Chapter 12 - Three Minutes to Get Out
Otis Bell was sixty-eight and walked with a cane. He met us at a storage facility with his attorney and two security officers. He looked like somebody's grandpa.
"I was twenty-six when the fire happened," he said. "I told myself keeping quiet would protect my wife and little girl. I lost both anyway."
He unlocked a unit packed with tools and old furniture. Behind a fishing cooler was a metal cashbox. Inside lay a narrow cassette labeled MAY 9, 2004.
"We used radio dispatch recordings for every shift," he explained. "The company destroyed theirs. I copied this one because I knew they'd blame Daniel."
"Why didn't you give it to his lawyer?" I asked.
"I tried. Men came to my house. They showed me pictures of my daughter at school." His voice trembled. "I ran. That's the part I have to live with."
His attorney reached for the box. Metal crashed outside. A roll-up door slammed down over the entrance.
"Someone shut the main gate!" one of the security officers yelled.
Otis's face emptied. He knew the sound.
A man shouted from the other side of the narrow corridor, "Give us the tape!"
One officer called 911. The other moved us toward the rear exit, but its handle wouldn't turn. My heart battered my ribs. A locked door. Again. I could almost hear Nora inside the fire, pushing against steel that wouldn't move.
Maya found an emergency release behind a plastic cover. "Emily, help me!"
I drove the heel of my sneaker through the cover and pulled the lever. The door lifted just enough for Otis to crawl under. We got him outside, then slid after him as someone struck the other side of the gate with a metal bar.
Police sirens sounded in the street. The men fled before officers reached the building. Nobody was hurt, but Otis had begun to cry. I sat beside him on the curb until he could breathe.
"You can still say no," I told him. "Nobody gets to force you."
He wiped his face. "I said no for twenty-two years. That's enough."
At Miriam's office, a forensic technician played a digital copy of the cassette. Through static, a man's voice ordered the east door secured.
May you like
Then came Elaine's voice, clear as a bell: "Richard, Nora's still in there."
And Richard answered, "Then don't open it."
