Chapter 10 - The Second Fire
We called the police.
This time Dad did not argue about embarrassment.
He did not say we should handle it privately.
He gave them everything.
The forged signature.
The trust statements.
The note.
The damaged door.
The missing passport.
An officer took photographs while another interviewed me at the kitchen island.
“Do you believe Mrs. Bennett intends to harm you?”
I looked at Dad.
He looked wrecked.
“I think she intends to control me.”
“That’s not the same question.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t know if she’ll hurt me.”
Then smoke drifted under the hallway door.
The officer smelled it at the same time I did.
“Everybody out.”
Dad ran toward the back hall.
The officer grabbed him.
“Sir!”
Flames were rising from the small home records room.
Not huge.
Not movie flames.
Real flames.
Fast.
Ugly.
Feeding on paper.
The fire system activated.
Water hammered from the ceiling.
We stumbled outside as alarms screamed through the house.
Firefighters arrived within minutes.
The blaze was contained to one room.
The damage was mostly paperwork.
Which, of course, was the point.
Dad stood in the driveway soaked from sprinklers and rain.
“She came back.”
The detective shook his head.
“We don’t know that yet.”
“I do.”
“Then help us prove it.”
A firefighter walked out carrying a half-melted metal wastebasket.
Inside was a burned stack of files.
He handed the detective a plastic sleeve containing one page that had survived at the bottom.
The heading was visible.
BENNETT FAMILY HOLDINGS — AUTHORITY TRANSFER.
Dad read it.
Then read it again.
“What is it?” I asked.
His face hardened.
I remembered.
Dad had needed a heart procedure.
Three weeks off work.
Veronica had handled everything.
Dad looked at the detective.
“She didn’t just take from Claire.”
He pointed at the surviving page.
“She may have been moving money out of my business too.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photo appeared.
Madison standing beside Veronica in a parking garage.
May you like
Below it, one line.
If you want your sister home, stop digging.
