Chapter 2 - The Envelope in the Cellar
David stared at his own signature.
His body began to tremble uncontrollably.
"This isn't real," he whispered.
"This is a fake."
"David, what is that?" I asked, kneeling beside him in the rain.
"I never signed this," he said, his voice cracking.
"I would never give up my son!"
"Then how is your name on that paper?"
He wiped the rain from his face with a muddy sleeve.
"This was five years ago."
"My wife was still alive."
"We were filling out life insurance forms."
"Clara was our insurance agent back then."
My eyes went wide.
"Clara was your agent?"
"She handled all our family paperwork."
David's eyes locked onto the document.
"She kept a copy of my signature."
"She forged this paper."
A loud cry echoed from the edge of the woods.
It was Clara, standing near the porch.
She watched us from under her umbrella.
She wasn't crying anymore.
She stood perfectly still, watching David hold the paper.
"She framed him," I whispered.
"She made it look like Toby ran away with a knife."
"Where is my son?!" David roared, getting to his feet.
He marched through the mud toward the house.
I ran right behind him.
Clara backed away as David stepped onto the porch.
"David, calm down!" she pleaded, put on a frightened face.
"The police are looking for him!"
"Where is he, Clara?!" David demanded.
He grabbed the paper and shoved it in her face.
"What is this?!"
Clara looked at the document.
Her tearful expression vanished instantly.
She stepped back inside the warm house.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said coldly.
"You forged my name!"
"You're hysterical, David."
"Your wife died, and you lost your mind."
"Do not talk about my wife!"
"I called Child Protective Services an hour ago," Clara said calmly.
She folded her arms over her pregnant stomach.
"I reported Toby as a dangerous, unstable child."
"I showed them the bruised steps where he pushed me."
"I showed them the missing kitchen knife."
"You lied!" David screamed.
"They have the legal paper from the woods, David."
"It proves you were an unfit father years ago."
"When they find Toby, he will be placed in state custody."
"And you will be suspended from the force."
David looked like he had been struck by lightning.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked, his voice breaking.
"Because this house belongs to my baby," Clara whispered.
Her eyes were cold and dark.
"I won't let another woman's child take what is mine."
"Where is he?" I stepped forward, confronting her.
"Where did you take Toby?"
Clara looked at me with deep contempt.
"Get out of my house, Miss Evans."
"You are trespassing."
"I am not leaving without Toby!"
Clara reached for the home phone on the counter.
"If you don't leave, I will call the sheriff."
"I will report that an intruder is harassing a pregnant woman."
David grabbed my arm.
"Sarah, go," he whispered.
"No, David!"
"Go to the school," David said, pressing something into my hand.
It was his spare house key.
"Check Toby's locker."
"He keeps a spare key to his mother's journal there."
"I need that journal."
I looked at David's desperate eyes.
I nodded once.
I turned and ran back to my car in the rain.
I sped through the dark streets toward the elementary school.
The school was completely dark and empty.
I used my teacher's master key to open the side door.
The hallway echoed with the sound of my wet shoes.
I hurried to Toby's locker.
I spun the combination lock.
The door clicked open.
Inside, resting on top of his stack of books, was a small red notebook.
I picked it up and opened it.
Toby had tucked something inside the front cover.
It was an old photograph.
In the photo, Toby's biological mother sat on a wooden porch.
Behind her stood a woman in a uniform.
It was Clara.
Clara was wearing a nurse's badge from the local hospital.
She wasn't just an insurance agent.
She had been his mother's hospice nurse before she died.
My hands began to shake.
I turned to the last entry in the notebook.
It was written in his mother's handwriting three years ago.
Clara keeps changing my medicine.
I feel weaker every time she gives me the pills.
If anything happens to me, look in the cellar floorboards.
The original insurance policy is hidden there.
David doesn't know.
My heart pounded against my chest.
Clara hadn't just appeared in David's life by accident.
She had targeted his entire family from the beginning.
Suddenly, a shadow crossed the bright hallway light.
I froze.
I turned around slowly.
Standing at the end of the hall was Principal Vance.
He held a heavy flashlight in his hand.
