Chapter 17 - The Last Fire
Nothing happened.
Rafael pressed the button again.
Daniel held up his phone.
"Looking for the signal? I killed the chapel's wireless relay before we came in."
Rafael stared at him.
Then everyone smelled gasoline.
Detective Chen shouted, "Out!"
A thin line of flame appeared beneath the door to the side vestry.
Rafael had prepared a second fire before they arrived.
Smoke rolled along the ceiling.
Camila froze.
For an instant she was nineteen again, trapped by fear and memory.
Mara grabbed her hand.
"Look at me. We're leaving together."
That broke the spell.
They moved toward the main doors.
Rafael ran the opposite direction toward a rear exit.
Sofia saw him disappear behind the altar.
"He's getting away!"
Chen radioed the officers outside.
A burning beam cracked overhead and fell across the center aisle, separating Sofia from Mara and Camila.
Heat punched through the chapel.
"Sofia!" Mara screamed.
"Go!"
Sofia moved toward the side aisle, but a pew had collapsed.
Then Rafael reappeared through the smoke.
For one insane second, Sofia thought he had come back to help.
He hadn't.
He was reaching for the black ledger in Camila's hands.
"Give it to me!"
Camila stepped back.
"Twenty years, Rafael. You still think paper is the thing that can destroy you."
He lunged.
Mara shoved the ledger to Daniel and pulled Camila away.
Rafael missed, lost his footing, and crashed into a pew.
Police officers entered through the rear door and dragged him out.
Daniel and Chen helped Sofia over the fallen bench.
They escaped seconds before flames reached the roof beams.
Outside, Camila sank onto the grass, coughing.
Mara knelt beside her.
Firefighters rushed past them.
Rafael sat handcuffed beside a patrol car.
This time no lawyer could make the scene disappear.
Detective Chen walked toward Sofia holding Rafael's remote in an evidence bag.
"There's something else," she said.
"What?"
"The remote wasn't only connected to the chapel."
She showed Daniel the device.
He turned it over.
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On the back was a label.
BLUE ROOM.
