Chapter 10 - The Locked Freezer
The refrigeration corridor was designed to seal automatically during chemical leaks.
Elias had triggered the emergency system.
The steel door could not be opened from the outside without a mechanical override located in the basement.
The temperature inside began dropping.
Detective Torres sent officers downstairs.
Samuel Reed was cut free.
He could barely walk, but he refused medical treatment until he spoke with me.
“Elias lied about Daniel’s father.”
“Why?”
“To make you hesitate.”
“Did Dad hire you because of Daniel?”
Samuel looked toward the command van.
“Richard hired me because Margaret was meeting someone from his past.”
“Elias?”
“No.”
“Someone with access to probate records and medical files.”
“Who?”
Before Samuel could answer, an explosion shook the lower floor.
Smoke rose through the stairwell.
Elias had prepared the basement.
The override mechanism was now buried behind burning debris.
The timer showed six minutes.
From inside the freezer, Mom began pounding on the steel.
“Claire.”
“Please.”
Her voice traveled through the emergency intercom.
Elias was shouting somewhere behind her.
They were fighting.
Torres ordered everyone away from the door.
Daniel’s voice came through my earpiece.
“Manual vent.”
“What?”
“Ceiling diagram.”
He had accessed Halcyon Foods’ archived building plans from Dad’s files.
A ventilation shaft connected the freezer to the loading dock.
It was too narrow for an adult.
But electrical cables ran through it to the internal release.
A police robot could enter if someone guided it.
Daniel studied the diagram.
“Left at first split.”
“Right after fan.”
“Cable marked R-Seven.”
The robot disappeared into the vent.
We watched its camera feed on a portable monitor.
Frost covered the metal walls.
The fan blades had stopped.
At the first split, the passage divided into three identical tunnels.
“Left,” Daniel repeated.
The operator followed his directions.
Inside the freezer, the pounding became weaker.
Mom said my name again.
Then Elias’s voice replaced hers.
“She killed your father.”
“I only changed the medication.”
“She doubled the dose.”
Mom screamed at him to stop.
He kept talking.
“She wanted the death to happen before Richard met the trustee.”
The robot reached a cluster of cables.
“Which one?” the operator asked.
Daniel zoomed in.
“R-Seven.”
The labels were covered in frost.
Only fragments remained visible.
Daniel studied the cable positions.
“Third from bottom.”
The robot cut the wire.
Nothing happened.
The timer reached one minute.
“Wrong wire,” an officer said.
Daniel shook his head.
“Wait.”
A red light changed to green.
The steel door unlocked.
Officers pulled it open.
Mom collapsed into their arms.
Elias ran deeper into the freezer and climbed through a rear maintenance hatch.
Torres pursued him.
I knelt beside Mom.
Her lips were blue.
Her eyes found mine.
“I never wanted Daniel hurt.”
Behind us, Samuel answered.
“You just needed everyone to believe he was dangerous.”
Mom’s hand closed around my sleeve.
“Samuel is lying.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
She looked toward Daniel’s tablet in my bag.
For the first time, she understood that he had heard everything.
Her face crumpled.
“Your father was going to leave me.”
May you like
A gunshot echoed from the maintenance tunnel.
Then Detective Torres’s radio went silent.