"Sarah?" he asked, his voice echoing in the empty hall.
"What are you doing here after hours?"
"Arthur, look at this!" I held up the notebook.
"Clara was his mother's nurse!"
"She hurt his mother, Arthur!"
Principal Vance walked toward me slowly.
He didn't look surprised.
He looked tired.
"Put the book down, Sarah."
"Arthur, listen to me!"
"Clara's father is on the school board, Sarah," Arthur said quietly.
"He funds our entire sports program."
I stepped backward.
"You knew?"
"I knew Clara was a powerful woman from a wealthy family."
"She made a large donation to our school last week."
"She asked me to keep an eye on you."
"She paid you off?!" I shouted.
"She promised to help us build the new library!" Arthur insisted.
"Toby is just a troubled boy!"
"He is seven years old and he is in danger!"
"Give me the notebook, Sarah."
He reached for the red book.
I pulled it back and swung my heavy teacher's bag at his arm.
It struck his shoulder, making him drop the flashlight.
The flashlight shattered on the hard floor.
The hallway went completely dark.
I ran.
I scrambled through the dark hallway toward the emergency exit.
I pushed the bar and burst out into the rain.
I ran to my car and threw the notebook into the passenger seat.
My hands were bleeding from a scrape on the door handle.
I didn't care.
I started the engine and drove back to David's house.
When I arrived, the police cruisers were gone.
The rain had turned into a heavy downpour.
The house was dark except for one light in the kitchen.
I walked quietly up the porch steps.
I used David's spare key to unlock the front door.
The house was eerily silent.
"David?" I called out softly.
No answer.
I walked down the dark hallway toward the kitchen.
A faint dragging noise came from the basement stairs.
Scritch.
Scritch.
I crept toward the open cellar door.
Cold air blew up from the darkness below.
I descended the creaky wooden steps one by one.
At the bottom of the stairs, a single bulb dangled from the ceiling.
David was kneeling on the cold concrete floor.
He was using a crowbar to pry open loose floorboards.
Beside him sat a small metal box.
"David!" I whispered.
He jumped, holding the crowbar up.
When he saw me, he lowered it, breathing heavily.
"Sarah," he gasped.
"I found the place under the floor."
"David, Clara was your wife's nurse!" I said quickly.
I handed him the red notebook.
"Read this!"
David opened the notebook under the dim light.
His eyes scanned his late wife's handwriting.
As he read, tears mixed with the sweat on his face.
"She poisoned her," David choked out.
"She poisoned my wife..."
"And she's doing the same thing to Toby," I said.
David reached into the opened floorboard.
He pulled out a thick yellow envelope.
Inside were bank records and an old life insurance policy.
It showed that upon David's wife's death, a two-million-dollar trust was created.
The sole beneficiary was Toby.
If Toby died or was removed from the family...
The money went to the surviving spouse.
Clara.
"It was never about me," David said, his voice hollow.
"It was the money."
Suddenly, a loud click echoed from the top of the stairs.
The cellar door slammed shut.
The heavy wooden deadbolt slid into place.
Click.
"David!" I yelled.
David sprang to his feet and rushed up the wooden stairs.
He threw his shoulder against the heavy door.
It didn't budge.
"Clara!" David shouted, slamming his fists on the wood.
"Open the door!"
A soft laugh came from the other side of the wood.
"You always were too trusting, David," Clara's voice said.
"Where is my son?!" David roared.
"He's right where he belongs," Clara replied softly.
"In the old storage shed by the creek."
"It's freezing out there!" I yelled.
"He won't last long in this storm," Clara said calmly.
"And when the police find him tomorrow..."
"They will think he ran away and died in the cold."
"And they will find both of you locked in the cellar."
"A grieving father who lost his mind after his son ran off."
"And the schoolteacher who helped him hide."
"You're insane!" David screamed, throwing his weight against the door again.
The wood cracked, but the steel bolt held firm.
"Goodbye, David," Clara said softly.
We heard her heavy footsteps walk away from the door.
Then came the sound of something heavy dragging across the floor above us.
May you like
She was pushing a large oak cabinet against the cellar door.
Trapping us in the dark.
