PART 5: THE PERSON TRAPPED INSIDE THE FIRE
“What do you mean someone is inside?” I asked.
“We received another emergency call from the same address,” the dispatcher said. “A man reported that he was trapped upstairs.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What man?”
“He identified himself as Robert Monroe.”
My father.
Rachel heard the name and immediately stood.
I stared at the black camera feed.
Dad had left Rachel’s office less than three hours earlier.
He had threatened me.
Now he was inside my burning lake house.
“Is he still on the line?” I asked.
“We lost contact with him. Fire and rescue units are approaching the property.”
“I’m driving there.”
“Do not enter the house when you arrive.”
I was already moving toward the door.
Rachel took my car keys.
“You’re in shock. I’ll drive.”
The trip to Evergreen felt endless.
I watched the dock camera while Rachel drove.
The orange glow spread from the kitchen toward the living room.
Smoke covered the windows.
Then a shadow appeared behind the glass upstairs.

Someone struck the window from inside.
Once.
Twice.
The glass cracked but didn’t break.
I pressed the microphone button even though I didn’t know whether the camera speaker could reach him.
“Dad!”
The shadow disappeared.
A fire engine finally entered the driveway.
Firefighters pulled hoses toward the house while two others raised a ladder to the second floor.
One shattered the upstairs window.
Black smoke poured through the opening.
The firefighter disappeared inside.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then a minute.
I stopped breathing.
Finally, two figures appeared at the window.
The firefighters pulled my father onto the ladder.
He was alive.
Before the ambulance left, a deputy called me.
“Your father has smoke inhalation and a head injury, but he was conscious when we removed him.”
“What happened to Vanessa?”
“We haven’t located her.”
“Her car is there.”
“We found footprints behind the house leading toward the county road. We believe another vehicle collected her.”
I thought of my mother.
“Check traffic cameras for my parents’ car.”
“We’re already doing that.”
When we reached the lake house, firefighters had contained most of the flames.
The kitchen was destroyed.
Half the roof had collapsed.
Water poured through the ceiling.
The cedar walls were blackened, and broken glass covered the porch.

The place no longer smelled like coffee and pine.
It smelled like smoke, chemicals, and wet ash.
A firefighter stopped me at the edge of the driveway.
“It isn’t safe to go inside.”
“Can it be saved?”
He looked toward the roof.
“The structure may be repairable, but there’s extensive damage.”
I nodded as if he had told me something ordinary.
Then I saw my father’s coat lying near the porch.
One sleeve was dark with blood.
A deputy placed the metal bar and fuel can into evidence bags.
“The surviving exterior camera captured the suspect arriving,” he said. “Your recording also captured her threatening you.”
“She knew my father was inside.”
“We’ll need his statement to establish that.”
“Why was he here?”
“We hoped you could tell us.”
I looked at the ruined house.
“He was probably trying to destroy something.”
A firefighter approached carrying a small black metal box.
“We found this beneath a loose floorboard in the upstairs office.”
The edges were scorched, but the box remained locked.
The deputy photographed it before taking custody.
“Do you know what’s inside?”
“No.”
But my father did.
That was why he had come.
At the hospital, Dad lay connected to oxygen.
A bandage covered the side of his head.
My mother wasn’t there.
When he saw me, he looked away.
“The house?” he asked.
“Still standing.”
He closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why were you inside?”
“I needed to get something.”
“The black box?”
His eyes opened.
“They found it?”
“Yes.”
He tried to sit up.
“You can’t give that to the police.”
“It’s already evidence.”
His face went pale beneath the soot.
“What’s inside?”
He looked toward Rachel.
She stood beside the door.
“You brought your lawyer?”
“Vanessa tried to burn down my house with you inside. This isn’t a private conversation.”
“She didn’t know I was there.”
“The dispatcher said you called from inside. Tell me what happened.”

Dad removed the oxygen mask.
“I went back for the records.”
“What records?”
“Cash payments. Account numbers. Copies of the documents Evelyn notarized.”
“Why hide them at my lake house?”
“Vanessa thought it was safer than keeping everything at home.”
“So you used my property to hide evidence of stealing my property.”
He closed his eyes again.
“I was going to destroy it.”
“Of course you were.”
“When I arrived, Vanessa was already there.”
“What was she doing?”
“Pouring fuel in the kitchen.”
“Did you try to stop her?”
“I told her the police had the cloud records. I said burning the house wouldn’t fix anything.”
“What did she do?”
“She demanded the box.”
“What was in it that she wanted?”
“Money.”
“How much?”
“Almost ninety thousand dollars.”
I stared at him.
“Where did ninety thousand dollars come from?”
“Cash from the rentals. Some of the buyer’s deposit. Money she didn’t report in the company accounts.”
“She hid ninety thousand dollars beneath my floor?”
“She was saving it in case everything collapsed.”
“And you went there to take it.”
“I wanted to return it.”
“No. You wanted to hide it before the police found it.”
His silence answered me.
“What happened after you refused to give her the box?”
“She hit me with the metal bar.”
My eyes moved to the bandage on his head.
“When I woke up, the room was filling with smoke. She had blocked the staircase with a cabinet.”
“She knew you were inside.”
He nodded.
“Say it.”
“Vanessa knew.”
“She tried to kill you.”
“She panicked.”
“Stop protecting her.”
“She’s Liam’s wife.”
“She left you to burn.”
His face crumpled.
For the first time, my father looked small.
“She said I was the reason everything had failed,” he whispered. “She said I had promised you would never fight back.”
“You all believed that.”
“We thought you’d be angry. We didn’t think you’d involve lawyers and police.”
“You thought I would forgive you.”
“We thought you’d protect the family.”
“You mean protect everyone except myself.”

