Chapter 12 - The Warning They Buried
I sat in the ambulance waiting area beside June until a doctor came out.
Ben was receiving oxygen and close monitoring. He was awake enough to ask whether he'd missed school. June laughed once, then cried so hard she couldn't answer.
"Can I see him?" she asked.
"In a few minutes," the doctor said. "He's doing better, but we're not done watching him."
I called Iris and put her on speaker. "I'm sorry," Iris whispered. "I tried to tell someone sooner."
"You did," June said. "You told Lena. You kept trying."
Iris had found a scanned engineering report in the charity office's shared printer queue. Three weeks earlier, a licensed inspector had warned that Ashbury's generator exhaust was damaged and that power interruptions could push fumes into occupied apartments. The report specifically said not to operate the system until repairs were completed.
A handwritten note at the top read: HOLD FOR GRANT. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE.
The digital copy Iris photographed carried Vanessa's acknowledgment initials.
Adrian stared at them. "She told donors we'd replaced that generator."
"Then donors need to hear from the inspector," I said. "Not from us alone."
At the hospital, a city housing official told the families the building couldn't be occupied until it passed safety tests. Thirty-one households suddenly needed somewhere to sleep.
Adrian offered hotel rooms, immediately and at his company's expense. June accepted for the other families, but she asked for written terms, no surprise bills, and a tenant representative to handle complaints. He agreed.
"Good," I told him. "Now keep that promise after the cameras leave."
Mabel texted from the scene. Inspectors had found a maintenance order instructing Northline to shut power off at ten fifteen, even though the building was officially listed as empty.
Below it was a purchase deadline: VACANT POSSESSION REQUIRED BY 8 A.M.
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The sale of Ashbury House was scheduled for the next morning.
And it carried a penalty of sixteen million dollars if tenants were still there.
