Chapter 15 - Fire in the Wrong Place
Jada drove toward the barns but stopped when she saw emergency vehicles at the gate. Smoke drifted from the west studio. A small electrical fire had been contained before reaching the wood storage racks.
Armand held her back. "Nobody goes in until the fire marshal clears it."
"The ballots were there."
"Then they may be evidence. You don't get to rescue evidence from a scene."
Theo stood under an umbrella, shaking. He had been working nearby and saw a white van leave just before the alarm. He gave the license plate to investigators. When asked whether he recognized the driver, he answered honestly: "No."
The fire marshal later reported that the blaze began in a damaged extension cord behind the kiln bench. The cause was still under investigation. Jada refused to tell reporters it was arson.
The ballots were gone, but their scanned originals remained with the independent jury chair, Dr. Amara Woods, who had personally collected them at the close of voting.
"Paper can disappear," Amara told the auditors. "Twelve votes from three jurors don't disappear from three separate accounts."
The scans matched each jury member's contemporaneous notes and the acceptance letters. For the first time, the foundation had independently corroborated the original list.
The next afternoon, an inspector discovered that the white van belonged to a storage service contracted by North Quay. The company's driver said he had been instructed to collect archived office boxes, not jury records, and produced the dispatch order.
Priya traced the dispatch to Martin's office.
Then a reporter sent Jada a photograph taken outside the manor on gala night. It showed Claire speaking with Martin and a third person whose face was mostly hidden.
On the third person's hand was an old ring Jada recognized from childhood.
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It belonged to Eleanor's nephew, David Ashe, the man entrusted with maintaining the property's records.
