Chapter 3 - THE MAN IN THE BASEMENT
I moved my parents into the upstairs safe room.
Chloe refused to leave the black case.
I handed her a flashlight and told her to stay behind me.
The basement stairs descended beside the kitchen.
The motion sensor showed movement near the mechanical room.
I carried the flare launcher in one hand and a heavy wrench in the other.
“Carter,” Chloe whispered.
“You’re an architect.”
“Architects know where walls, exits, and load-bearing doors are.”
The basement had two hidden steel partitions built into the storage corridor.
I closed the first remotely.
A metallic slam echoed below.
Someone shouted.
We reached the bottom stair.
A man stood trapped between the partition and the mechanical-room door.
He wore a black winter jacket.
Blood ran from one hand where glass had cut him.
I recognized him from Chloe’s engagement photographs.
“Ryan?”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Ryan Mercer was her former fiancé.
My parents had believed he moved to Florida after their breakup.
In reality, he worked for Victor Dane.
Ryan smiled at Chloe.
“You made this difficult.”
“You told me you left Northstar.”
“I told you what you wanted to hear.”
He looked at the case.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“Your parents already lost their house because of you.”
“Do you want your brother to lose his too?”
I stepped forward.
“That is not happening.”
Ryan laughed.
“You think a deed protects you?”
“Victor owns judges.”
“Banks.”
“Police.”
“Not all of them.”
“Enough.”
He held up his phone.
The screen showed a live video feed.
Two figures stood inside my parents’ former home in Ohio.
The rooms were empty after the sale.
A third person carried boxes from the attic.
“What are they looking for?” Dad asked through the intercom upstairs.
Ryan heard him.
“Copies.”
“Chloe hid files in your house.”
My father’s voice broke.
“You told us the boxes were childhood belongings.”
Chloe looked down.
She had used their home as evidence storage without telling them.
The sale had exposed the hiding place.
Victor’s people purchased the property through a shell company.
My parents had not sold their house to an ordinary family.
They had sold it directly to Northstar.
The buyers rushed the closing.
The payment reached my parents.
Then nearly all of it was transferred to Victor as supposed ransom.
Victor regained the money.
Acquired the house.
And gained access to whatever Chloe had hidden there.
The entire rescue had been designed by the people chasing her.
Ryan stepped closer to the partition.
“You cannot win.”
I checked the basement camera.
Deputy vehicles had reached the main road, but snow blocked the final section of my driveway.
They were approaching on foot.
“Maybe not alone,” I said.
Then I activated the second steel door.
It closed behind Ryan.
He was trapped inside the reinforced storage corridor.
His phone lost signal.
His smile disappeared.
The men at the garage heard the police radio and ran toward the SUV.
They made it less than fifty yards before the vehicle slid into a snowbank.
Deputies surrounded them.
Ryan began kicking the steel door.
“You don’t understand what is in that case.”
“I understand enough.”
“No.”
He pressed his face near the narrow window.
“The ledger does not only contain stolen investments.”
“It contains payment records for deaths.”
Chloe’s face turned white.
Ryan continued.
“Victor did not wait for every victim to lose money naturally.”
“Some clients lived too long.”
“Some threatened lawsuits.”
“Some had accidents.”
My father’s voice came through the intercom.
“Raymond?”
Ryan smiled.
“Your brother’s heart attack was not an accident.”
Police reached the house moments later.
They arrested Ryan and the two men outside.
But before surrendering, Ryan gave Chloe one final warning.
May you like
“If Victor believes the police have that case, he won’t run.”
“He’ll come here himself.”
