Diane sniffed. “Gunpowder?”
“No.” Olivia shook her head. “That was my first thought but it’s…”
“Smoke’s billowing through a doorway in front of us,” Diane said. “There has to be a fire up ahead.” She looked behind her at the stairs. More pungent smoke was curling from that direction. “And behind us.”
It suddenly hit Olivia. “This is too much like another one of Kendra’s cases … I remember the killer burned people alive in their homes, sometimes after sealing them inside.”
“Myatt’s set the house on fire,” Diane said. “My lungs are burning from the smoke. Get down. Close to the floor…”
She and Olivia dropped to their knees beside Nelson and scrambled across the floor. They coughed and breathed through their sleeves in a vain attempt to filter the smoke.
“We can’t barricade ourselves down here. Scratch that plan. But there’s a way to get out of here,” Diane said. “I think I saw an exit that led to the woods when we were touring the house.”
“Then let’s find it,” Olivia gasped, her lungs searing. “I hear the flames. Do you see them yet?”
“Can’t see—” Diane barely managed to choke out her words. “Too much smoke. I can’t tell which way to go. It’s like a maze down here.”
But they couldn’t just stay here, Olivia thought. They had to find a way out, or they’d be unconscious in minutes. Think. Find a way.
She suddenly stiffened as a thought came to her.
“Maybe…” She unzipped her knapsack. “Pray for American ingenuity and just plain luck, Diane.”
“American ingenuity?”
Olivia was no longer listening. She could do this.
God, she hoped she could do it.
She felt around in her knapsack until she located her plastic sample pack. She opened it and felt inside, trying to touch each product and identify.
There it was. She’d located the object she’d been looking for. Finally, she pulled a contraption that resembled aviator sunglasses with attached earbuds. She put the glasses on her face and inserted the foam earbuds.
“What are you doing?” Diane coughed.
“It’s a gadget I’m reviewing. I hadn’t gotten around to testing it. It appears I’m going to do it now. I’m sure the inventor didn’t mean it to be used for a situation like this. It uses sonar…” She started crawling. “Follow me.”
With Olivia as their guide, they pushed on through the black smoke, navigating the twists and turns past the laundry room, spare bedrooms, and recreation room.
Even as visibility dropped close to zero, Olivia could hear the glasses emitting a series of beeps that distinguished between walls and passageways every time she turned her head. She stopped as she was about to take a right turn. She placed her hand against the wall. “This one’s warm. Quick, the other way.”
They retraced their steps through the poisonous fog until Olivia found another hallway that would take them into the TV room.
“There’s no outside door here, but I remember a window across the room.” Diane quickly closed the hall door behind them.
Diane turned on her phone, and the illumination was just enough for them to see to make their way to the room’s single window, some six feet over the floor. Diane dragged a stool over, climbed onto it, and slid open the window.
Fresh air blew into the smoky room.
“Careful,” Nelson said. “He may be out there. We have no idea which side of the property he’s at right now.”
Diane crouched lower and coughed again as more smoke poured into the room from the hall, smothering the fresh air from the window. “Well, we can’t stay in here.”
Nelson pulled out his gun. “I’ll go first. Then I can cover you if I need to.”
Olivia looked at him skeptically. “Can you make it?”
“Yes.” He sounded indignant, but he winced as he climbed on the stool. “It will be painful, but I can do it. It’s my job. And the two of you have had to treat me like a basket case.” He peered through the window, then hoisted himself up and through it. He rolled onto the ground just a foot below the outside of the window. He took cover behind a bush outside, then motioned for Diane to join him.
“Olivia, he just gave us the sign,” Diane said. “You first.”
“No.”
“This isn’t the time to argue, dammit.”
“No arguments. You’re not as young as I am. I’ll help steady you. Then you guys can pull me out if I need it.”
“Okay.” Diane pulled herself through the window. “But I’m insulted that you think I’m decrepit. I’ll get you for that.” She started to turn around but heard a coughing behind her that told her that Olivia had already climbed out the window.