Chapter 8 - The Garage Explosion
When I pulled into the driveway, the passenger door of my car was already flying open before I had even shifted into park. Thick, dark smoke was billowing out from under the garage door, carrying the unmistakable, sharp stench of black powder and burning plastic.
“Daniel!” I shrieked, sprinting across the icy lawn.
Before I could reach the side door, a muffled, concussive boom echoed from within the garage. The force of the blast blew the side door completely off its hinges, sending splintered wood flying across the driveway.
Through the smoke, a figure staggered out into the freezing air, coughing violently, covered in soot and ash.
“Daniel!” I threw my arms around him, pulling him away from the burning structure as flames began to lick up the drywall inside.
“I’m okay... I’m okay,” he coughed, his jacket singed at the shoulder. “I dropped the box just as it ignited. It was rigged with a friction-sensitive primer cap connected to the vintage ornament latch. He wanted the whole house to go up.”
Sirens wailed in the distance as the local fire department and police backup arrived simultaneously. Firefighters immediately swarmed the garage with hoses, beating back the hungry flames before they could spread to the main house.
Officer Vance stepped out of his cruiser, his face grim as he looked at the smoking wreckage.
“We heard the dispatch,” Vance said, walking over to us as paramedics rushed up with thermal blankets. “Is everyone alright?”
“He tried to burn our house down,” Daniel said, his voice shaking with a mix of grief and fury. “My own father tried to kill us.”
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Vance pulled a small, heavy plastic evidence bag from his coat pocket and held it up to the light of the emergency vehicle. Inside was a charred, half-melted metal trigger mechanism, stamped with a serial number matching the ones found in Richard’s hunting cabin ledger.
“This seals it,” Vance said quietly. “Attempted murder of a minor, domestic terrorism, and multiple counts of arson and premeditated assault. With the ledger, the rigged box, and his confession in the interrogation room, the prosecutor is going to throw the book at him. He’s never seeing the outside of a cell again.”
