Chapter 5 - Smoke Behind the Walls
Lucas smelled smoke before he saw it.
A thin gray line curled beneath the study door.
“She’s burning the house,” he said.
“Not the whole house,” Walter replied. “Only this wing. Enough to destroy the records and blame my death on faulty wiring.”
Lucas slammed his shoulder against the door.
It did not move.
Rachel’s voice came through the speaker again.
“You’ve always worked too hard, Lucas. You never knew when to stop.”
“Why did you marry me?”
A pause.
Then she laughed softly.
“Because men like you believe gratitude is love.”
The words hurt more than Lucas expected.
He remembered every lunch he had packed for her. Every night he had driven home exhausted and still rubbed her shoulders. Every dollar he had handed over because she claimed Walter needed private nurses.
She had watched him sacrifice himself and called it useful.
Smoke thickened.
Walter pointed to a brass vent near the floor.
“Remove it.”
Lucas kicked the cover loose.
Behind it was another section of the service passage, but the opening was too small for Walter.
“I can’t leave you.”
“You will if staying means both of us die.”
Lucas tore a curtain from the wall, soaked it with water from a decorative vase, and wrapped it around Walter’s face.
Then he used the metal box as a hammer against the wall beside the vent.
Old plaster cracked.
Wood snapped.
The opening widened.
Flames pushed beneath the door as Lucas dragged Walter into the passage.
They crawled through choking darkness until they reached the wine cellar.
Walter collapsed against a stone wall.
Lucas pulled out his phone.
No signal.
The landline had been cut.
Then the cellar lights flickered on.
A woman stood at the bottom of the stairs holding a fire extinguisher.
Lucas raised the metal box defensively.
She lifted both hands.
“My name is Nora Hayes,” she said. “I was Walter’s nurse until Rachel fired me.”
Walter looked at her with relief.
Nora’s expression remained urgent.
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“She didn’t send those men to move him,” Nora said. “She sent them to inject him with enough insulin to stop his heart.”
👉 The former nurse knew how Rachel planned to kill Walter—but she also carried proof of an earlier victim.
