Chapter 7 - The Pantry Trap
Grace smelled it first.
“Gas.”
Dominic kicked the pantry door. It did not move.
Vincent crossed to the vent and ripped away the decorative grate. A sweet chemical odor thickened the air.
“Not natural gas,” Isabella said. “Something else.”
Emily started coughing.
Vincent wrapped his jacket around her mouth and nose. “Stay low.”
Dominic fired once into the door lock.
The bullet sparked off a steel reinforcement plate hidden behind the wood.
“Rocco remodeled,” he said.
“Window?”
“No window.”
Vincent scanned shelves packed with dry goods, serving trays, wine crates, and emergency supplies.
Then Emily pointed to the floor.
“Mom said tunnels.”
Under a rack of flour sacks was a square outline in the tile.
Grace dropped to her knees. “Sofia showed me a hatch here.”
Together they dragged the rack aside.
Vincent wedged a carving knife into the seam. Dominic used a serving hook as a lever.
The hatch lifted.
Cold black air rose from below.
“Go,” Vincent said.
Grace climbed down first, then Emily. Isabella followed carefully with her injured shoulder. Dominic lowered the laptop and pendant.
Vincent went last as the pantry lights blurred in the gas.
He pulled the hatch shut above them.
The tunnel smelled like dirt, stone, and old wine.
Emily’s laptop provided a weak square of light.
“You okay?” Vincent asked her.
She nodded, still coughing. “I don’t like your house.”
“Neither do I right now.”
They moved single file.
The tunnel split after fifty feet.
Grace pointed left. “Carriage house.”
Dominic pointed right. “Greenhouse should be that way.”
Vincent looked at the clock on the laptop.
Twelve minutes remained.
“Isabella and Grace take Emily left. Get to a car. Don’t use the main drive.”
Isabella shook her head. “You’re not going alone.”
“I’m not asking.”
Dominic stepped beside Vincent. “Then I’m going.”
Vincent studied his cousin.
Sofia’s message had said Dominic knew part of it.
“How much did you know?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Enough to hate myself.”
Vincent lifted his gun.
Dominic did not reach for his.
“Tell me.”
“I knew Sofia was investigating Bellamy. I knew she thought Rocco might still be alive.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I thought she was wrong.”
“No. That’s not all.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“The night she vanished, I gave Bellamy her location.”
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A flashlight beam suddenly appeared deep in the tunnel behind them.
Then a man shouted, “Found them!”
