Chapter 7 - Behind the Painted Sun
At dawn, Adrian stood outside Ash Street House. The old brick building was still home: bicycles lined the fence, lights glowed in windows, and a giant yellow sun covered the day-care wall.
An excavator waited at the curb.
"You can't demolish an occupied building," Adrian told the site supervisor.
"Orders are for the old basement wing," the man said. "That's what the permit covers."
"Who approved it?"
The supervisor checked a tablet. "Preston Ward. Yesterday."
Adrian called Tessa. "Get an emergency preservation order. I'll pay whatever it costs."
"You don't get a court order by paying for it," she said. "Send photographs, the permit number, and evidence of immediate risk. I'll move as fast as the procedure allows."
Inside, day-care director Marisol Vega met him with crossed arms. "Your company promised us a new heater last winter. Instead we got another warning notice."
"I didn't know about the heater."
"That's the problem, Mr. Ward. Your name is on every letter, and nobody here has ever seen your face."
The words stung because they were fair.
Lena entered behind him. Marisol's eyes widened. "Ms. Marsh? You're Ivy's reading friend."
"We're trying to stop something terrible," Lena said. "Can you show us the mural?"
Marisol unlocked the side storage room. Behind the painted sun, an old ventilation cover sat crooked in the wall. Its bottom screw had been replaced with a newer one.
Adrian unscrewed the cover. A narrow metal box lay inside, protected by plastic wrapping so brittle it cracked between his fingers.
Inside were copies of work orders, photographs of stripped alarm wiring, and a list of workers who had objected to the unsafe conditions in the weeks before the fire.
At the bottom lay an envelope marked FOR ADRIAN, IF HE EVER ASKS.
Lena touched the handwriting and went utterly still.
"Tomas wrote that," she whispered.
Adrian unfolded the page. It began with an apology for leaving a child without the truth. Then it described a late-night meeting with Preston and a man who had promised to falsify the building's safety inspection.
Attached was an original inspection waiver, initialed before the fire by the lawyer who approved the defective system.
May you like
Adrian recognized the name. He had seen it on every contract drafted for his wedding.
OWEN HART.
