Chapter 12 - Fire in the Shed
The first smell was gasoline.
"Out!" Ethan shouted.
Maya grabbed the laptop while Rosa ran for the door.
Flames climbed the outside wall before they reached the yard.
Someone had poured fuel along the shed and ignited it from the back.
Ethan shoved Rosa away from a collapsing beam.
They stumbled onto the grass as the roof caught.
A black SUV tore away beyond the hedge.
Maya coughed into her sleeve.
"Tell me you backed up the drive."
"Not yet."
She held up the laptop.
"Then this is now the most expensive computer in America."
Detective Chen watched security footage from the outer gate.
The SUV's plate was obscured, but one frame showed the driver.
Travis Keene.
By dawn, warrants were moving.
Grant vanished.
Nora's attorney claimed she had no idea where he was.
Dr. Vale stopped answering calls.
Then the laboratory confirmed the substance in Ethan's tea matched the toxic compound found in the green bottle.
Chen arrested Nora at her lawyer's office for attempted poisoning, evidence tampering, conspiracy, and child endangerment.
Nora remained calm as officers cuffed her.
"Ethan is making a mistake," she said.
"You tried to poison me."
"You think this was my plan?"
He stared at her.
For the first time, fear appeared beneath her anger.
"Grant doesn't leave loose ends," she said. "He never has."
Chen stepped between them. "Save it for your attorney."
Nora leaned around her.
"Ask yourself why Claire's car failed after she found Grant's ledger. Ask yourself why the same man who touched her car took Lily."
Ethan said nothing.
Nora's voice dropped.
"And ask why Grant kept you alive for months instead of killing you quickly."
That question followed Ethan all the way home.
Maya found the answer before noon.
She called from Mercer Systems.
"Ethan, Grant couldn't inherit your shares if you died under suspicious circumstances. But if a court declared you incompetent, he could control them through the emergency voting agreement."
"So he needed me alive."
"Alive and helpless."
May you like
A pause.
"There is one more thing. The transfer window opens tomorrow morning. If Grant gets access to the treasury system, he can move almost eighty million dollars before anyone stops him."
