Chapter 4 - The Secret Beneath the Floorboards
We moved into the hallway, leaving the children's door cracked so we could hear them. The old farmhouse seemed to hold its breath.
"If you didn't do it, Clare, who did?" I asked, pulling the file from my pocket. "And why did Christian tell Dr. Miller that the kids weren't safe?"
"Because he wasn't running from me," Clare whispered, wiping her face with the back of her sleeve. "He was running from the people he left behind in Chicago six years ago. His real name is Michael Vance. His brother... his brother is the one who tracks people down when they owe things."
She led me down the hall to the master bedroom. The room was in complete disarray. Drawers were pulled out, clothes scattered across the floor. In the far corner, a small square of the floorboards had been pried away, revealing a dark cavity underneath.
"I came home from the grocery store late tonight because my car had a flat tire," Clare explained, her words rushing out. "When I got here, Christian's car was gone, but the front door was open. I found the house like this. Someone was looking for something. I went downstairs to get a flashlight, and that's when I heard the news on the local scanner about his crash."
I knelt by the opened floorboards. Shifting my flashlight into the hole, I saw what had been left behind. A small leather-bound ledger and three identical glass vials, exactly like the one Clare had in her pocket.
I picked up one of the vials. The label read Thallium Sulfate. A heavy metal. A slow, agonizing poison that mimics natural illness until the heart simply stops.
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"I found this vial on the kitchen counter when I walked in," Clare said, pulling the other one out of her pocket. "Someone left it there. Like a warning. Or a setup."
Suddenly, the headlights of a vehicle swept across the bedroom ceiling. A car had just turned into the long, gravel driveway.
