Chapter 9 - Behind the Locked Door
I called Daniel immediately.
He answered in a whisper.
“Where are they?”
“Outside.”
“Where are Emma and Olivia?”
“With Mrs. Ellis. Your police officer friend told them to stay inside.”
“Are you in the house?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I came back for my clothes.”
“Did Gerald enter?”
“He tried. The new code didn’t work.”
“Do not open the door.”
“I didn’t.”
A loud crash sounded through the phone.
Daniel swore.
“What was that?”
“He hit the side window.”
Maya signaled to the officer beside us. He contacted dispatch and reported the situation.
“Daniel, move away from the windows.”
“I’m going upstairs.”
“No. Go into the laundry room. Lock the door.”
“My father has never used the gun.”
“That sentence does not make me feel better.”
Another crash sounded.
Then Gerald’s voice came through the phone.
“Daniel, open this door.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“You stole from Thomas’s unit,” he called back.
Gerald’s response came immediately.
“I recovered family property.”
“It wasn’t yours.”
“Open the door.”
“No.”
Gerald struck the glass again.
Marlene shouted something from the driveway.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“I’ve never said no to him before.”
“Say it again.”
“Dad, leave.”
The side window shattered.
I heard glass scatter across the kitchen floor.
Daniel ran.
The phone connection filled with footsteps and heavy breathing.
“I’m in the laundry room.”
“Lock it.”
The lock clicked.
“Police are coming.”
“What if he gets inside?”
“Stay behind the washer. Do not confront him.”
For thirty seconds, nothing happened.
Then Gerald’s voice sounded from inside the house.
“Daniel.”
He had entered through the broken window.
The laundry-room handle moved.
Daniel whispered, “He’s here.”
I could hear my own pulse.
“Do not answer.”
The handle moved again.
“Son, I need you to understand what Rachel is doing.”
Daniel remained silent.
“She is turning Emma against you.”
The handle rattled harder.
“She called the police on your mother.”
Daniel suddenly spoke.
“You threw my daughter outside.”
“We were teaching her respect.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I protected you.”
“You tried to steal Emma’s money.”
“That money came from Thomas.”
“It belongs to Emma.”
Gerald struck the door.
Daniel flinched.
“I built came from Thomas.”
everything you have,” Gerald shouted.
“No, you didn’t.”
“You would have nothing without me.”
“The house belongs to Rachel.”
“Because Thomas hated our family.”
“Maybe he had a reason.”
Silence followed.
Then Gerald spoke in a much quieter voice.
“You have no idea what Thomas did.”
Daniel pressed the phone closer to his ear.
“What are you talking about?”
“He destroyed my company. He sent investigators after me. He convinced Leah that I was a criminal.”
“You are breaking into my house with a gun.”
“Our house.”
“No.”
The word was quiet but firm.
“No, Dad. It was never my house. Rachel let me live there because she loved me. I treated that love like something permanent, no matter how little I protected it.”
I closed my eyes.
Daniel continued.
“You taught me that avoiding conflict made me a good son. It made me a terrible husband and father.”
Gerald kicked the door.
“Open it.”
“No.”
Sirens sounded through the phone.
Gerald heard them.
The handle stopped moving.
Footsteps retreated.
Daniel remained behind the washer until Officer Brooks called his name and identified herself through the door.
Gerald was arrested in the backyard.
The gun was found beneath a hedge.
It was loaded.
Marlene was detained in the driveway after she attempted to remove a cardboard box from the minivan.
Inside the box were documents stolen from Unit 214.
The large object missing from the desk was not there.
Neither was the Cannon Beach photograph.
When Maya and I returned to the house, Daniel sat in an ambulance while a paramedic treated a cut on his hand caused by broken glass.
Emma watched from Mrs. Ellis’s porch.
She did not approach him.
Gerald was placed in the back seat of a patrol car.
As the officer closed the door, Gerald looked directly at me.
“You think Thomas protected you,” he said through the open window.
“He did.”
Gerald smiled.
“He protected himself.”
The patrol car drove away.
Officer Brooks handed me a sealed property bag containing the items recovered from Marlene.
Among the documents was a key attached to a brass tag.
The tag read 417.
Maya turned it over.
May you like
On the back were two words.
PORTLAND GENERAL.
