Chapter 15 - Fire at Rowan Mill
Sirens lit the road red and blue. Ortiz ordered Adrian and Tessa to remain behind the police line while firefighters forced their way toward the warehouse. The old mill stood beside a flooded loading yard, its brick windows black with soot.
"Someone set this," an officer said, staring at the flames crawling along the upper office.
Ortiz nodded but didn't guess who. "Secure the perimeter. Keep everybody back."
A worker stumbled out coughing. He had been hired that afternoon to remove furniture. He pointed toward the loading area. "There's a guy inside. He went back for a red cabinet!"
"Who is it?" Tessa asked.
"The mill's old caretaker," Ortiz said after checking with an officer. "Gideon hired him to clear out the building. Keep back."
The firefighters entered through a side door. Adrian could hear timbers popping overhead. He remembered Willa's face when she saw Tessa behind the roses: the look of a child who understood adults were lying but didn't know how much danger the truth could carry.
"I want to go in," he said.
Tessa caught his sleeve. "Don't make me watch someone I love run into a fire today. Please."
He stayed. It was the hardest good decision he'd made in years.
Minutes later, firefighters helped the caretaker out with a red metal cabinet, its paint blackened and its handle melted.
"He told me to destroy it," the man coughed. "I couldn't. Then the smoke came."
Ortiz looked toward the far gate. A black sedan was pulling away fast, its rear tire spraying puddles across the road.
May you like
An officer read the license plate over the radio.
It belonged to Gideon Ashcroft.
