Chapter 22 #2
The scent of charred memories hung in the air, a stark reminder of the fire that had ripped through the house only days before. Each step inside the Victorian echoed with a haunting creak, the blackened walls standing as silent witnesses to the night that had almost torn everything apart.
“We should split up,” Sierra said.
“Why? What are we even looking for?” Grant asked.
Alicia dug the key from her pocket and toggled on her phone’s flashlight. “Maybe something that looks like these symbols that are on the key?”
“Right. Text us pictures. Then we’ll split up. Me and James. Daddy and Julia. L.L. Beans. Oh…and Kyle can go with…ummm…”
“I was nice to you about this whole DNA thing, Sierra.”
“Not my fault you’re a chump,” she said with a shrug.
Alicia shook her head. “First of all, that’s a ridiculous split for teams.”
“Why?” Sierra asked.
“Because Ethan and I are the only two with weapons. And you sent us both together.”
“Oh,” Sierra said with a bob of her head, “simple fix. Give us guns.”
Grant shook his head. “No. No one is getting a gun outside of the people who are trained to use a weapon.”
“Right, and that’s me, Ethan, and Julia.”
“And me,” James said with a raise of his hand. “In fact, there’s one in the car. I’ll run back and get it.”
Sierra’s eyes went wide as she glanced at Julia. “You know how to use a gun?”
Julia nodded as she took the key from her sister, snapped a picture of the engravings on the bow and sent them. “I do. But I really don’t think we need guns. Let’s just look around.”
James kissed Sierra’s cheek. “I’ll grab mine anyway. Be right back.”
“I’ll go with Dad and Julia,” Kyle said as Julia stepped toward the sitting room to their right.
“We’ll go left,” Alicia said. “Meet back here when we’re finished?”
“Yep,” Julia said, already scanning the room for any clues to anything that might involve the key.
“Hey!” Sierra said with a stamp of her foot. “Wait for me.”
“I thought you were waiting for James?” Kyle taunted.
“He can catch up. I don’t want to miss anything.” She pulled up the pictures on her phone and studied them. “It looks like the one in the middle is a book. Is there a library?”
“Not anymore,” Grant said as he grimaced at the charred furniture in the room.
“I’m not sure,” Julia said as she stepped further into the room. “I came in and went straight upstairs.”
Sierra frowned, wrapping her arms around her. “Is that where Lydia told you about…me?”
Julia twisted to offer her a tight-lipped smile. The memory of the horrific moments, both with Lydia and when she’d been trapped in the fire, flashing through her mind. She shook it away, focusing on the potential answers hidden in the library.
“Yeah. I’m sorry.”
Kyle slid an arm around Sierra. Sierra sucked in a breath before she shook him off. “Okay, I’m not that upset.”
“Just trying to be nice.”
“I don’t want your pity. I will take Julia’s though.”
Julia held in a giggle as she crossed to her stepdaughter and slid an arm around her. “Come on, let’s look for that library.”
“Okay,” Sierra said as she leaned her head against Julia’s. “Maybe through there.”
Julia followed the direction Sierra pointed, pushing open a set of double doors leading into a large library.
“Wow, this room is almost untouched,” Kyle said as they walked inside.
“That’s amazing. The fire was everywhere.” Grant’s fingers curled into fists at his side.
Julia rubbed his shoulder as Sierra left her side to explore the room.
He slid an arm around her as he pulled her close. “I do not have good memories of this place.”
“Me either,” she answered, her eyes rising to the ceiling as a rumble split the otherwise quiet night. Her gaze drift to an old portrait, a layer of film covering it, but the stern eyes of the subject pierced through the soot. An inexplicable chill whispered down her spine.
“What other symbols are on the key?” Kyle asked.
Sierra pulled her phone from her pocket and enlarged the picture. “Umm, it’s a creepy snake eating its own tail.”
“An ouroboros?” Julia asked.
“No,” Sierra said with a shake of her head, “a snake eating its own tail. Were you not listening?”
Kyle crinkled his brow, shooting Julia a glance.
“That’s what…never mind.” Julia shook her head.
“What does that have to do with anything in this library?” Kyle asked.
“Maybe it’s on a book,” Sierra suggested. “We should check all the books.”
Grant pulled Julia closer to him and wrapped his other arm around her. “You two do that. We’ll just wait here.”
“Fine, if you don’t want to have any fun, we’ll do it for you,” Sierra said as she stomped her way to the bookshelf with her cellphone’s flashlight lit.
She scanned one shelf before she sighed. “Ugh. Nothing.”
“Sierra, there are hundreds of books here,” Kyle answered. “You can’t go through one shelf and quit.”
“Well, if we had some help…” She shot a pointed glance at Julia and Grant.
“You’re the one who wanted to sleuth,” Grant answered.
“Not nice, Daddy. Not after what I’ve been through.”
He heaved a sigh as he let go of Julia. “Fine. We’ll help you.”
Julia kissed his cheek before she picked a bookshelf to search.
Grant crossed to another shelf and scanned the books. “This is a wild goose chase if you ask me.”
“We didn’t, Daddy, but thanks for your opinion.” Sierra stood on tiptoes as she peered at the shelf above her.
“I think Lydia just wanted to twist the knife one last time,” he said with a shake of his head.
“But look at the result. We’re like a real family. And you know what they say,” Sierra answered.
“What?” he asked.
“The family that sleuths together, stays together.”
Grant screwed up his face as she shot her a glance. “That’s not a saying. That’s never been a saying.”
“Sounds like a real saying to me,” Kyle answered, narrowing his eyes as he leaned closer to the books on the shelf below him.
“Of course, you’d agree with her,” Grant said with a sigh before he leaned closer to the shelf. “What does this symbol look like again?”
Julia snapped her gaze to him. “Did you find something?”
“Maybe.”
She hurried to his side, blowing up the image on the phone. She held it closer to the book he pointed at, and they studied it. Her breath caught in her throat. “It’s a match.”
“Pull on it!” Sierra said as she raced toward them.
“No, no, no,” Grant said, blocking her hand as Sierra reached for the book. “Don’t touch it.”
“What do you mean, don’t touch it?” Sierra asked. “That was the whole point in coming here.”
“We have no idea what this could do. Just…let the two cops here handle it.”
Sierra glared at him. “Touching a book isn’t going to hurt us.”
“You never know. Brushing her teeth nearly killed Julia,” he retorted.
“Step aside, Daddy. Let me handle this.” Sierra pushed between him and Julia and yanked on the book.
It slid out at an angle as a click resounded in the room and the bookcase popped toward them. Sierra bounced back a step, her jaw dropping open. With Kyle’s help, she tugged at the bookcase, pulling it backward to reveal a dark passage. She shot them a surprised grin. “We found a secret passage!”
Julia stared at the black hole where the bookcase had stood. Her heart hammered in her chest as she wondered if this led to answers or danger.