Chapter 8 - Fire Again

“Window!”

Diego grabbed a chair and smashed the glass.

The detectives forced the bedroom door.

It would not open.

Someone had wedged it from outside.

Smoke thickened.

Diego lifted Valentina through the broken window.

A detective caught her outside.

Then Lucia.

Then Marisol.

Diego climbed out last.

Flames appeared in the hallway seconds later.

Someone was repeating the same method used at the mansion.

Destroy the evidence.

Destroy the witnesses.

A car engine roared beyond the vineyard.

One detective ran toward the road.

Too late.

Diego looked at the recorder in his hand.

He had kept it.

Whoever started the fire had failed.

Then Lucia pointed toward an upstairs window.

“Elena!”

A woman appeared behind the glass.

Her wrists were tied.

Diego ran back toward the house.

Marisol grabbed him.

“The stairs are burning!”

He looked around.

An old maintenance ladder rested against a shed.

Diego dragged it to the wall.

He climbed.

Heat rolled through the broken window.

Elena was barely conscious.

Diego pulled her toward him.

The roof cracked.

He got her onto the ladder.

A firefighter unit from town arrived as flames spread across the upper floor.

Minutes later, Elena was outside.

Alive.

She opened her eyes.

She saw Lucia.

“My baby.”

Lucia ran to her.

Elena hugged her tightly.

Then she saw Marisol.

Her expression collapsed.

“I’m sorry.”

Marisol knelt beside her.

“You saved her.”

“I stole nine years from you.”

“You kept her alive.”

Elena cried.

Diego crouched beside them.

“Who started the fire?”

Elena looked at him.

“Rafael.”

Diego frowned.

“Rafael Serrano died three years ago.”

Elena shook her head.

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