Chapter 16 - What the Fire Took
I replayed the lobby recording twice before I let myself cry. Not because I doubted what I'd heard. Because a small part of me had still wanted Carlos to be innocent of what happened to Mom.
"We need to let the investigators handle this," Adrienne said gently.
"I know." I wiped my face. "But for eight years he let me believe the fire was an accident. He watched me blame myself."
Tess brought the papers she'd rescued to Adrienne's Manila office. One was a letter Mom had written but never mailed. Her handwriting tilted uphill, just as it always had when she was upset.
ELENA, I'VE FOUND PAYMENTS I CAN'T EXPLAIN. VICTOR SAYS I'M CONFUSED, AND CARLOS SAYS I'M OVERWORKED. I DON'T WANT TO FRIGHTEN YOU, BUT I NEED YOU TO LOOK AT THE BOOKS WITH ME. IF I'M WRONG, WE'LL LAUGH ABOUT IT OVER BREAKFAST.
There was no more. She'd stopped in the middle of a sentence.
I pressed my fingers against the screen. Mom had asked for help, and the letter never reached me. Carlos had spent years pretending her final concern was that I worked too hard.
Santos called with an update. Search warrants had uncovered messages linking Salazar to the sprinkler shutdown. They showed Carlos had warned him Mom was returning to the warehouse that evening. The messages did not settle every question of intent, but they made the story of a simple electrical accident impossible to accept.
"We'll submit this for criminal review," Santos said. "It may take time."
I had spent the day expecting a quick, clean ending. Instead I got a lesson in how slowly truth moved when powerful people tried to stand in its way.
At two in the morning, Samantha sent a message from an unknown number.
CARLOS HAS A BACKUP PLAN. THEY AREN'T GOING TO MACAU TO CELEBRATE. THEY'RE GOING TO DISAPPEAR.
May you like
A second message followed, with a photograph of three passports lying on a table.
One of them had my face on it.
