Chapter 5 - Fire at the Carriage House
Daniel grabbed a horse blanket from a shelf and beat at the flames.
Arthur kicked open a side window.
"Out!"
Smoke filled the room in seconds.
Daniel pushed the half-burned papers into his jacket, climbed through the window, and hit the gravel shoulder-first.
Arthur came after him.
Behind them, the carriage house burned.
A dark SUV shot down the service road.
Daniel ran after it long enough to catch three letters on the plate.
7-K-M.
Arthur coughed beside him.
"You saw that?"
"Enough."
They called the fire department and Detective Brooks.
Eleanor arrived before the flames were out.
She stepped from her Bentley in a cream coat, perfectly dry under an umbrella held by security chief Malcolm Reese.
Daniel walked toward her.
"Someone tried to burn us alive."
Eleanor looked at the carriage house.
"Breaking into private property carries risks."
"It's my family property."
"Not while the trust controls it."
Arthur stared at Malcolm.
The security chief was broad-shouldered, former military, and rarely spoke unless Eleanor told him to.
His right hand was wrapped in fresh gauze.
Daniel noticed.
"So what happened to your hand, Malcolm?"
"Kitchen burn."
Arthur looked at the burning carriage house.
"Of course."
Detective Brooks arrived and separated everyone.
Eleanor denied ordering anyone to follow Daniel.
Malcolm said he'd been inside the main house all evening.
The estate's internal system showed his badge entering the kitchen at 11:41.
Arthur leaned toward Daniel.
"Badge records can be copied."
"Can camera records?"
"If you control the server."
"Who controls it?"
Arthur looked at Malcolm.
Back at the hospital, Sarah woke to thirty-seven missed calls and a photograph from Daniel showing the burned carriage house.
Her heart pounded.
Then a nurse brought in flowers.
No card.
White lilies.
Sarah hated lilies.
She reached toward the vase and saw a folded note under the ribbon.
LEAVE DANIEL BEFORE THE BABY COMES.
YOUR NEXT FALL WON'T HAVE AN OLD MAN UNDER YOU.
Sarah pressed the call button.
The nurse returned, read the message, and immediately called hospital security.
Ten minutes later, Detective Brooks was on the phone.
"Don't touch anything else," she said.
Sarah stared at the flowers.
Then the monitor beside her began to beep faster.
Not the baby's monitor.
Her phone.
A video message had arrived from Rosa Alvarez, one of the maids who had been in the foyer.
Rosa's face filled the screen.
She was whispering.
"Mrs. Sarah, I lied to the detective. I saw everything."
Sarah sat up.
Rosa looked over her shoulder.
"Mrs. Vance threatened me. She said if I talked, my sister would lose her job too. But there's something else."
A door opened behind Rosa.
Her face changed.
The video ended.
May you like
Then Sarah received one final text.
CHECK THE BLUE PANTRY BEFORE THEY CLEAN IT.
