Chapter 28 - The Red Lights on the Snow
The distant wail of sirens grew louder, echoing off the snow-covered pine trees surrounding the estate.
Through the blizzard, flashing beacons of red and blue painted the falling snow in violent, alternating colors.
Three state police cruisers and an emergency medical vehicle broke through the tree line, their tires spinning in the deep snow.
They skidded to a halt in the circular driveway, their high beams illuminating the raging inferno of the historic home.
Doors slammed open, and armed troopers stepped out into the gale, their weapons drawn and tactical flashlights sweeping the yard.
"State Police! Stay where you are!" a voice bellowed through an emergency megaphone.
Arthur rolled over in the freezing snow, raising his blackened, blistered hands into the glaring light.
"Over here!" Arthur shouted, his voice cracking from smoke inhalation. "An officer is down!"
Two troopers sprinted through the deep drifts toward the hemlock trees, their rifles lowered as they saw Arthur and Vance.
"We have Detective Vance!" one officer shouted into his shoulder radio. "Call the paramedics up here immediately!"
The paramedics rushed forward with a portable trauma kit, dropping to their knees beside the bleeding detective.
"He's lost a lot of blood from a shoulder wound," the medic said, ripping open Vance’s coat to apply pressure.
Arthur was pulled to his feet by a tall state trooper who immediately draped a heavy thermal blanket over his shoulders.
"Are you Arthur Vance?" the trooper asked, shining a flashlight into Arthur’s soot-streaked face.
"Yes," Arthur breathed, shivering violently as shock finally set in.
"Where is Eleanor Vance? Where is Thomas?" the trooper demanded, scanning the burning wreckage of the house.
"Inside," Arthur said, pointing a trembling finger toward the collapsing walls of the mansion. "They didn't make it out."
The roof of the master bedroom caved in with a deafening roar, sending a tidal wave of fire into the blizzard.
The intense heat was already melting the snow around the perimeter of the foundation, turning the yard into black mud.
"Search the perimeter!" the trooper ordered his partner. "Make sure no one slipped out the rear."
Arthur sat on the bumper of the ambulance, a paramedic wrapping a gauze bandage around his split cheek.
He watched the home he had spent his entire life maintaining burn down to its stone skeleton.
Everything was gone—the bronze candlestick, the secrets, the forged wills, the blood money.
For the first time in three terrifying years, Arthur closed his eyes and let out a long, shuddering breath of relief.
It was over.
May you like
Or so he thought, until a young trooper walked out from behind the burning greenhouse, holding a flashlight close to the snow.
---
