Chapter 7 - The Wiring Trap
The acrid scent of scorched insulation drifted instantly from the floor vents, stinging the noses of everyone in the narrow hallway. Parker popped his head up from behind the sofa, coughing violently as a thin, gray wisp of smoke curled out from beneath the baseboards.
"He rigged the breaker!" Parker yelled, his face pale with panic. "He said he’d burn the evidence if anyone ever crossed him!"
Miller didn't hesitate. She holstered her weapon with one practiced motion, lunged forward, and tackled David hard against the kitchen doorframe before he could click the fob a second time. The steel pipe wrench clattered loudly against the linoleum, spinning into the dark corner of the pantry.
The male officer rushed in to assist, pinning David’s arms behind his back with brutal efficiency, slamming his face against the wooden molding.
"Cuff him! Get those cuffs on him now!" Miller ordered, pressing her knee into the small of David’s back as he thrashed violently against the restraint.
Clara rushed past them into the smoke-filled kitchen, throwing open the small metal door of the circuit breaker panel inset into the wall. Sparks were visibly dancing across the main terminal block, a crude homemade timer wired directly into the digital smart-home hub.
"Chloe! Get the fire extinguisher from under the sink!" Clara screamed, coughing as the smoke grew thicker, stinging her already bruised eyes.
Chloe scrambled up from the floor, her legs shaking so badly she nearly stumbled over her own feet. She wrenched open the cabinet door under the sink, grabbed the heavy red canister, and hauled it across the room. Her hands were clumsy, the safety pin jammed tight in the metal handle.
"I can't get the pin out! It's stuck!" Chloe cried out, panic threatening to swallow her whole.
Miller abandoned the struggling David to the male officer for a split second, snatched the extinguisher from Chloe’s hands, ripped the pin out with her teeth, and blasted a thick cloud of white chemical foam directly into the sparking breaker box.
The electrical fire hissed and died instantly, plunging the kitchen into a heavy, suffocating gloom illuminated only by the flashing red and blue lights of the police cruisers now arriving outside the front window.
David spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor, laughing maniacally as the officers dragged him toward the front door.
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"You think arresting me fixes it?" David shouted over his shoulder, his eyes fixed on Chloe. "Check the safe in the basement! The real deed isn't in my name—it's in his."
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