Chapter 16 - The Car in the Driveway
Rachel remembered the hand before she remembered the face.
Small fingers wrapped around hers beneath a ceiling painted with seven yellow stars.
Three knocks against wood.
A frightened boy whispering, “Don’t tell them I’m here.”
Then the memory vanished beneath the roar of an engine.
The dark vehicle jumped the curb.
“Nathan!” Rachel screamed.
Eleanor threw the deadbolt open.
Samuel grabbed her shoulder.
“Don’t!”
She tore free.
Nathan lunged inside just as the vehicle entered the driveway.
Daniel slammed the door behind him.
A second later something struck the stone beside the porch.
Not a bullet.
A metal canister.
White smoke exploded across the front steps.
“Back!” Nathan shouted.
Everyone retreated toward the staircase.
Through the glass Eleanor saw two masked figures leave the vehicle.
One moved toward the porch.
The other went around the side of the house.
Samuel pulled out his phone.
“I’m calling Marlow.”
Nathan stared at him.
Then his expression changed.
“No.”
Samuel froze.
Nathan stepped between him and the others.
“Put the phone down.”
Daniel stared. “What are you doing?”
Nathan never looked away from Samuel.
“Peter told me there were five people I could trust if he disappeared.”
Samuel’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“You weren’t one of them.”
Silence.
Outside, something struck the kitchen door.
Rachel moved closer to Eleanor.
Samuel slowly lowered the phone.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Nathan raised the black envelope.
“I know enough.”
The kitchen window shattered.
Daniel shoved Rachel behind the staircase.
Nathan pointed toward the basement door.
“Arthur built a reinforced room downstairs.”
Eleanor stared.
“How do you know that?”
“Because I’ve been in it.”
Another memory hit Rachel.
A boy.
An old blanket.
Her father carrying food down the basement stairs.
Rachel whispered, “You were here.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Twenty-nine years ago.”
The kitchen door groaned under another impact.
Samuel said, “We can discuss family history after we survive.”
Nathan turned sharply.
“I didn’t say anything about family.”
Samuel’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But Eleanor saw it.
So did Nathan.
Outside, sirens finally sounded in the distance.
The two figures immediately retreated.
The dark vehicle reversed out of the driveway and disappeared.
Daniel exhaled.
Rachel did not.
She was staring at Samuel.
“You knew who Nathan was before he said his name.”
Samuel said nothing.
Nathan held up Arthur’s envelope.
May you like
“Yes,” he said.
“And now I want to know why.”
