Chapter 7 - The Black Hollow Lodge
Detective Ruiz ordered everyone behind the armored vehicles.
A state police negotiator attempted to contact the lodge.
Nobody answered.
Arthur crouched beside Clara while snow began to fall through the trees.
“Victor has a gun,” Clara whispered.
“My mother may not be controlling this anymore.”
Arthur stared at the dark windows.
“She started it.”
Ruiz joined them.
“We have heat signatures for four adults and two children.”
“Four adults?” Arthur asked.
“We know Eleanor and Victor.”
Ruiz looked toward the lodge.
“We do not know the other two.”
A second shot struck a tree above the police line.
The negotiator called again.
This time, Victor answered.
“Arthur comes inside alone.”
Ruiz shook her head before Arthur could speak.
“No.”
Victor continued through the speaker.
“If anyone approaches with him, one child leaves through the back door.”
His meaning was unmistakable.
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“I will go.”
“That is exactly what he wants,” Ruiz said.
“My sons are inside.”
“We need time.”
“They may not have time.”
Clara watched the upper floor.
A curtain moved briefly.
Toby’s small face appeared behind the glass.
He pressed both hands against the window.
Then someone pulled him away.
Clara stood.
“I can get inside.”
Arthur grabbed her arm.
“How?”
“The kitchen delivery tunnel.”
He stared at her.
“What tunnel?”
“Mrs. Finch told me about it when the freezer pipes broke last winter.”
“The old ice passage runs from the lake cellar to the pantry.”
Arthur shook his head.
“It was sealed.”
“From inside the house.”
Clara pointed toward the slope leading to the frozen lake.
“The exterior entrance may still be open beneath the snow.”
Ruiz considered the idea.
“How narrow?”
“Wide enough for one person.”
“Then an officer goes.”
“The boys will hide from an armed stranger,” Clara said.
“They will come to me.”
Arthur’s grip tightened.
“You are not crawling into that house alone.”
Clara looked at him.
“Then distract them.”
Twenty minutes later, Arthur walked toward the lodge with his hands visible.
Detective Ruiz spoke through the radio hidden beneath his collar.
“Keep Victor talking.”
Arthur stopped at the front steps.
The door opened.
Victor Hale stood inside holding a rifle.
He wore an expensive black coat and a smile that looked almost apologetic.
“You always were predictable,” Victor said.
“Where are my sons?”
“Inside.”
“Let them go.”
Victor stepped aside.
“Come in.”
Arthur crossed the threshold.
The great room had changed little since his childhood.
A stone fireplace dominated one wall.
Animal heads stared down from dark beams.
Eleanor sat near the fire.
Leo and Toby were beside her.
Toby clutched his knees against his chest.
Leo glared at Victor with frightened defiance.
Two other people stood near the dining table.
Gabriel Vance.
Arthur’s cousin.
And Owen Price.
Arthur stopped.
Owen’s head was bandaged.
His burned hands were wrapped in gauze.
“You were in the hospital,” Arthur said.
Owen looked ashamed.
“They moved me before dawn.”
“Who?”
Gabriel smiled.
“People still respect the Vance name.”
Arthur turned toward his cousin.
“You stole from the foundation.”
Gabriel poured himself a drink.
“We moved capital.”
“You forged Evelyn’s signature.”
“She asked too many questions.”
Arthur looked at Eleanor.
“You knew.”
Eleanor’s face was expressionless.
“I knew the foundation required protection.”
“Protection from what?”
“Public scrutiny.”
“Those funds were meant for sick children.”
“They were meant to preserve influence.”
Arthur stared at her.
“You killed my father.”
Eleanor’s expression changed.
Victor tightened his grip on the rifle.
“Careful,” he said.
Arthur stepped closer to his mother.
“Evelyn recorded everything.”
“Not everything,” Eleanor replied.
“Then tell me.”
Eleanor looked toward the fire.
“Your father was weak.”
“He intended to surrender control of the company to regulators.”
“He believed confession would cleanse his conscience.”
“Did you poison him?”
A muscle moved in Eleanor’s jaw.
“I allowed nature to finish what stress had begun.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer you are getting.”
Arthur heard Ruiz’s voice faintly through his earpiece.
Keep her talking.
At the rear of the lodge, Clara found the old tunnel entrance beneath a drift of snow.
She crawled through frozen darkness, scraping her hands against stone.
The passage ended behind a wooden panel in the pantry.
She pushed it open slowly.
Voices drifted from the great room.
Clara slipped upstairs.
She entered the room where the children’s coats had been left.
Inside Toby’s pocket, she found his stuffed rabbit.
She carried it downstairs toward the side corridor.
Through a narrow opening, she could see the boys.
Toby noticed her first.
His eyes widened.
Clara placed one finger against her lips.
She held up the rabbit.
Toby stood.
Eleanor reached for him.
“Where are you going?”
“My rabbit.”
Clara tossed it into the corridor.
Toby saw it and ran.
Eleanor rose.
“Toby!”
Leo followed his brother.
Clara pulled both boys into the pantry and closed the door.
“Quiet,” she whispered.
“Come with me.”
They entered the tunnel.
Behind them, Eleanor shouted.
Victor fired his rifle into the ceiling.
“Arthur moved!”
Gabriel seized Arthur by the throat and dragged him backward.
Owen stepped into the pantry.
He found the open panel.
“Clara!”
His voice echoed through the tunnel.
Clara pushed the boys ahead of her.
“Keep crawling!”
Leo reached the exterior opening first.
A police officer grabbed him.
Toby followed.
Clara was only a few feet from freedom when Owen caught her ankle.
She screamed.
Arthur heard the sound from inside the lodge.
He drove his elbow into Gabriel’s ribs and lunged toward Victor.
The rifle discharged.
A window shattered.
Outside, Detective Ruiz gave the order.
Police stormed the lodge.
Inside the tunnel, Owen pulled Clara backward.
She kicked blindly until her heel struck his injured hand.
He released her with a cry.
Clara crawled through the opening.
Ruiz dragged her behind cover.
“The boys are safe.”
Clara looked toward the lodge.
“Arthur is not.”
Gunfire erupted inside.
May you like
Then the front doors burst open.
Eleanor stepped onto the porch holding a pistol against Arthur’s side.
