mother’s perfume mingled with fresh cigarette smoke. She whirled around just in time to see Gloria come through the small door that led to the patio. The surprise on her mother’s face quickly turned to suspicion and uneasy fear, “What the hell are you doing here?” “Where is he?” Meghan hissed. “Who?” “Danny.” “I have no idea.” “Yes you do. Gerry took him, I was with him when it happened and the car is here. Tell me where they are right now.” Meghan had a feeling that her mother would not tell her, and what was more she knew from hard experience that nothing said or down on the top floor could be heard in the cellar so she was not really concerned that someone would hear the two of them, she was trying to make up her mind what to do with her. “Get out of my house.” Gloria said casually and turned her back, reaching for the glass and bottle on the counter. “Did you use my money to keep living here?” The words were as lethally sharp as any knife. Gloria actually flinched. “ Your money,” she sneered as she reached for the bottle yet again, Meghan saw her hand tremble as she lifted it to pour another finger of the amber colored liquor into the heavy bottomed glass. “You know, that man is just some blue collar opportunist who turned petty thievery into millions.” “Unlike you and father, who turned millions into nothing with your thievery?” “I like that caustic tone on you. It makes you sound like you actually have a backbone.” “I do have a backbone.” The words were quiet but they rang with sincerity. Gloria’s eyes came to rest on the silver cuffs and her lips moved to form words but before she could the doorknob on the door she had entered through jiggled. Meghan slid to the right and grasped the doorknob for the door that opened the door to the cellar. She took one step into the inky darkness of the staircase and it was from there that she saw Gerry move into the room, his sullen and grim face as large as a moon over the pistol that gleamed dully in his right hand. “What…” was all Gloria managed to get out before Gerry fired. Shock was upstaged by terror. Meghan did not wait to see what would happen next, she reached out one shaking hand and shut the door, praying he had not noticed it being open. Instantly she was thrown into blackness so deep her senses were rendered momentarily useless. Her fingers fumbled at the knob, the click that was the lock sliding home made her sag in relief but that was shattered when a hard kick made the door rattle in its frame. She reached out blindly, scraping her nails across the rough walls until she found the banister. Her feet shuffled as she tried desperately not to lose her balance, the fall alone could kill her and she knew it. The stairs were pitched at a nearly direct angle but worse, the floors were cold and uncovered concrete. A second kick made her whimper in fear and she felt her knees start to shake. A thin high pitched whine followed by a loud noise that sounded like a hollow thud coupled with light pouring through a hole that had appeared in the door told her Gerry was shooting his way in. She ran, her feet slipping and her heart racing. She cleared the last stair just as the door caved in under the brutality and allowed him entry. “I know it’s you!” Gerry yelled. “Come on up here and I won’t have to do anything to you.” “You killed my mother!” Meghan screamed before she could help herself. “No, Meghan…” His words dripped with annoyance. “I saw you!” “She wasn’t your mother,” there was a slow chuckle from above her and Meghan ducked into the shelter of a small overhang that had been used to store small bags of fertilizer at one time. There was another whine and small chips of the plaster and brick from the wall splintered and flew. “Hell, you little bitch. You’re all grown up now; it’s time you knew. She wasn’t your mother and Tom…well, he