Chapter 7 - Beneath the Cabin
We did not obey Vance.
Not exactly.
I had spent enough years around tactical planning to understand that following an opponent’s instructions word for word was not cooperation.
It was surrender.
Detective Grant arranged discreet backup outside county jurisdiction.
No marked vehicles.
No obvious police presence.
Hale prepared certified copies of the deed.
I refused to bring the original.
Lena drew the cabin’s underground layout from memory.
“There should be a hatch beneath the bedroom floor,” she said.
“I searched that room.”
“You searched what you could see.”
She marked a rectangle.
“Thomas built a false floor over it.”
“Where does the tunnel lead?”
“Old maintenance shaft. Roughly sixty yards.”
“Exit?”
“One original entrance near the shoreline. Collapsed years ago.”
“So one way in.”
“One way we know.”
Not comforting.
We reached Briar County after dark.
I left Hale and Grant’s team two miles away.
Lena came with me.
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
Her expression was simple.
“Because Evelyn went alone once. I’ve regretted letting her for seventeen years.”
We approached the cabin through woods.
No vehicle visible.
No movement.
Too quiet.
The front door stood open.
Inside, lights burned.
Someone wanted us to enter.
I went first.
Nothing in living room.
Then Vance’s voice came from a speaker.
“Welcome home, Mara.”
I looked upward.
Camera.
He was watching.
“Where’s Skylar?”
“Bedroom.”
We moved there.
Empty.
The bed had been pulled aside.
Underneath, part of the floor had been removed.
A steel hatch.
So that was where the camera had been.
It had not only watched me.
It had watched the entrance.
Lena crouched.
“This is it.”
The hatch was open.
Metal stairs descended into darkness.
I switched on my flashlight.
“Skylar!”
No response.
Vance’s voice came through another speaker.
“Bring the deed.”
I descended.
Lena followed.
The air smelled of damp earth and rust.
At bottom, a concrete corridor stretched ahead.
Old industrial conduit ran along walls.
The underground space was larger than I expected.
Dad had known.
He had kept it hidden for years.
Twenty yards in, we found a room.
Skylar’s chair sat inside.
Empty.
Rope on floor.
Blood on one armrest.
Fresh.
“Mara.”
Lena pointed.
A message was written on wall in chalk.
KEEP WALKING.
We continued.
The corridor opened into a cavern where part of an old structure had collapsed underground.
Metal beams.
Concrete slabs.
Rusted shelving.
Briar Chemical.
History literally buried.
A light switched on.
Robert Vance stood across the chamber.
He looked nothing like a monster.
That was perhaps the worst part.
Gray hair.
Clean jacket.
Polished shoes.
The man who had brought casseroles after Mom died.
The man who attended my high school graduation.
The man who had hugged Dad at his retirement party.
Skylar stood beside him.
Hands tied.
Deputy Boone held her arm.
“You came,” Vance said.
“Let her go.”
“Deed.”
I held up the folder.
“Release Skylar.”
Vance smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
“Is that why you killed her?”
His smile vanished.
Lena inhaled sharply.
Boone shifted.
Interesting.
Maybe Boone did not know everything.
Vance said, “Evelyn made unfortunate choices.”
“Like exposing you?”
“Like confusing idealism with power.”
“You cut her brake line.”
“I did no such thing.”
“But you ordered it.”
Vance looked almost bored.
“You’ll never prove that.”
“Dad did.”
For the first time, real concern crossed his face.
“What did Thomas leave?”
“Enough.”
“Where?”
I smiled slightly.
“You’re standing on it.”
His eyes moved.
Good.
He did not know exactly where the ledgers were.
That meant Lena still had leverage.
Vance looked at her.
“Show me.”
“No.”
Boone pressed a pistol against Skylar’s side.
I kept my expression still.
Lena whispered, “The records are behind the north retaining wall.”
Vance turned.
“Which one?”
“Release the girl.”
He nodded to Boone.
Boone untied Skylar’s wrists but kept the weapon.
“Come here,” I said.
Skylar moved.
Boone grabbed her.
“Not yet.”
Vance extended his hand.
“The deed.”
I tossed the folder halfway across floor.
He did not move to pick it up.
“Original?”
“Yes.”
Lie.
“Good.”
He nodded to Boone.
Skylar shoved Boone suddenly.
She had waited for distraction.
The pistol fired.
Sound exploded through cavern.
Lena dropped.
I lunged behind concrete.
Skylar ran.
Boone fired again.
Vance screamed, “Stop shooting!”
Why?
He needed us alive.
I tackled Boone from side.
The gun slid.
Skylar kicked it away.
Boone punched me across face.
I drove my elbow into his ribs.
He fell.
Vance grabbed the gun.
He pointed it at me.
“Enough.”
Everyone stopped.
Skylar stood three feet away.
Lena was on ground.
Blood on her sleeve.
Not chest.
Arm wound.
Alive.
Vance’s breathing was heavy.
“You Collins women have always been exhausting.”
Skylar spat, “Go to hell.”
Vance laughed.
“Your mother said almost the same thing.”
That was enough.
My phone, hidden in my jacket, was recording.
Grant’s team was listening through an open encrypted call.
I needed more.
“What did Mom say before you killed her?”
Vance’s expression changed.
“She begged me to think about you girls.”
My stomach turned.
Skylar stared.
He realized too late what he had admitted.
I said, “So you were there.”
Vance stopped smiling.
He raised the gun.
Then a voice came from darkness behind him.
“Drop it, Robert.”
An older man stepped from the tunnel.
Dr. Peter Kell.
The former medical examiner.
The second name on Dad’s list.
He held a shotgun.
Vance stared at him.
“You?”
Kell’s face was pale.
“I’ve been afraid of you for seventeen years.”
Vance slowly lowered his weapon.
For one second I thought Kell had come to help.
Then he turned the shotgun toward me.
“No,” Kell said quietly.
May you like
“I’m afraid of her more.”
And he pulled the hammer back.
