Chapter 6 - The Race Against the Clock
The digital clock on the dashboard glowed a harsh 4:15 AM as I slammed my foot down on the gas pedal. The SUV roared to life, tires spitting gravel across the driveway as I launched the vehicle down the winding country road toward the old municipal lake.
Beside me in the passenger seat, Julian clutched a roll of duct tape and his pistol, his face pale under the dashboard lights.
“You shouldn't have brought me,” Julian muttered, staring out the rain-streaked window. “She’s unstable, Mark. If she realizes I’m with you, she won’t hesitate to use the boy as leverage against both of us.”
“She’s my son,” I snapped, gripping the steering wheel so hard my knuckles ached. “If you think for one second I’m going to let her walk away with him, you don’t know me at all. And if you try any of your old tricks, Julian, I swear to God I’ll leave you out in these woods to rot with her.”
Julian held up his hands defensively. “Relax. My survival depends on her going down just as much as yours does. If she takes the fall for everything, my past stays buried. If she drags me into a federal conspiracy case, I’m doing twenty years. We’re on the same side right now.”
We raced through the dense canopy of pine trees lining the North Woods. The fog had rolled in heavily from the lake, turning the narrow dirt road into a hazy labyrinth of looming shadows and flashing headlights.
My mind was a chaotic storm of terror and fury. Where was Laura? Before we left the house, I had found her tied up in the downstairs pantry, gagged with a dish towel but thankfully unharmed. She had managed to gasp out that Evelyn had crept into the house through the basement window while Laura was checking on Jason, knocked her out from behind with a heavy flashlight, and grabbed the boy before making her escape.
Laura had wanted to call 911 immediately, but I knew Evelyn’s unstable state. If the police swarmed the boathouse with sirens blazing, Evelyn might panic and do something irreversible to Jason.
I had to handle this myself first.
Twenty minutes later, the silhouette of the old municipal boathouse emerged through the thick fog at the end of a rotting wooden pier. It was a derelict structure of weathered gray wood and rusted tin roofing, hovering over the dark, choppy waters of the lake.
A single red taillight flickered from an unmarked sedan parked haphazardly among the tall reeds near the shoreline.
Evelyn’s car.
I cut the headlights and killed the engine a hundred yards back, letting the SUV coast silently to a stop behind a thick clump of weeping willows.
“Stay here until I signal,” I whispered to Julian, reaching for the heavy iron tire iron from the floorboard.
“Mark, wait,” Julian hissed, grabbing my arm. “She’s armed. She has nothing left to lose.”
“Neither do I,” I said, shrugging his hand off.
I opened the door, slipping out into the damp, freezing night air. The smell of rotting lake weeds and damp earth filled my lungs. Keeping low to the ground, I moved silently through the tall marsh grass toward the rotting wooden pier.
Each step on the old wooden planks produced a faint, agonizing squeak that sounded like a gunshot in the silent night. I paused, holding my breath, listening to the gentle lapping of water against the wooden pylons beneath my feet.
As I reached the heavy double doors of the boathouse, I heard a voice echoing from within—high, erratic, and frantic.
“...just have to wait for the boat, Jason! Your father is going to ruin everything, but once we cross the state line, we’ll be safe. You’ll see. I’m your real family now.”
“I want my dad,” Jason’s voice whimpered, small and terrified from inside the dark structure. “Please, Evelyn... my stomach hurts.”
“Shut up!” Evelyn snapped, her voice sharp as a razor. “Stop talking about your stomach! There’s nothing in your stomach!”
May you like
That was all I needed to hear.
I raised the heavy iron tire iron, stepped back, and slammed my shoulder directly into the rotting wooden door with all the fury of a desperate father.
