Chapter 8 - The Man in the Fire
Leo was out of the SUV before it fully stopped.
Mercer House glowed orange against the night.
Flames tore through the west wing. Smoke rolled across the lawn. Fire crews dragged hoses toward shattered windows while guests and staff crowded behind the gates.
“Leo!” Claire grabbed his jacket. “Stay with me.”
“He’s in there!”
“We don’t know that.”
Sheriff Cross spoke into his radio, demanding to know who had reported Henry inside.
No one had an answer.
Then Leo saw Uncle Richard near the fountain.
His clothes were clean.
His expression was carefully broken.
He was telling a firefighter, “My father must have come back. I tried to reach him, but the smoke—”
“You liar!” Leo shouted.
Richard turned.
For half a second, his grief vanished.
Pure hatred took its place.
Then the mask returned.
“Leo, thank God you’re safe.”
Claire stepped between them.
“Do not come near my son.”
Richard lowered his voice. “You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“I know you drugged Dad.”
People nearby turned to look.
Richard smiled without warmth. “You found some papers in a room. Papers can be faked.”
“Not the bank transfers.”
His eyes flicked toward Leo.
That was when the roof over the west corridor collapsed.
Everyone shouted.
Leo looked up at the attic windows.
A figure stood behind the smoke.
Tall. Thin. One hand against the glass.
“Grandpa!”
Leo tore free of his mother and ran toward the house.
Cross caught him around the waist.
“No!”
“There!” Leo screamed. “Look!”
The figure disappeared.
Firefighters rushed inside.
Minutes stretched like hours.
Then two men emerged carrying someone between them.
An older man in a soot-covered coat.
Claire made a sound Leo had never heard before.
“Dad.”
Henry Mercer lifted his head.
He was alive.
The crowd went silent.
Richard took one step backward.
Henry saw him.
Then he looked at Sheriff Cross and said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “Arrest my son.”
Before Cross could move, Martin Pike appeared beside Richard.
May you like
He held a folder over his head.
“Not so fast,” he said. “I have a signed psychiatric order declaring Henry Mercer legally incompetent.”
