Chapter 13 - Fire
Smoke poured from the stairwell.
“Move!” Daniel shouted.
Richard lifted Maya and ran.
The basement door above them was already burning along one edge.
Graham had set the carriage house on fire.
Daniel grabbed a metal shelf and slammed it against a narrow basement window. Glass shattered outward.
“Richard, pass Maya through!”
Richard wrapped his tuxedo jacket around his daughter and lifted her toward the opening.
A detective outside pulled her free.
Victoria began coughing behind him.
“Go!” Richard shouted.
She stared at him.
For one second, something old and human broke through her polished face.
“I’m sorry.”
“Move!”
They climbed out as flames rolled across the ceiling.
Richard hit the frozen grass and crawled to Maya.
She was crying, but alive.
That was enough.
Fire crews arrived minutes later.
The carriage house was nearly destroyed.
Most of the paper evidence burned.
But Daniel had grabbed the PHASE THREE folder before escaping.
And one hard drive survived inside a fireproof evidence case.
At the ambulance, Victoria sat wrapped in a blanket with a detective beside her.
Richard approached.
“Where is Graham?”
“I don’t know.”
“You knew about the basement.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about the files.”
“Yes.”
“You knew what he planned for Maya.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“At first, I thought we were only going to make you dependent on me.”
Richard stared at her.
She continued. “Graham said if Maya seemed difficult, you’d lean on me. You’d need me. Then he showed me the trust.”
“And you stayed.”
Her silence answered.
Richard stepped back.
A detective hurried toward them holding a tablet.
“We pulled traffic cameras.”
Graham’s SUV had left the property through a utility lane.
It was heading south.
Toward Manhattan.
Daniel looked at Richard.
“Your company headquarters.”
May you like
Richard understood immediately.
“The original trust documents are in my office safe.”
