Then another voice answered.
Calm.
Familiar.
Emily looked at Matthew.
May you like
The second voice belonged to Marcus Reed.
“Understood.”
