Chapter 6: The Body in the Cellar
Emergency lights flickered on.
Lily stood near the overturned desk, still holding the pistol.
Daniel was gone.
The gunshot had struck a surveillance monitor, showering the room with sparks. He had fired from the darkness and escaped through a hidden door behind the cabinet.
Vanessa lay on the floor, pressing both hands against the wound in her side.
I crawled toward Lily.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head and dropped the gun.
I pulled her into my arms.
The baby moved beneath my ribs, but a painful tightness spread across my abdomen. I tried to breathe slowly.
Not now.
Please, not now.
The satellite phone rang.
Daniel’s voice came through the villa speakers.
“You have five minutes before the island burns.”
Vanessa looked toward the ceiling.
“He activated the fuel system.”
“What fuel system?” Lily asked.
“The generators feed from tanks beneath the villa,” Vanessa said. “He can flood the cellar and ignite it remotely.”
I grabbed the satellite phone.
“Daniel, the police are here. You cannot escape.”
“I’ve escaped worse.”
“You murdered Evelyn.”
A pause.
“She should have minded her own business.”
“You told everyone she fell from a mountain.”
“She discovered the accounts before I was ready. She threatened to report me.”
“So you killed her.”
“I corrected a mistake.”
The coldness in his voice was almost impossible to understand. To Daniel, people were not human beings. They were obstacles, assets, liabilities.
He continued.
“Leave the villa through the eastern door. There is a path to the cliffs.”
“And Vanessa?”
“She knows what happens to disloyal partners.”
The call ended.
Vanessa’s face had become pale.
“We cannot take the eastern path,” she said.
“Why?”
“It leads to an old quarry. There is no way down.”
Daniel wanted us trapped on the cliffs when the villa burned.
A loud mechanical hum sounded beneath the floor.
The smell of fuel entered the room.
We needed another exit.
Vanessa pointed toward the hidden door Daniel had used.
“There’s a passage behind the cabinet. It leads to the cellar and then to the northern dock.”
“You can’t walk,” I said.
“Then leave me.”
“No.”
She laughed weakly.
“You realize I helped plan your murder?”
“Yes.”
“I forged your signatures. I moved the money. I convinced Daniel the helicopter would look like an accident.”
“I know.”
“Then why help me?”
“Because I’m not him.”
For the first time, shame appeared in her eyes.
Lily and I lifted Vanessa between us.
The hidden door opened onto stone stairs descending beneath the villa. Fuel fumes grew stronger with every step.
At the bottom, we entered a cellar lined with wine racks, storage boxes, and rusted tools.
The mechanical hum came from pipes running along the ceiling.
Liquid dripped onto the floor.
Vanessa pointed toward a tunnel at the far end.
“Northern dock.”
We moved as quickly as her injury allowed.
Halfway across the cellar, Lily stopped.
“What is that?”
A section of the stone floor had been recently repaired. The concrete was smoother than the surrounding surface.
Beside it lay an old silver bracelet.
I recognized it from photographs.
Daniel once kept a framed picture of Evelyn in his study. She wore that bracelet in nearly every image.
Vanessa followed my stare.
“That’s where he buried her.”
The truth settled over us.
Evelyn had never died in Colorado.
Daniel had brought her to this island, murdered her, and created a story so convincing that no one questioned him.
He had practiced before me.
A banging sound came from behind the cellar wall.
We froze.
Again.
Three heavy knocks.
Lily stepped closer.
“Someone is in there.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No. That room has been sealed for years.”
The banging continued.
“Help!” a man shouted.
We found a metal door concealed behind stacked crates. It was locked from the outside.
Lily used a crowbar from the tool rack to break the latch.
A man stumbled out.
He was thin, bearded, and dressed in torn clothing.
I recognized him after several seconds.
Nathan Cole.
Mercer Coastal’s former financial director.
Nathan disappeared eighteen months earlier after being accused of stealing company funds. Daniel told me Nathan had fled the country.
“You’re alive,” I whispered.
Nathan stared at me.
“Amelia?”
“How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. Months. Maybe longer.”
“Daniel did this?”
