Chapter 11 - THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE
Claire could barely speak.
“I was twenty-three. I was stupid.”
Sebastian stood frozen.
“What did you do?”
“I found files showing Victor had disabled the sprinkler upgrade.”
Victor interrupted.
“Temporarily.”
Claire glared at him.
“You saved money.”
She continued.
“I called Mara.”
Daniel stared.
“She met you there?”
“Yes.”
“We entered Bellweather after midnight. We thought the building was empty.”
Daniel whispered, “It wasn’t.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
Several tenants had refused to leave during renovation.
Four of them were still inside.
Claire and Mara reached the management office.
They copied records.
Then someone entered the building.
“Who?” Sebastian asked.
Claire looked at Victor.
“I thought it was him.”
Victor said nothing.
“We hid.”
Claire’s breathing quickened.
“We heard glass break.”
Then smelled gasoline.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Arson.”
“Yes.”
Claire continued.
“Mara ran upstairs to warn people. I pulled the alarm.”
“But the alarm system had been disabled,” Victor said.
Claire’s eyes filled.
“The fire spread too fast.”
Sebastian stepped backward.
Four people died.
The guilt on Claire’s face suddenly made sense.
“I should’ve gotten them out.”
“You didn’t start it,” Sebastian said.
“I brought Mara there.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Daniel asked, “Who started the fire?”
Claire reached into her torn jacket.
She removed a folded photograph.
“I took this that night.”
The picture showed a man beside the rear entrance carrying a red fuel can.
His face was partly turned.
Sebastian stared.
Daniel looked closer.
Victor’s voice became quiet.
“That is why I’ve spent eleven years trying to find B17.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“You didn’t start the fire.”
“No.”
“Then why cover it up?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Because the man who did controlled people far more dangerous than me.”
Daniel studied the photograph.
“I know him.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“Who?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Judge Malcolm Mercer.”
Sebastian frowned.
“Mercer?”
Daniel’s face emptied.
“My father.”
No one spoke.
Claire whispered, “Mara found out three days before she died.”
Daniel stared at the photograph of his father carrying gasoline toward a building where four people would die.
“No.”
Victor nodded.
“Your father had been taking money from contractors for years.”
Daniel shook his head.
“He was a judge.”
“He was a criminal.”
Daniel’s hands trembled.
Victor continued.
“Bellweather had records connecting him to the money. He burned the office to destroy them.”
Daniel looked ready to collapse.
“Why would Mara hide this from me?”
Claire answered gently.
“Because she knew what learning the truth about your father would do to you.”
Daniel looked at her.
“And Victor?”
Claire’s face hardened.
“Victor helped cover up the fire.”
Victor did not deny it.
“But there’s still one thing none of you understand,” he said.
Sebastian stared.
Victor looked toward the ceiling.
May you like
“The man threatening Lily isn’t me.”
A gunshot exploded upstairs.
