Two Cars
Chapter 08 - Two Cars
Detective Castillo's patrol cars arrived at the Ashworth property at eight fifty-three, finding Sophie's car parked in the overgrown driveway and no lights visible inside the house itself.
"I want the property searched immediately," Castillo radioed her team. "We have a missing persons subject and a second individual potentially inside, both unresponsive to communication."
Officers approached the front entrance, finding the door unlocked, the hallway dark except for a single, dim bulb burning near the back of the house.
At the same moment, a second vehicle's headlights appeared on the access road behind them, and Castillo turned to see a dark sedan she didn't recognize pulling slowly toward the property.
Marcus Webb parked at a careful distance, clearly not expecting the police presence, his headlights catching the patrol cars' reflective markings before he could fully commit to the driveway.
He sat in his car for exactly three seconds before reversing sharply, tires spinning on gravel, attempting to leave the way he'd come.
Castillo's partner intercepted him at the road's narrow exit, blocking the sedan's retreat with the patrol vehicle positioned across both lanes.
"Out of the car," Castillo called, badge visible, weapon drawn but pointed carefully downward. "Now."
Marcus emerged slowly, hands raised, his face carrying the specific, resigned composure of a man who understood, all at once, that the careful arrangement he'd maintained for nineteen days had just collapsed entirely.
Inside the house, officers followed the sound of metallic pounding to the storage room's locked door, the heavy brass bolt still firmly in place on the outside.
"Police! Is anyone inside," an officer called.
Sophie's voice answered immediately, raw with relief. "We're in here! Both of us! My grandmother and me!"
The bolt slid open. The door swung wide.
Sophie emerged first, supporting Eleanor's weight against her own shoulder, both of them blinking against the sudden, overwhelming brightness of the hallway after hours in near-darkness.
"She needs medical attention," Sophie told the officers. "She's been in there for nineteen days. The man who did this, his name is Marcus Webb. He's the family's estate manager."
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"We have him," Castillo said, appearing at the end of the hallway. "In custody. He tried to leave the moment he saw our cars."
Eleanor sagged against her granddaughter, the specific, complete relief of finally, after nineteen days, being in the presence of someone actually capable of helping her.
