Chapter 4 - The Voice Behind the Steel
I stepped right up to the ventilation grate, pressing my mouth close to the iron bars.
"Hello?" I whispered, my heart slamming against my ribs. "Can you hear me?"
The thumping stopped instantly. The room behind the door fell into a terrifying, dead silence.
"Who... who is that?" the raspy voice gasped. It sounded fragile, exhausted, and terrified. "Is someone there? Please... don't hurt me! I did what she said! I took the pills!"
"I'm not going to hurt you," I said urgently, shielding my flashlight so I could peer through the narrow slats of the grate. "My name is Mark. I live next door. I found your note in the trash bag."
A sharp, ragged gasp echoed from inside the room. Through the dim light of the grate, I caught a glimpse of pale skin, dark tangled hair, and a pair of wide, amber eyes looking back at me.
It was her. Esther Reed.
"You found the note?" she wept softly, her voice cracking with pure emotion. "Oh God... someone finally found it..."
"Listen to me, Esther," I said, trying desperately to keep my tone calm and steady. "I'm going to get you out of here. But I need to know how to open this door. Do you know the keypad code?"
"No," she sobbed, pressing her hands against the steel. "Only Evelyn and Knox know the code. Knox comes every three days... he brings the medicine... the bad medicine that makes my mind go dark..."
"Who is Knox?"
"Senator Vance's chief security officer," Esther whispered, terror lacing her words. "He's the one who set the fire four years ago! They told the world I was dead so Thomas Vance could take control of my father's trust fund. They brought me here... they've kept me locked in this dark room for four years!"
The sheer scale of the atrocity made me dizzy. A wealthy, powerful politician had faked his own stepdaughter's death, buried her alive in a suburban basement, and used a corrupted nurse to keep her drugged while he systematically siphoned off tens of millions of dollars.
"Why is Evelyn doing this?" I asked. "Is she part of it?"
"She's... she's forced to," Esther rasped. "Vance has her daughter, Lily. If Evelyn doesn't keep me hidden and quiet, Vance threatened to harm Lily. Evelyn hates this... she tries to make it tolerable for me, but she's terrified..."
Suddenly, my walkie-talkie crackled sharply in my jacket pocket.
BZZZT. Two sharp clicks. Then Sarah's frantic voice whispered through the speaker: "Mark! Mark, get out! Her SUV just turned onto the street! She's early!"
My stomach dropped into a abyss of terror.
"Esther, I have to go," I whispered frantically to the door. "She's back!"
"Don't leave me!" Esther cried out softly, her fingers clawing against the grate. "Please don't leave me here!"
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"I am coming back for you," I swore, looking deep into her amber eyes through the steel bars. "I promise you on my life, Esther. Hold on!"
I turned, sprinted across the dark basement, climbed onto the storage crate beneath the window well, and hoisted myself out into the pouring rain just as the garage door next door began to rumble open.
