Page 111 of Reckoning

“Absolutely,” David said. “Do you want me to go with you?”

“You can if you want,” he said. They were halfway out the door when Tate stopped and turned around. “Do you have a basement to this house?”

“Yes, but the police have already searched there.”

“I need to see it,” Tate said.

“Then follow me,” David said, and led the way through the house, then through the kitchen and down a hall to a door leading to the basement below, talking as they went.

“There’s a really funky feature about his house,” David said. “It has a tunnel that leads to another house down the block. It used to be a house of ill repute, as they called it back then. It was during prohibition days, I think. I was told there are tunnels in other houses leading to the same house.”

Even as they were going down, Tate was seeing the steps again. Up and down. Up and down.

David switched on the lights and then stood aside. When Tate headed straight for the dust-covered door near a wall of shelves, David called out. “That’s the door I was talking about. We’ve lived here closed to twenty years and it’s never been opened.”

Tate put his hand on the latch. It should have been stiff or hard to open, and the handle should have been as dusty as the door, but when he touched the handle, he saw Scott Gregory’s hand on it too.

“That house of ill repute. Does somebody live there now?” Tate asked.

“No. It’s been vacant for years.”

Tate opened the door, and when he did, light bulbs in the ceiling of the tunnel flickered on. In his mind, he was seeing Scott walking away with Mandy hanging limply over his shoulder.

He turned abruptly. “David. Go outside and tell that police officer to send squad cars to the house at the end of this tunnel. Not your house. That house. Tell them the person who took your daughter has her in that house on the upper floor. Tell them I’m going in from the tunnel and not to shoot at me. The man they’re looking for has white-blond hair.”

David jerked like he’d been shot, then turned and ran as Tate started into the tunnel.

The urgency to run was strong for Tate, but he couldn’t take a chance on alerting accomplices, or Scott Gregory himself, and lengthened his stride instead.

At the end of the tunnel was another unlocked door. Tate pushed. It swung outward into another smaller basement. He went up those steps into the old kitchen in haste. Pausing to listen, he heard nothing and moved farther into the house.

He knew Mandy wasn’t on the ground floor, but he didn’t know if someone else was, and moved cautiously toward a grand staircase. Up and down. Up and down. This house was where his consciousness was telling him to go, and up he went, pausing again on the second landing. As he did, he heard what sounded like a child crying from somewhere down the hall.

He moved toward the sounds, and as he did, he began hearing Scott Gregory too.

“Don’t cry, Mandy. I’m your daddy, and you’re going to live with me now.”

Mandy wailed. “My first daddy’s dead. I live with his mommy and daddy now.”

“No! I’m not dead. They stole you. You’re my daughter. You belong to me!”

Mandy screamed. “Don’t touch me! I want my mommy!”

Scott was pissed and frustrated and about to dig a bottle of sleeping pills from his pocket to shut her up, when the bedroom door flew open, hitting the wall with a bang. He saw a giant of a man come flying into the room, and had a horrifying feeling he’d just been made, then reacted—a little too late.

He was reaching for the baseball bat lying on the floor by his feet when the giant grabbed him by the shirt and punched him square in the face.

He dropped like a poleaxed steer at a slaughterhouse.

Mandy screamed again, but Tate was already talking her down. “Hey, Mandy, it’s okay. You’re safe now and your daddy David is coming with the police, and your mommy Greta is waiting for you at your house. My name is Tate. Your parents sent me to find you. And I think you know Briar Lowe. She’s my really good friend. You’re safe now, baby. I promise you’re safe.”

The magic words for Mandy were David and Greta, but when he said Briar’s name too, that ended her panic.

When Tate picked her up, she went limp in his arms, exhausted from shock and fear. Tate was still holding Mandy and standing over Scott, making sure he didn’t come to and try to escape, when he heard shouts, then the sounds of running feet, and David’s voice, shouting over all of them.

“Mandy, it’s Daddy. I’m coming to get you.”

Tate stepped out into the hall with her in his arms. “Look. Daddy’s here now. You’re going to be okay.”