Chapter 10 - Smoke in the Stairwell
Daniel reached Morrow Court behind the first fire engine. The front stairs were filling with gray smoke. A firefighter stopped him at the door.
"Nobody goes inside. Tell me who you're looking for."
"Apartment 4B. A mother and a little boy."
The crew radioed the location. Daniel ran along the outside fence until he found a second entrance, where residents in pajamas were spilling into the lot. Lena was counting people from the tenant list. Twenty-eight. Thirty-one. Thirty-four.
"Talia?" Daniel shouted.
No answer. He called her phone. Once. Twice.
A small hand appeared in a fourth-floor window.
"Milo!" Lena screamed.
Daniel yelled the apartment number to the firefighters. He wanted to run up those stairs himself, but a captain grabbed his arm. "You rush in there, I have to send somebody after you. Let us do our jobs."
Those words landed. Daniel stepped back and cleared a path. Minutes later two firefighters emerged carrying Milo and guiding Talia down the steps. Milo coughed and clutched a stuffed dinosaur. Talia grabbed Daniel's sleeve.
"The alarm never went off," she sobbed. "We only woke up because I smelled smoke."
Paramedics evaluated them. Both were taken for further checks, awake and breathing. Lena stood with her hands over her mouth until the ambulance doors closed.
The fire was contained to a utility area, but smoke and water made part of the building uninhabitable. The city arranged emergency shelter while inspectors assessed the damage. In the ruined electrical room, a fire investigator photographed an outdated panel with fresh paint covering a warning label.
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Then the investigator showed Daniel an invoice from Cedar Gate's own submitted records: BRAND-NEW PANEL AND SYSTEM-WIDE FIRE-ALARM REPLACEMENT. PAID IN FULL.
The date was eleven months old. The dangerous old panel was still bolted to the wall.
