A Grave Beneath the Floorboards novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Come On Down

I stood at the top of the basement stairs with my hand on the doorframe and did not take the first step.

"Macy," Vince said from the dark. "I'm waiting."

Burke put his hand flat on my shoulder and moved me backward into the hall.

"No," he said, to me and to the phone. "She doesn't go anywhere alone. Not once."

It was his rule from the first week, and I had broken it once, and hearing him say it now made my knees steady.

"Vince, this is Detective Harrigan," Burke said, and he took the phone from the officer. "The house is covered. Put down whatever you're holding and come up."

"I'm holding nothing."

"Then it's a short walk."

There was a long quiet on the line.

"I'm not going to jail for her," Vince said. His voice cracked on the last word. "I want the girl to hear it first."

"Hear what?"

"Who really asked for that floor."

Greta had been standing very still against the wall with her arms crossed.

Now she leaned in to me and whispered, "Where does the basement go besides the stairs?"

"The old coal hatch," I whispered back. "Outside, on the side of the house. It's bolted from the inside."

"Bolted from the inside," Greta said. "So it's not a way in. It's a way out."

She was already moving down the hall, in her wrinkled blazer and her running shoes, and out the back door before the officer could grab her.

I stood there and talked, because Burke nodded at me to.

"Vince, I'm at the top of the stairs," I said, and I made my voice loud. "I'm not coming down. Say it from there."

"Come on, Macy."

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