The searchlight blinded them, turning the rain into stinging needles of white light. “Stay where you are!” the man shouted from below.

“We can’t go down, and we can’t go back,” Emma whimpered.

“We go up,” Michael said, looking at the steep pitch of the roof. “If we can get to the chimney, there’s a lightning rod we can use to steady ourselves. There’s a crawlspace vent on the other side of the house!”

With the precision of a mountain climber, Michael helped Aiden onto the slippery shingles. They crawled upward, their fingers clawing at the wet wood. Below them, they heard a massive crash—the villains had finally breached the attic door, shoving the heavy trunk aside.

“They’re on the roof!” the man in the trench coat yelled from the attic window.

The children reached the massive brick chimney just as a hand reached out of the window and grabbed Michael’s ankle.

“Gotcha!” the man hissed.

“Let him go!” Aiden yelled, swinging his walking stick with all his five-year-old might. He whacked the man’s knuckles, causing him to howl and release his grip.

They scrambled around the chimney, hidden from view for a brief moment. Michael pulled the brass compass from his pocket. It wasn’t spinning anymore. It was pointing straight down… into the chimney?

“The map!” Olivia gasped, looking at the vellum. “The ‘Lookout Tower’ isn’t a building in the woods. This house is the tower! The chimney has a hidden flue!”

Michael felt around the brickwork until his fingers found a loose stone. He pulled, and a narrow iron ladder revealed itself inside the soot-stained darkness of the chimney.

“Down! Quick!” Michael urged. One by one, they disappeared into the dark. But as the last of them entered, the man in the trench coat appeared around the corner of the chimney, a cruel smile on his face as he reached for the hidden lever.

Read more at Hartman Mysteries