“He framed me for the missing money. I found the offshore accounts, but before I could tell you, he brought me here.”
The hum above us grew louder.
Vanessa looked toward the pipes.
“We need to move.”
Nathan pointed toward the tunnel.
“The northern dock is blocked. Daniel collapsed part of it last winter.”
“Then how do we leave?” Lily asked.
“There’s an old drainage channel beneath the wine storage. It exits below the cliffs.”
We followed him to a trapdoor hidden beneath wooden pallets.
Smoke began entering the cellar.
Daniel had started the fire.
Nathan opened the trapdoor, revealing a narrow stone shaft filled with black water.
“It’s cold, but the current leads outside.”
I looked at my stomach.
The thought of entering the sea again nearly paralyzed me.
Nathan saw my fear.
“It’s not deep until the last section. I’ll help you.”
An explosion shook the villa.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
We had no choice.
Lily entered first, followed by Nathan. I helped Vanessa lower herself into the channel. She cried out as the water touched her wound.
Then I climbed down.
The tunnel was barely wide enough to stand. Water reached my waist, and the current pulled toward the cliffs.
Behind us, fire roared through the cellar.
We moved forward in darkness.
After several minutes, the tunnel narrowed and the floor disappeared.
Nathan stopped.
“This section is underwater for about twelve feet.”
“I can’t do that,” Vanessa said.
“You can,” I told her.
“I’ve lost too much blood.”
“Then hold onto me.”
Nathan went first.
Lily followed.
I wrapped one arm around Vanessa while protecting my injured shoulder as best I could.
“Take a breath,” I said.
We submerged.
The darkness returned.
For one horrifying instant, I was falling from the helicopter again. Daniel’s voice filled my mind.
Goodbye, love.
I almost opened my mouth.
Then I felt the baby move.
I kicked forward.
A hand grabbed mine.
Lily.
She pulled.
Nathan pushed from behind.
We broke through the surface inside a narrow cave below the cliffs.
Police lights flashed across the water outside.
Inspector Marin’s voice echoed through a loudspeaker.
“Amelia!”
“We’re here!” Lily screamed.
Officers entered the cave in an inflatable rescue boat.
Nathan helped lift Vanessa aboard. Then Lily climbed in.
As an officer reached for me, another explosion tore through the island.
The upper section of the villa collapsed.
Flames lit the sky.
Inspector Marin looked around.
“Where is Daniel?”
“He escaped before the fire.”
A radio transmission came from the police vessel.
“Inspector, we have movement near the northern ridge. One individual heading toward the secondary boat.”
Daniel was still on the island.
Inspector Marin ordered units to intercept him.
Then Nathan caught my arm.
“He won’t take the boat.”
“How do you know?”
“Because there is a private aircraft runway beyond the ridge.”
My blood went cold.
Daniel had not brought us to the island merely because it was hidden.
He had brought us there because an escape route was already waiting.
A small plane appeared above the burning villa.
It climbed sharply over the cliffs.
Inspector Marin’s radio crackled.
“The aircraft is airborne. We could not reach the runway in time.”
The plane banked east and disappeared into the night.
Daniel had escaped.
But as the rescue boat carried us toward the police vessel, Nathan leaned close to me.
“There is something else you need to know.”
“What?”
“Daniel did not steal from Mercer Coastal only for money.”
“Then why?”
Nathan looked toward the sky where the plane had vanished.
“He was buying control of the company.”
“That makes no sense. He could never own it without my shares.”
“He doesn’t need your shares.”
“What are you talking about?”
Nathan’s expression filled with dread.
“According to the documents he forced me to prepare, your child inherits everything if you die.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel becomes the legal guardian.”
I placed a hand on my stomach.
Nathan continued.
“The insurance money was only the beginning. Daniel did not throw you from that helicopter to become a wealthy widower.”
“He did it to control my baby’s inheritance.”
“No,” Nathan said. “He did it because he believes the baby isn’t yours to raise.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Before Nathan could answer, Vanessa lost consciousness.
May you like
As the medics rushed toward her, she grabbed my wrist with surprising strength.
“Ask Daniel’s mother,” she whispered. “Ask her what they did at the fertility clinic.”
