Chapter 33 - The Fire Door
Camille called emergency services while Nora searched the dark storage unit for another exit.
Smoke thickened rapidly.
The main rolling door was hot to the touch.
Commissioner Harrow stood frozen beside the box of childhood photographs.
“Leave it,” Nora shouted.
He refused.
Nora grabbed the letter and two files while Camille located a fire door hidden behind stacked cabinets.
It had been chained from the outside.
Someone had known they were inside.
Camille found a metal shelf bracket and struck the latch repeatedly. Harrow joined her, using the heavy base of the tape recorder.
The chain finally broke.
They emerged into a narrow alley as flames spread across the roof.
A white truck accelerated away from the rear parking lot.
Nora photographed its license plate, but mud covered the numbers.
Firefighters saved part of the building, though most records in Unit 214 were destroyed.
The files Nora carried proved Helen’s confinement. Harrow had saved the photographs and Lydia’s letter.
Camille had taken the most important item: a ledger naming every official who received money.
At the hospital, a police detective questioned them separately.
The detective appeared professional until Nora mentioned Dr. Mason Whitmore.
His expression changed.
“Mason Whitmore died years ago.”
“That doesn’t erase what he did.”
The detective closed his notebook.
“Old family disputes are not evidence of arson.”
Camille demanded another investigator.
He refused.
When he left, Harrow identified him as the son of one of the officials named in Lydia’s ledger.
The corruption had survived into another generation.
Harrow made a decision.
He called a press conference for the following morning.
“I will admit who I am,” he said. “Then I will release the county records.”
Camille warned that he could lose his office and face investigation for decisions made under a false identity.
“I have signed documents with a name that was stolen from a dead child.”
“You did not choose that.”
“No, but I benefited from it.”
Nora understood what the confession would cost him.
She also understood why someone had tried to burn them alive.
Once Harrow spoke publicly, every fraudulent property transfer connected to Briarwood could be exposed.
At midnight, Camille received an email.
Attached was a photograph of Elsie sleeping upstairs.
May you like
The message contained one sentence:
Cancel the press conference, or the next fire begins inside the house.
