Chapter 27 #2
Daisy ran to the back door of the Pagets’ apartment which occupied the middle floor of the house. The ground floor was a fancy retail space they rented out to a realtor. Thankfully, the door was unlocked. She dashed inside, horrified to see their drapes already ablaze.
She’d fed their cat when Mr. Paget had needed to stay in the hospital overnight and Mrs. Paget had refused to leave him, so she knew the layout. She dashed to a door off the living room where they had their bedroom and burst inside.
What she saw made her stop cold. Despite the growing heat, ice invaded her veins.
The elderly couple both lay in bed, obviously dead. Strangled if the red marks around their necks were any indication.
Florence checked their pulses, took a photo, while Daisy stood frozen. What kind of monster would do such a thing?
The agent grabbed her arm. “They’re gone. We have to leave.”
The other woman began to drag her away. Then Daisy remembered Renfield.
“Wait.” She jerked away and searched the room quickly, under the bed, under the chair, in the wardrobe. “They have a cat. A black cat.”
Florence quickly searched the living room as Daisy ran into the kitchen. They were both coughing now. The smoke getting dangerously thick. She knew they had to get out of here fast. Oxygen deprivation was the biggest killer in house fires.
“Renfield.” She grabbed and shook the bag of the cat’s favorite treats, pieces scattering all over the counter and floor.
Finally, a ragged meow sounded at her feet.
She scooped him up and wrapped the fire blanket around him as he tried to escape, those sharp claws scratching at her skin until she was able to contain the furious beast.
“We have to get out of here,” Florence yelled. She went to the window and threw it open. A bullet smashed the glass and made the FBI agent leap aside. “But not that way.”
Florence jogged back to Daisy.
Daisy ran back onto the landing and looked down, but there was no escape that way. None at all. The flames were fierce now, like the inside of a forge. Heat blasted up the stairs.
“Back to my apartment,” she yelled.
They thundered up the stairs and closed the door behind them. Florence put towels against the base of the door as they both panted.
Daisy coughed. Dammit. They were trapped. The flames were too intense to go down. They couldn’t get out through the windows because of the shooter.
She thought she heard sirens.
Once the cops arrived, would Bocharov or his henchmen stick around? Maybe to pick them off while they were being rescued by some hot firefighter?
It was possible.
If she and Florence and Renfield didn’t move, they were certainly going to die.
Goddamn it. She refused to stand here and burn. It wasn’t her time. She wasn’t ready. It would wreck her dad when he’d just found happiness.
A thought hit her.
Maybe…
No.
It was too dangerous. Might not work. They might get shot. They might burn or fall. All the options were awful.
But what the hell.
It was probably the only chance they had, a slim one at that. Better than sitting here and waiting for the inevitable.
She wouldn’t give Bocharov that satisfaction. She’d rather die on her own terms than succumb to that fuckface’s evil plans.
She grabbed a rucksack and wrangled the frightened feline inside. The look of betrayal in his yellow eyes made her want to weep, but she was going to need both hands to hold on, and she needed Renfield secure. She clipped the security feature on the zipper so he couldn’t open it from the inside.
She grabbed her purse and stuffed her laptop inside. “This way.”
Florence grabbed her laptop bag, slung it over her shoulder and ran after Daisy even though she looked confused. She stopped short in the bathroom.
Daisy turned on the shower and was shocked when water came out the nozzle. She stepped under the spray which was warm and made sure the outside of the rucksack was drenched.
“I don’t understand…” But Florence followed suit, taking her glasses off before standing under the spray.
Daisy crouched at the hatch that led into the attic.
The board was nailed shut but not tightly. She sat on the floor and used both legs to kick it in.
Inside was small, dark, and hot as an oven. It was also full of cobwebs and spiders, but right now Daisy wasn’t about to let her distaste for arachnids, nor her fear of enclosed spaces, paralyze her.
“This way.”
She crawled through the narrow gap then dragged the pack behind her. Renfield was racing around inside the backpack like a Tasmanian Devil inside a dryer. She pulled the straps over her arms and onto her back and felt his claws strike flesh.
She gritted her teeth, edged cautiously along the center beam. It was so hot in here she felt as if her skin was starting to singe and the oxygen was evaporating.
“The skylight!” Cisco spotted the dirty glass up ahead.
Daisy moved faster, careful not to tread either side of the beam and fall through the ceiling.
They reached the old skylight, and Daisy shuddered in horror at the big, fat spiders that sat there.
Cisco had no such qualms. She batted them away, turned the handle, and shoved at the window.
It was stuck, and Daisy’s heart stuttered. It was getting difficult to breathe.
This time Daisy and Florence pushed together, and the window shot open.
Florence cupped her hands to hoist her up.
Daisy hesitated, but she was much shorter than Florence. Plus, the first one out got to test whether or not the shooter could spot them.
She hauled herself inelegantly through the opening and then wriggled onto her belly and turned back around, flattening herself against the slippery roof tile. Florence hauled herself up and out. Daisy grabbed the back of her pants to help drag her out onto the exposed roof.
They both lay there for a few seconds, panting hard. The skylight faced the back of the property, and they were sheltered from view by the apex of the roof.
Daisy crawled as far as she could to the right while Florence explored the left. She’d been hoping for some kind of multilevel roof or old-fashioned fire escape they could climb down.
There was nothing.
She and Florence stared at one another for a long moment. They’d made it outside, but there was no easy way off this roof. They were trapped.