AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

on her gun.
    “Alex, you dumb … where are you?” She heard nothing in reply and looked at her terminal. It said no one was connected. She moved closer to the door and heard “Linda, I’m inside the house.”
    “Where?”
    “I’m in the kitchen looking at you.”
    “Did you go down into the cellar?”
    “What? No, this door was open. Somebody must have closed it.”
    “Oh sure. Liar.”
    “I swear, Linda, the door was open. I went in and when I went into the dining room, someone shut it.”
    “There’s no one here now. Maybe they went into the cellar.”
    “What cellar?” he asked.
    “There’s a door in the floor of the porch. It must lead to the cellar.”
    “How did you find it?”
    “It’s wide open, hard to miss.”
    “It wasn’t when I walked in.”
    “OK, well let’s not argue. I’ll just open the door … damn, it’s locked.” She jiggled the door handle for dramatic effect.
    “Big surprise. She trapped me in here on purpose.”
    “Don’t be stupid. How would she know?”
    Munroe had no answer to that. How could she know?
    “Why don’t you see if there’s another way out.” she said.
    “OK, let me look. Be right back.” A couple of minutes passed before he returned. “I’ve looked around the first floor. There doesn’t seem to be a way out. I might have found the door to the cellar, however.”
    “Why didn’t you go up to the second floor?”
    “I did go up to the second floor. There was only one open door, a bathroom. The window’s closed.”
    She put her head against the door and considered banging it. “Maybe an attic?”
    “I didn’t see stairs or a door. And what would I do, jump?” She decided against saying it would be unlikely to hurt him. “Maybe you could go down into the cellar,” he added.
    She sighed and in a mocking tone parroted him. “Maybe you could go down the cellar.”
    “What did you say?”
    “Nothing. All right, let me look.” She went to the cellar door and looked. Stairs led down to a darkened space. Oh yeah, go down into the dark cellar where there’s a homicidal madwoman who wants to wear my flesh as clothes. “Hello,” she yelled. “Anyone down there? I’m a police officer. I’d like to talk to you.” She felt really stupid. It was that kind of day. She took a deep breath and took her gun from its holster. She held it pointing down and prayed that she wouldn’t find anyone in the basement. Shooting an innocent homeowner in Colorado Springs would not look good.
    “I’m coming down your cellar stairs.” She carefully walked down the dark, steep stairs, using her outstretched arms to guide her. Instead of touching brick, she realized she was touching dirt. It wasn’t a finished basement, just a dug out space under the house. There were no windows and the only light came through the open door. She reached the bottom of the stairs, straining to see anything in the gloom when she heard a sound above her. She turned and saw shadows being cast through cracks between the slats of the porch above. Someone was walking on the porch. She ran up the stairs just in time for the door to catch her outstretched arm and throw her backward.
    She landed on her butt and thumped down the stairs, sliding headfirst. Luckily she kept her head tucked into her chest and avoided banging her head. She remained sprawled at the bottom, did a quick body inventory and determined that nothing was injured, other than her pride. “Hello, you closed the door on me, you asshole,” she yelled, “and I’m a cop and I’m very mad right now.” No one answered.
    She stood up carefully. She hadn’t dropped her weapon but as she didn’t plan to shoot blindly through the door, she returned it to her holster. Besides, maybe she’s deaf, she told herself. Right, that’s why he left a phone message. Duh.
    With the door closed, the only light came through the cracks in the flooring. She got out the LED flashlight attached to her key ring and shined it at the cellar door. She walked up the stairs again and pushed at the door, but it wouldn’t move. She shoved at it with her shoulders, but all she did was hurt her shoulder. She walked back down the stairs. The flashlight showed a room about 20 feet square. A gigantic metal octopus took up a major portion of the space. It was the original coal furnace and next to it was a more modern gas one. A water heater, the main sewer drain, two supporting pillars and another set of stairs were the other things she could