Chapter 5 - Cornered in the Daylight
Gregory Vance stared down through the shadows, his eyes locking onto my uniform badge. For two full seconds, the mask of the friendly school volunteer flickered across his face—a practiced smile attempting to form, an apologetic hand half-raised. ""Officer Dunham?"" he stammered, his eyes darting quickly from my chest to the open steel drawer behind me. ""What on earth are you doing down here? The front door was unlocked, I assume? Did Leo leave it open again? That boy has a terrible habit of wandering off."" He took a casual half-step backward up the stairs, testing the distance between himself and the kitchen exit. ""Don't move another inch, Gregory,"" I stated clearly, keeping my feet planted wide on the concrete floor. ""Keep your hands where I can see them and come down to the base of the stairs. Slowly."" His polite facade shattered in an instant. The false warmth vanished from his eyes, replaced by a cold, calculating glare. ""You're off your beat, Officer,"" he said softly, his voice dropping into a harsh rasp. ""You have no warrant. You're trespassing in a private residence. Any lawyer in Portland will have this entire room thrown out of court before dinner."" He didn't know Liam was tucked safely out of sight behind the metal cabinet. Vance made a sudden, desperate lunge upward toward the kitchen door, intending to slam it shut and bolt the heavy backward deadbolt from the outside, trapping us beneath the floor. But I had already anticipated the move. I cleared the stairs three steps at a time, catching the heel of his shoe just as he reached the top landing. Vance kicked back violently, catching me across the collarbone, but I held the grip, using my momentum to drive forward and sweep his legs out from under him. We tumbled onto the kitchen linoleum in a tangle of limbs, a ceramic mug on the counter crashing to the floor and shattering into dozens of sharp white shards.
