Chapter 6 - A Game of Shadows
At 4:00 AM, the rain turned into a thick, low-lying fog that blanketed Essex County.
Emma and Lily crept through the tree line surrounding Hillrest Manor, wearing black rain jackets and mud-spattered boots. Lily carried her camera with a telephoto lens, while Emma carried a crowbar taken from their garage.
The grand manor looked like a hulking beast in the mist. Standing near the side driveway was the black Bentley, its glossy paint dripping with water.
Beside the car stood a tall man in a dark tactical jacket, smoking a cigarette—Marcus Vance, Julian’s ruthless cousin.
“He’s guarding the car,” Lily whispered from behind a massive oak tree. “He must be waiting for the flatbed tow truck to arrive.”
“We need a distraction,” Emma whispered back. She looked down at the old drainage pipe protruding from the muddy embankment next to them—the same pipe that ran beneath the carriage house.
Emma pulled a heavy firecracker—leftover from the Fourth of July—from her pocket.
“You carried a firecracker?” Lily stared at her sister in disbelief.
“I keep options open,” Emma grinned faintly. She struck a match, lit the fuse, and shoved the firecracker deep into the metal drainage pipe before throwing dirt over the opening to amplify the sound.
Ten seconds later: BOOM!
The muffled explosion echoed through the pipe, sounding like a gunshot coming from the opposite side of the carriage house.
Marcus instantly dropped his cigarette, pulled a suppressed pistol from his holster, and ran toward the carriage house, his eyes wild.
“Go! Go!” Emma hissed.
The twins sprinted to the Bentley. Emma jammed the crowbar into the seam of the heavy trunk lid and put all her weight into it. The metal buckled with a sharp screech, and the latch popped open.
Inside lay a heavy black leather briefcase bound with double combination locks.
“Got it!” Lily reached in and snatched the heavy case.
“Hey!” a voice roared through the fog.
Marcus Vance had realized the trap. He was running back toward the car, raising his pistol. “Stop right there!”
“Run!” Emma screamed.
The twins bolted into the dense woods just as a quiet thwip-thwip of suppressed gunshots chipped the bark off the trees beside them. Wood splinters flew into the air.
They ran blindly through the fog, jumping over fallen logs and tearing through thorny briars. The sounds of Marcus’s heavy boots grew closer—he was an adult man with military training, and he was gaining on them rapidly.
Lily tripped over a slick tree root, sending the heavy briefcase sliding across the wet leaves. She hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her lungs.
“Lily!” Emma turned back, grabbing her sister by the jacket.
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Marcus emerged from the mist twenty yards away, his gun raised, a cold, vicious smile on his face.
“End of the line, kids,” Marcus sneered, leveling the weapon directly at Emma’s chest. “Give me the case, and maybe I’ll make it fast.”
