Chapter 10 - The Sirens on the Ridge
Sarah crawled forward on her hands and knees, her vision swimming from the blow to her head. Julian stood frozen behind her, his small body shivering uncontrollably in the icy rain.
Beneath the pier, the dark waves crashed violently against the wooden pilings. Eleanor’s soaked, heavy dress was acting like an anchor, pulling her down into the freezing lake. Her knuckles were white as she clung to the slippery beam with one hand, refusing to let go of the flash drive in the other.
""Drop the drive and give me your other hand!"" Sarah shouted over the roar of the wind, extending her arm toward the drowning woman. ""Eleanor, let it go!""
""No! It's mine! Everything is mine!"" Eleanor choked out, water splashing over her face. Her grip was slipping, inch by inch, off the algae-covered timber.
""Mommy died down there,"" Julian whispered from behind Sarah, his voice trembling with a child’s bottomless sorrow. ""She pushed Mommy just like she pushed me.""
Eleanor looked up, her face twisted in a monstrous grimace of hatred. ""Your mother was weak! She didn't deserve any of it!""
With a sickening crunch of wet wood, the beam splintered. Eleanor’s fingers lost their purchase.
Sarah lunged forward, her hand clamping around Eleanor’s wrist just in time. The immense weight of the drowning woman jerked Sarah forward, nearly pulling her over the edge into the depths.
""Pull me up!"" Eleanor shrieked.
""Drop the drive!"" Sarah ordered, her muscles screaming in agony as she braced her boots against the pier’s crossbeam. ""I can't lift you with one hand! Drop it!""
Eleanor looked down at the swirling black void beneath her, then up at Sarah. Greed and malice warred in her eyes, until finally, self-preservation won. She opened her fist.
The silver flash drive slipped from her fingers, tumbling end over end into the dark, bottomless lake, vanishing beneath the waves forever.
""Now grab my arm!"" Sarah grunted, leaning further over the edge.
Eleanor reached up, her wet fingers locking around Sarah’s forearm. Sarah pulled with every ounce of strength remaining in her exhausted body, dragging Eleanor’s upper torso back onto the wooden deck.
At that moment, the piercing wail of police sirens tore through the stormy night.
Blinding red and blue emergency lights swept across the pine trees above the boathouse. Headlights flooded the pier as three patrol cruisers and an ambulance skidded to a halt on the gravel turnout.
Eleanor collapsed onto the planks, coughing and weeping hysterically. Armed officers charged down the dock, weapons drawn, shouting commands into the wind.
""Drop to your knees! Put your hands where we can see them!""
Sarah sank back against the railing, wrapping her arms tightly around Julian, who buried his head into her soaked shoulder.
""We're safe, Julian,"" Sarah whispered, tears finally escaping her eyes. ""We're safe now.""
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A paramedic rushed forward, throwing a thick thermal blanket over them both. But as the officers handcuffed Eleanor and pulled her to her feet, Sarah looked toward the lake.
Marcus Thorne’s body had not surfaced. And the evidence on the drive was buried in sixty feet of silt.
