Chapter 13 - The Gold Pendant on the Nail
The cold metal of the gold pendant felt heavy and wrong in Maya’s palm. She brought it closer to her flashlight beam, examining the intricate engraving on the back: E & D, Forever.
It belonged to Elena.
Marcus bumped gently into Maya’s back as she stopped in the narrow tunnel, nearly sending them both stumbling onto the damp concrete floor. "Move, Maya! What are you stopping for? We have to get to the house before—" Marcus stopped short, his eyes locking onto the gold pendant resting in Maya's open hand. "Wait. Isn't that..."
"Elena's," Maya finished for him, her voice dropping to a stunned whisper. She looked up at Marcus, whose face had gone completely pale in the harsh flashlight beam. "Your sister-in-law's necklace. The one she supposedly never took off."
Arthur Vance pushed past Marcus from behind, his old face twisting into a cynical, ugly smirk. "Well, well, well," Arthur rasped, his voice echoing eerily off the concrete walls. "It seems my dutiful daughter-in-law isn't the innocent victim she pretended to be around the dinner table."
"Shut up, Arthur," David snapped, wheeling around from the front of the line where he had been walking with Detective Miller. Desperation etched deep lines into David's face. "Elena would never work with Sarah. She didn't even know about the offshore accounts until an hour ago!"
"People are full of surprises, David," Maya said coldly, holding up the pendant. "Especially when they're about to lose everything they've built. She knew about the tunnel. She must have dropped this pendant here when she came down to stash the ledger before we arrived."
Detective Miller turned his flashlight back toward them, his face grim. "We're wasting time arguing. Let's move. We're coming up on the foundation access door right now."
A few yards ahead, the narrow concrete corridor terminated at a heavy iron-bolted door set directly into the foundation wall of the main Vance family residence. Faint, muffled sounds filtered through the metal—the distant crying of toddler Lily, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps pacing across the floorboards upstairs.
Detective Miller raised his boot and kicked the iron door hard. It swung open with a loud, metallic clatter, revealing the dark, cluttered basement of the house.
They spilled out of the tunnel one by one, weapons drawn and flashlights cutting through the dust. The basement was quiet, lit only by the pale moonlight filtering through the high, barred windows.
As they crept toward the basement stairs leading up to the kitchen, a sharp, metallic click echoed from the top of the landing.
Everyone froze.
Standing at the top of the stairs, bathed in the warm light of the kitchen, was Elena. But she wasn't wearing her green sweater anymore, and she wasn't crying. In her right hand, she held a heavy revolver pointed straight down at the bottom of the stairs.
May you like
And tucked safely into her other arm, toddler Lily slept peacefully in her red dress.
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