Chapter 5 - FIRE AT THE STONE WALL
Calvin Ross moved toward the side of the house.
Margaret saw the red container swinging from his hand.
“Call the police,” she said.
Edward reached for his phone.
Linda struck it from his hand.
“No!”
Everyone turned toward her.
Calvin disappeared beyond the stone wall.
Edward grabbed Linda’s shoulders.
“Why are you stopping me?”
“Because you’ll make it worse.”
“Worse than a man bringing gasoline onto the property?”
Linda tried to pull away.
“He isn’t here to hurt anyone.”
Margaret picked up the wall telephone.
Linda ripped the cord from the socket.
The line died.
Ashley took Noah’s hand.
“Come on.”
She pulled him toward the front door.
Linda blocked them.
“No one leaves.”
Margaret saw the truth then.
Linda was not trying to protect the children from Calvin.
She was trying to keep the family inside.
Smoke appeared outside the kitchen window.
Calvin had poured gasoline along the base of the old stone wall.
Edward ran through the back door.
Calvin dropped the container and reached inside his jacket.
Edward stopped.
Margaret could not see what Calvin was holding.
Then she heard him speak.
“Tell the old woman to give us the key.”
Edward raised both hands.
“The police are coming.”
Calvin smiled.
“No, they aren’t.”
He held up a small black device.
A signal jammer.
Inside the house, Ashley checked her phone.
“No service.”
Margaret looked at the recorder.
Arthur had prepared for this possibility.
The house had been built before mobile phones, before wireless alarms, before anyone trusted invisible signals.
“Basement,” she whispered.
Ashley looked at her.
“What?”
“Take Noah to the basement.”
Linda stepped forward.
“No.”
Margaret grabbed the heavy brass candleholder from the sideboard.
“Move.”
Linda stared at the object in Margaret’s hand.
For the first time, she obeyed.
Ashley hurried Noah toward the basement door.
Margaret followed.
Linda caught her sleeve.
“There is no telephone down there.”
Margaret looked at her.
“You do not know this house as well as you believe.”
The basement smelled of dust and damp concrete.
Margaret led Ashley and Noah past the furnace toward a narrow storage closet.
Behind three shelves of canned food was a wooden panel.
She removed it.
Inside was a red emergency telephone installed by Arthur after a winter storm destroyed the main telephone lines twenty years earlier.
Margaret lifted the receiver.
There was a dial tone.
She called Evelyn Shaw first.
Then the sheriff.
Then she called a third number.
The six-digit access system answered.
“Enter the access code.”
Margaret looked again at the photograph.
March 14.
She entered 031414.
“Incorrect.”
She tried Arthur’s birthday.
Incorrect.
She tried Edward’s.
Incorrect.
Upstairs, something crashed.
Noah covered his ears.
Ashley whispered, “Grandma, look at the photo.”
Margaret held it out.
Ashley pointed to the filing cabinets.
Each cabinet had a number.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Margaret entered 251907.
The system clicked.
“Identity confirmation required. State the designated phrase.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Arthur used to say the same sentence whenever he locked the house at night.
A home is not wood and stone. It is the promise made inside it.
Margaret spoke the words.
The mechanical voice answered.
“Access recognized. Emergency protocol activated.”
A siren began beneath the floor.
Not inside the basement.
Deeper.
Behind the walls.
The ground vibrated.
Upstairs, Linda screamed.
Margaret returned to the kitchen.
Calvin had forced Edward inside.
A pistol was pressed against Edward’s back.
Smoke drifted through the broken window.
Calvin looked at Margaret.
“What did you activate?”
Margaret held up the brass key.
“You came for this?”
His eyes fixed on it.
“Give it to me.”
“Release my son.”
Calvin pushed the pistol harder into Edward’s spine.
“The key.”
Linda stood behind him, trembling.
Margaret looked at her.
“You invited him here.”
Linda shook her head.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
Calvin glanced at her.
“Be quiet.”
“You said nobody would be hurt.”
“People always say that when they want to pretend they aren’t involved.”
Edward looked at Linda.
“You knew he had a gun?”
“No.”
“Did you know he planned to burn the house?”
“No!”
Calvin smiled.
“She knew enough.”
The floor beneath the dining room made a deep metallic sound.
A rectangular section of hardwood began to lower.
Dust rose from the edges.
Everyone watched as a hidden staircase appeared beneath the table.
Cold white light shone from below.
Calvin’s smile returned.
“The chamber.”
Margaret closed her hand around the key.
Arthur’s warning echoed in her mind.
Never open it alone.
May you like
But the chamber was already open.
And someone was coming up the stairs.
