Chapter 10 - The Flash-Bang Detonation
The blinding white flash tore through the humid afternoon air, followed instantaneously by a concussive shockwave that rattled the sliding glass doors and sent a wall of muddy water crashing over the edges of the swimming pool. Helen screamed, throwing her arms over her head and collapsing hard onto her knees as the deafening roar echoed down the cul-de-sac. A thick cloud of grey smoke billowed out from beneath the paving stones, carrying with it the sickening stench of sulfur and decades-old decay.
Mark hit the ground hard, his injured hand catching on the shattered glass of the patio door and opening the wound wider, staining the green grass a dark, vibrant crimson. Officer Miller struggled fiercely against the zip-ties binding his wrists, his face bruised where it had pressed against the brick wall.
"You just destroyed a primary crime scene!" Officer Miller roared at Captain Reynolds, the veins in his neck bulging with suppressed fury. "You can't just blow up evidence in broad daylight! Half the neighborhood heard that blast!"
Captain Reynolds walked calmly through the drifting smoke, his tactical boots crunching on the shattered concrete pavers. He glanced down at the floating canvas duffel bag in the pool, where the explosion had completely fractured the remaining skeletal remains into a slurry of bone fragments and peat.
"There was no crime scene, Officer," Reynolds replied smoothly, his tone chillingly indifferent. "Just a gas line rupture from an old, unpermitted pool installation. Public works will be here in twenty minutes to fill the entire basin with quick-setting concrete. The case remains officially closed."
Thomas Vance stepped over the smoking debris, stopping directly in front of Helen where she knelt in the mud, her yellow swimsuit ruined, her body trembling from shock. He reached down, his manicured fingers gripping her chin and forcing her to look up into his cold, dead eyes.
"You should have stayed at the community center, Helen," Thomas whispered softly, his voice a lethal hiss that only she could hear. "You had a wonderful life. You had a husband, children, a foundation board seat. Why did you have to jump the fence?"
Helen wrenched her face away from his grip, spitting a mouthful of dirt and tears onto his expensive leather shoes. "Because she was my sister," Helen choked out, her voice raw and bleeding with grief. "And because every time I looked out my kitchen window at this house, I could hear her screaming."
Thomas sighed, standing up and brushing a speck of ash from his lapel. He nodded to Captain Reynolds. "Put her in the back of the unmarked van. Take her to the private estate in the hills. We'll sedate her and tell the board she had a nervous breakdown over the stress of the ribbon-cutting."
May you like
As the two tactical agents grabbed Helen by her bare arms and hoisted her violently to her feet, the rusted iron lockbox lying inside the plastic evidence bag on the grass suddenly shifted on its own, its warped latch clicking open with a metallic snap.
---
