Chapter 9 - The Red House
West Briar sat at the end of a narrow road beneath enormous oak trees.
From outside, it looked empty.
Curtains closed.
No vehicles.
No lights.
Deputies entered through the front and rear doors simultaneously.
Cassandro waited nearly a mile away inside Brooks’s vehicle.
He hated every second.
Radio traffic crackled.
“First floor clear.”
“Kitchen clear.”
“Garage clear.”
Then silence.
Cassandro gripped the door handle.
Another voice came through.
“Basement door.”
Brooks leaned toward the radio.
“Status?”
“Locked from outside.”
Cassandro felt his heart slam.
Thirty seconds later:
“Door open.”
Static.
Then:
“We have one adult female.”
Cassandro stopped breathing.
“Alive.”
He shut his eyes.
Brooks grabbed his shoulder.
“They found someone alive.”
“Is it Elena?”
“We don’t know.”
The wait lasted six minutes.
It felt longer than seven weeks.
Finally the radio spoke again.
“Victim identifies herself as Elena Vale.”
Cassandro made a sound he had never heard from himself.
Half laugh.
Half sob.
He dropped his head against the steering wheel.
“She’s alive.”
Brooks let him have exactly five seconds.
Then she said, “She needs medical care.”
Cassandro nodded rapidly.
“I know.”
Elena was carried from the house wrapped in a blanket.
She looked smaller.
Her dark hair had been cut unevenly.
Her face was pale.
But she was awake.
Cassandro stepped forward and stopped himself before touching her.
“Elena?”
Her eyes found him.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then she whispered:
“Audrey?”
“She’s safe.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Only then did she start crying.
Cassandro crouched beside the stretcher.
“I’m sorry.”
She opened her eyes again.
“For what?”
“For not listening.”
Elena looked at him for a long moment.
“You came.”
It broke him.
He kissed her hand.
“I should’ve come sooner.”
Paramedics moved her toward the ambulance.
Before the doors closed, Elena grabbed his wrist.
“Damian wasn’t alone.”
Cassandro leaned closer.
“Vivienne?”
“No.”
Her voice weakened.
“There was someone else at the house.”
“Who?”
Elena looked frightened.
“I never saw his face.”
Cassandro felt cold again.
Police searched the entire property.
The person Elena described was gone.
But investigators found food recently prepared.
A second coffee cup.
Fresh tire tracks behind a maintenance shed.
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Someone had left West Briar shortly before deputies arrived.
And according to Elena, that person had been the one giving Damian orders.
