Page 51 of Crash and Burn

A trap door had been thrown open.

“Holy shit!” Maggie exclaimed from behind him.

Though he wanted to look over his shoulder and check on her, she sounded fine. The old throw rug had been shoved out of the way, and the door was left open. “Did you know about this?”

“No,” she answered harshly, “or I would have damn well locked it.” He realized it had been a stupid question.

There was a cellar under the house. When the house was built, laundry machines were not an issue. This room connected into the kitchen and it made perfect sense to have cellar access here. It must have been converted later when they didn’t need a place to store root vegetables but did need access for laundry.

Sebastian was about ready to jump down onto the old rickety wooden stairs and follow the perpetrator down into the dark. But as he moved forward, Maggie put a hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

“Wait!” She held a finger to her lips. “Listen.” She pointed toward her feet.

Sebastian heard the noises under the floor and understood then. The house was built on a raised foundation, outside, there would be a small doorway that likely lead into the cellar. Whoever had entered had known about a trapdoor that Maggie hadn’t.

Lord, the house itself was a puzzling conundrum of doorways and entries.Would they ever be able to find and seal them all?

Maggie pointed toward his gun and then down toward the sounds.

“You want me to shoot through the floor?” He tried to keep his voice low.

“Why not?” she responded. “I can repair my floor. We can't repair the lives these men have destroyed.”

She was right, and it was her call. Before she was done with the sentence, Sebastian had fired three shots. He wasn't sure he’d hit anything, but they made the noise beneath the house begin to scramble even more frantically.

Doing their best to follow a perpetrator they couldn't see, Sebastian tried to aim to follow the sounds. But again, Maggie stepped forward and put a hand on his chest, holding him back.

“We don't know he doesn't have a gun, either. What if he shoots up?”

Sebastian held his arm out across her waist as though that would do anything, but together they backed away from the center of the room. Then they heard another noise near the edge of the porch.

He bolted toward the door and watched through the window as someone scrambled out from the crawlspace entry door. Cloaked in shadows, the man began fleeing across the backyard.

Sebastian flipped the bolts on the locks that had barely been in place for five hours. They were supposed to keep Maggie safe and instead they were holding him back.

As he threw the door wide, he heard Maggie right behind him as he began to give chase.

Turning around, he said, “Stay here, please.”

But he wasn’t surprised when Maggie shook her head no. “There's a rapist and a serial killer on the loose and you want me to stay in the house that they both know how to get into better than I do?”

Well, damn. When she put it that way ...

Reaching back, he grabbed her hand. Together they bolted across the backyard, through the now swinging gate, and into the woods.

Chapter Forty-Two

Maggie shook Sebastian's hand off as he would likely need both of them and she wanted her hands firmly choked up on her baseball bat.

It was also easier to run without holding on to someone else. But it was difficult to keep up with Sebastian.

He was already through the gate, but she was managing to stay close, glad she had zipped her comfy winter boots. She must look like a fool, racing into the woods, in only her night shirt and a pair of white boots with fluff.

Sebastian stopped at the turn, listening, and Maggie managed to pull up just short of smacking into him. But even as she got her feet under her, Sebastian was already pointing to the right.

She could see and hear someone up ahead crashing down the trail. Maggie and Sebastian gave chase. She wondered if Sebastian would just lift his gun and shoot, but as a lawyer she knew enough to know the shooter was responsible once the bullet left the barrel. If he hit a home or something else, it could cost him a lifetime in jail. Even if he shot the person running away, if that person wasn’t the La Vista Rapist or the Blue River Killer that would also spell massive legal troubles. Sebastian was keeping the gun down at his side, ready, but not aimed.

Smart.

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