Chapter 12 - Smoke in the Newsroom
Frank's shop was wrecked, but nobody had been inside. A street camera caught a stolen truck smashing through the doors. The driver fled.
"A message," Nina Alvarez said, studying the footage. "Whoever sent it wanted Frank scared, not dead."
"Mission accomplished," Frank said. Then he straightened. "Put me under oath anyway."
June published his account that evening. Avery, the server from the gala, finally agreed to share her phone video. It showed Celeste raising the candelabrum over Mara and Caleb stopping the blow. The clip spread faster than the edited version. People who'd mocked Mara now deleted their posts. The Voss Foundation called it misleading.
"Misleading my ass," June said.
At eleven, she was alone in the Ledger office when she smelled smoke. She opened the hallway door and met a wall of heat. Someone had chained the exit.
She called Mara while crouching beneath her desk. "Don't freak out."
"June?"
"The building's on fire."
Mara heard her cough. She called emergency services, then kept June talking while Teresa drove.
"The window," Mara said. "Can you get to the side window?"
"Second floor. Big drop."
"Fire crews are coming. Keep low."
June crawled through smoke, broke the window with a metal stapler, and leaned out into the cold air. Sirens rose below. Firefighters lifted a ladder just as flames punched through the ceiling behind her.
When they carried June down, her hair smelled burned and her hands shook uncontrollably. Mara wrapped her in a blanket. June tried to make a joke, but her voice failed.
"You don't have to be brave right now," Mara told her.
"I know." June looked back at the windows. "I saved the story. Everything's backed up."
Nina arrived with bad news. The editor who had known June's work schedule had disappeared, and the office alarm had been disabled from inside.
Mara stared at the blackened windows. "They're not trying to win an argument anymore."
May you like
June took her hand. "Then let's stop treating this like one."
Her phone lit up with a new message from the anonymous account. It contained an audio file named OWEN_911_FINAL.
