Chapter 15 — Into the Fire
Richard ran toward the cottage.
Lena caught his arm.
“You’ll never make it through the front.”
Walter screamed again.
Priya pointed toward the cellar doors beside the foundation.
They were locked.
Richard grabbed a stone and struck the padlock.
Once.
Twice.
The metal broke.
Smoke rolled from the cellar stairs.
Lena covered her mouth and followed Richard inside.
“Stay outside!” he shouted.
She ignored him.
The cellar was dark.
Walter sat tied to a wooden chair near the furnace.
Fire spread across the ceiling beams.
Richard reached him first.
The ropes had been secured with wire.
Lena found garden shears on a workbench.
She cut through them.
Walter coughed violently.
“Vivian has the original records,” he gasped.
“We’re getting you out.”
“No. Listen.”
A beam collapsed behind them.
The stairs disappeared beneath burning wood.
They were trapped.
Priya shouted from outside.
“Move to the rear wall!”
Richard searched through the smoke.
There was no door.
Walter pointed toward an old coal chute.
“It opens near the cliff.”
Richard forced it open.
Cold air rushed inside.
Lena crawled through first.
Then Walter.
Richard followed as the cellar ceiling collapsed.
They emerged thirty feet from the cottage.
Vivian was gone.
Police searched the coastline.
They found her cream coat near the edge of the cliff.
No body.
No footprints leading away.
Only the red device she had used to trigger the fire.
Everyone assumed she had jumped.
Lena did not.
Vivian had staged her death once before.
She could do it again.
As firefighters contained the blaze, Walter handed Lena a key.
“Malcolm gave me this before he died.”
“What does it open?”
“A safety-deposit box.”
“Where?”
Walter looked toward the ocean.
“Switzerland.”
Before Lena could answer, Priya received a call.
Celeste Caldwell had escaped custody during transport to a medical examination.
The officer driving the vehicle had been found unconscious.
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And security cameras showed the woman who helped Celeste escape.
Vivian Caldwell was very much alive.
