Chapter 6 - NO OCCUPANT EXPECTED
Marcus looked at Juliette. “Who chained the door?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?” Grant asked.
“I said I don’t know.”
I watched her carefully. She was hiding something, but not that. Three years of doctors and lawyers had taught me the difference.
“What did you do after you got out?” I asked.
Juliette’s silence answered first.
Dad stood again. “Juliette.”
“I ran to the lawn.”
“And?”
“Firefighters were arriving.”
Marcus opened another file. “An early incident report says a woman matching your description told crews that Caroline had already exited the building.”
Juliette closed her eyes.
My stomach dropped.
“You told them I was safe.”
“I thought you would find another way out.”
“You heard me pounding.”
“I panicked!”
Her scream echoed beneath the chandelier.
For once, nobody rushed to comfort her.
Marcus placed a photocopy in front of me. An emergency log. 11:47 p.m. EAST CORRIDOR — POSSIBLE IMPACT SOUNDS.
Below it, in a different hand:
NO OCCUPANT EXPECTED. SEARCH DEFERRED.
My hands shook.
They had heard me.
Someone had heard me trying to live.
“Who wrote that?” I asked.
“Assistant Fire Chief Nolan Price,” Marcus said. “He retired nine months after the fire.”
Dad stared at the paper. “Why wasn’t this in the final report?”
“Because the final report was rewritten.”
Juliette looked at Marcus. “You said there was no proof I started the fire.”
“There isn’t.”
She let out a broken breath.
“But there is proof somebody wanted the east corridor ignored.”
Marcus removed a glossy photograph taken after the fire. In the background, near the ruined service entrance, stood a man in a dark overcoat talking to Nolan Price.
My father leaned closer.
Grant said, “Who is that?”
I knew before Marcus answered.
Victor Sloan.
May you like
Our company’s chief financial officer.
And the man who had prepared the trust papers Juliette and I were fighting about that night.
