Family by Matthew Costello

Author:Matthew Costello [Costello, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Murder, home, family, vacation, matthew, jack murphy, costello, matthew costello
Publisher: 13Thirty Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

The House

Christie let Kate and Simon stay in the car, engine off, doors locked, while she went to the front door.

Locked, of course.

Which was a good thing. The door locked… might mean that someone could still be living here.

On that off chance—such a weird idea—she pressed the buzzer, which worked. She heard the near-absurd sound of deep chimes for the doorbell, as if Big Ben was tolling inside.

She waited, giving her kids a look, a smile. Then she rapped hard on the door.

Then again.

And the idea that someone was still here faded.

The house had been—for some unknown reason—spared.

But like the rest of the battle scene that was this town, it was abandoned.

Now, she thought, how to get in?

Until she felt a tap behind her.

She gasped, her nerves compete on edge.

To see Kate.

“Mom, can I help?”

Christie shook her head. “No. You should stay in the car, with your brother, and…”

Then, standing in the small pool of light made the doorway light, she nodded.

We’re together, she reminded herself.

“Okay. It’s locked. I’m guessing any back door will be as well.”

“So how do we get in?”

“We could… well, I saw it done on TV… break the glass, unlock the door from the inside.”

But Kate looked at the nearest window.

“Pretty cold, Mom. We’d have a hole in the window.”

Right, Christie thought.

She wanted to find a place that was intact. Maybe not a good idea to start putting holes in it.

“Right.”

She bent down and looked at the lock. “I saw your dad do something once. We came in our back door, didn’t have a key. He slipped in a credit card…”

Credit card, she thought. Everyone had them. Now—how useless.

“…between the door and the frame. Could use it to get the lock open.”

“Think that will work here?”

Christie was aware how cold it was getting. Been chilly all day, but the car had a heater.

But standing here, night falling, it seemed to grow ever more frigid. If they were going to get in, they better do it soon.

Then, “No. This has a dead bolt. No credit card can open that.”

“But the back door?”

Christie turned to her daughter.

That could be a different story.

Heavy lock for the front. A kitchen door, though… could maybe just be a simple, door handle lock.

“Worth a try, Kate. Either that, or we’ll just have to smash one of the windows.”

She looked over to the car where all seemed still, Simon still sleeping. Then a glance out to the dead end street, the nearby houses.

All quiet.

“I’ll do it,” Kate said.

“No, it’s tricky, Kate, I think—”

“Have you ever done it, Mom?”

Christie shook her head.

“And with all that snow you’d have to walk through back there…”

The logic… irrefutable. Christie nodded.

“Think I still have a card or two in my purse.” She sniffed at the cold air. “Souvenirs.”

Kate smiled.

With every day Kate becoming more her partner in this, less a daughter.

But no, never less a daughter. But clearly something more.

Kate hurried back to the car for her mother’s wallet.

Then Kate took the card after Christie described the process as best she could.

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