Chapter 2
The banging came again.
Three hard blows.
A pause.
Then two weaker ones.
I stared at the pantry door.
Jenna stepped between me and it.
“It’s the water pipes.”
“Pipes don’t knock.”
“The house is old.”
“We renovated this kitchen last year.”
Lily tightened her arms around my neck.
“She put Aunt Megan in there.”
My head snapped toward her.
“What?”
Jenna’s face changed.
Only for a second.
Megan was Claire’s younger sister.
She had called me three days earlier and said she needed to talk about Claire’s death.
Then Jenna told me Megan canceled because she was flying to Florida.
I had believed her.
“Where is Megan?” I asked.
Jenna tried to laugh.
“Lily heard me talking about her.”
The pantry door shook.
A woman’s muffled voice came from behind it.
“Mark!”
I moved toward the door.
Jenna grabbed my shirt with both hands.
“You don’t understand what she did.”
I shoved her hands away.
“Give me the key.”
“She broke into our house.”
“Give me the key.”
“She attacked me.”
“Then why didn’t you call the police?”
Jenna looked toward the kitchen counter.
My phone lay beside her purse.
I had left it charging in my office before my trip.
She must have taken it from my bag when I came inside.
I put Lily down behind me.
“Stay close.”
Jenna moved toward the phone.
I reached it first.
There was no signal.
The Wi-Fi icon had disappeared.
Jenna had disabled the router.
I opened the emergency-call screen.
She knocked the phone from my hand.
It slid through the dirty water.
Then she slapped me.
The sound stunned all three of us.
Jenna stared at her own hand.
“I’m sorry.”
I grabbed her wrists.
“Where is the key?”
She struggled.
“You’re hurting me!”
“You locked someone in my pantry.”
“It isn’t a pantry.”
I froze.
Jenna realized what she had said.
Lily pointed toward the bottom shelf.
“Grandma pushes it.”
I released Jenna and pulled canned food from the shelf.
Behind it was a small brass switch.
I pressed it.
The entire shelving unit moved forward with a low mechanical groan.
A narrow metal door appeared behind it.
The banging became louder.
“Mark!”
Jenna rushed me.
I caught her and pushed her against the wall.
“Don’t.”
Her face twisted.
“You have no idea what Megan came here to do.”
I pulled the metal handle.
Locked.
Jenna had a silver key around her neck.
I tore the chain free.
She screamed and clawed at my face.
I unlocked the door.
A steep staircase disappeared beneath the kitchen.
Cold air rose from below.
I switched on the light.
The bulb flickered over concrete steps.
“Daddy,” Lily whispered, “that’s the freezer room.”
Jenna stopped fighting.
I looked at her.
“You told her about this?”
“She found it.”
I carried Lily down with me.
The stairway ended in a small basement chamber lined with metal insulation.
An old refrigeration unit hung from the ceiling.
The room had probably been part of the original house before the property was remodeled.
I had never seen it on any plan.
Megan sat on the floor with her wrists tied behind a pipe.
Tape covered her mouth.
Her face was bruised.
One eye had swollen nearly shut.
I pulled the tape away.
“Call the police,” she gasped.
“I’m trying.”
“She cut the landline.”
I untied her.
Megan grabbed my arm.
“Where’s Lily?”
“She’s here.”
“No.”
Panic spread across her face.
“Jenna has been hurting her to make her stop talking.”
“Talking about what?”
Megan looked toward the staircase.
Jenna stood at the top.
She held a kitchen knife.
“You should have stayed in Florida,” Jenna said.
Megan pulled Lily behind her.
I stepped between them.
“Put the knife down.”
Jenna descended one step.
“She came into our home and tried to destroy our family.”
“You locked her underground.”
“She found Claire’s recording.”
My chest tightened.
“What recording?”
Megan reached into the torn lining of her jacket.
She removed a tiny memory card.
“Claire installed a camera in the garage the week before she died.”
Jenna came down another step.
“She edited it.”
“I watched the original,” Megan said.
I could barely breathe.
“What does it show?”
Megan looked directly at Jenna.
“It shows your wife pushing Claire down the stairs.”
Jenna screamed and rushed toward us.
I grabbed her knife arm.
We crashed against the concrete wall.
The knife struck the floor.
Megan kicked it beneath a metal cabinet.
Jenna clawed my cheek and tried to break free.
Then a siren sounded outside.
Lily had found an old emergency alarm button beside the refrigeration unit.
The shrill sound filled the basement.
Jenna stopped struggling.
“You think the police will believe you?” she whispered.
May you like
Then she smiled.
“I already told them you came home drunk and attacked me.”
