Chapter 18 - What the Fire Couldn't Burn
A gray column of smoke curled above the warehouse roof. I started toward the building. An officer caught my arm.
"Stay back. Fire crews are coming."
"My mother's inside."
"Then tell me where."
I pointed to the loading bay and told him about the blue chair, the brick wall, the old freight platform. He relayed it over his radio. Firefighters arrived and moved in with breathing masks. For once, the adults with uniforms asked questions and listened to the answers.
Vanessa sat on the curb, her cream suit streaked with soot. She looked at me, then away. The woman who had once threatened my job couldn't even hold on to her sunglasses.
"You ordered the kidnapping," I said.
"I thought they were going to scare her," she whispered. "I didn't know Eli would use the fire."
"What did you think a kidnapping was? A surprise party?"
She flinched. I felt no pleasure in it.
"Tell the officers everything," I said. "Starting with where they put the hostages."
She nodded toward the south storage room. "Ruth knows the code. Six-three-nine-one. Dad was going to trade them for the records. Eli changed the plan."
A firefighter disappeared into the building. The wind shifted. Smoke blew across the street, bitter and hot. I gripped Jo's hand so tightly she complained, then held on tighter.
After nine minutes a team emerged carrying Ruth on a stretcher. She was coughing but conscious. Another firefighter helped my mother walk into daylight. I ran to her. She smelled like smoke and old cotton and the home I'd been afraid I'd lost.
"You found Mateo," she whispered into my hair.
"He's here. He's really here."
My mother began to cry. We stood in the street with traffic backing up behind the emergency vehicles, holding each other while the world got on with its loud, indifferent business.
A third firefighter emerged with Conrad Sterling. His hands were zip-tied behind his back. He had a cut over his eyebrow and kept shouting that he wanted his lawyer.
Ruth pulled off her oxygen mask and pointed at him. "He didn't light the fire," she rasped. "Eli did. Conrad tried to open the door."
"Why?" Adrian asked.
Ruth looked at him. "Because he knew what Eli had hidden in the south wall."
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Firefighters brought out a metal case scorched black at the edges. Inside were paper ledgers, certificates, and a photograph of Thomas Vale standing beside Eli Mercer.
On the back was a handwritten date from three months ago.