A detective entered the room.
Her name was Sarah Kim.
She advised Dad of his rights and asked whether he was willing to provide a statement.
He looked at me before answering.
“If I tell you everything, will Anna drop the charges?”
“No,” I said.
His expression hardened again.
“You would send your own father to prison after I nearly died?”
“You nearly died while trying to destroy evidence of what you did to me.”
“I came back for the money.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“I could return it.”
“It was never yours.”
Detective Kim placed a recorder beside the bed.
“Mr. Monroe, are you willing to describe what happened at the lake house?”
Dad hesitated.
Then he looked toward the doorway.
“Where is my wife?”
“We’re attempting to locate her.”
“She isn’t answering.”
“When did you last speak to her?”
“Before I went to the lake.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I said I was getting the box.”
“Did she tell Vanessa?”
His mouth opened.
No sound came out.
“Did your wife know Vanessa was going to the house?” the detective asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Your wife’s car was recorded near the county road fifteen minutes after the fire began.”
Dad stared at her.
“Carrying a passenger,” Detective Kim continued. “The passenger matched Vanessa’s description.”
My mother had helped Vanessa escape.
Even after Vanessa tried to kill Dad, Mom had chosen to protect her.
“Where would they go?” I asked.
Dad shook his head.
“Your mother wouldn’t help her.”
“The traffic camera says otherwise.”
“She probably didn’t know what happened.”
“She picked up a woman running from a burning house.”
“She must have panicked.”
I laughed without humor.
“That word does a lot of work in this family.”
Detective Kim stepped closer to the bed.
“Mr. Monroe, we need possible locations.”
Dad stared at the blanket.
“She has a cousin in Colorado Springs.”
“Name?”

“Melissa Cross.”
The detective left to contact local officers.
Rachel and I waited in the hallway.
After several minutes, a nurse told us Dad was being transported for additional tests.
He would remain under police supervision.
My phone rang.
It was Liam.
“Is Dad alive?”
“Yes.”
“Was Vanessa there?”
“She started the fire.”
He went silent.
“Dad says she knew he was inside.”
“No.”
“The surviving camera recorded her. Police are looking for her.”
“Where’s Mom?”
“She picked Vanessa up.”
Another silence.
“Liam, tell me where they would go.”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“Vanessa has friends everywhere.”
“The police found the second phone at your house?”
“No. It was gone when they searched.”
“Can you track it?”
“She turned off location sharing months ago.”
“Do you know the number?”
He gave it to me.
Rachel forwarded it to Detective Kim.
Then Liam said something I couldn’t understand.
“What?”
“I said there’s another key.”
“To what?”
“Your Denver house.”
My body went cold.
“You told me Mom had a key for emergencies.”
“I changed the locks after my bag was stolen last year.”
“But you gave Dad a keypad code.”
I had.
I used a different code for each family member so I could identify who entered.
Dad’s code was still active.
I had forgotten about it because he hadn’t used it in more than a year.
I opened the security app.
The entry history appeared immediately.
ROBERT—FRONT DOOR—4:17 P.M.
The code had been used twelve minutes earlier.
Dad was lying in a hospital bed.
Someone else had entered my home using his code.
I switched to the living-room camera.
My mother stood beside the front window.
She kept checking the street.
Then Vanessa entered the frame.
Her coat was stained with soot.
A small cut crossed her cheek.
She carried Dad’s black briefcase.
“They’re in my house,” I said.
Rachel was already calling Detective Kim.
On the screen, Vanessa walked directly toward the hallway leading to my office.
Mom followed her.
“What are they looking for?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t know.”
We watched Vanessa remove a framed photograph from my office wall.
Behind it was a small safe.
Only three people knew it existed.
Me.
My mother.
And my father.
Mom entered the combination.
The door opened.
Vanessa reached inside and removed my passport, emergency cash, and a sealed envelope containing my updated will.
She tore it open.
Her eyes moved across the first page.
Then she looked at my mother.
“She changed it.”
Mom took the document.
“What does it say?”
“Liam gets nothing.”
My mother sank into the desk chair.
Vanessa continued reading.
“The houses go to a foundation. Her practice goes to the employees.”
“What are we going to do?”
Vanessa looked directly at the camera.
She knew I was watching.
A slow smile appeared on her face.
“We’re going to make her change it back.”
She reached up and turned the camera toward the wall.
Before the image disappeared, I heard my mother whisper, “She’ll come home after the hospital.”
Vanessa’s answer was calm.
“That’s exactly what I’m counting on.”…

Click Here to continue read next: PART6: I wanted to relax in my lake house, but my brother’s wife was already inside with her whole family and shouted