Chapter 7 - The Chief's Betrayal
Clara burst into genuine, overwhelming tears, burying her face in her son’s shoulder. Owen dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms fiercely around both of them, weeping with profound, earth-shattering relief.
"How did you survive?" Owen choked out, pressing his forehead against hers. "Miller said the car exploded on impact."
"It did," Clara whispered, wincing in pain as she held her husband. "But I realized my brakes were cut a mile before the cliff. I jumped out of the driver's side door into the ravine right before the car went over the edge. I watched it burn from the trees."
Clara explained that she had successfully downloaded Miller's encrypted offshore banking ledgers onto a flash drive just hours before the crash. The documents proved the Police Chief was actively laundering millions of dollars for an international trafficking syndicate.
"I couldn't go to the hospital, and I couldn't go to the local precinct," Clara explained breathlessly. "Miller controls everything. I knew he would try to fake my death to close the investigation. So I hid here. I knew you would come to the cemetery today, and I knew it was the only place Miller wouldn't expect me to be breathing."
Suddenly, the heavy, suffocating silence of the shed was violently shattered.
Heavy, aggressive footsteps crunched loudly on the gravel right outside the steel door.
Someone had followed them.
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Owen stopped breathing. The air in his lungs violently turned to absolute ice. He stepped protectively in front of his wife and son, grabbing a heavy steel crowbar from a nearby workbench.
👉 What terrifying monster is waiting on the other side of the door?
