Chapter 7 - The Witness in Georgia

Aaron Bell was fourteen now and living outside Savannah with his grandmother, June. He answered Naomi's call with the wary tone of a kid who'd had adults ask him about the worst night of his life too many times.

"I remember your mom," he said. "She gave me her scarf because I couldn't stop coughing."

Naomi held her breath. "Do you remember the stairwell?"

"I remember the door wouldn't open. She hit it with a fire extinguisher."

June took the phone. "I told the investigators what I saw. A maintenance supervisor chained the emergency exit from the outside that afternoon. He said people were sneaking into the basement."

"Did they write it down?" Maya asked on speaker.

"They wrote something. Nobody ever called me back."

June still had her original statement, a carbon copy wrinkled from years in an envelope. She agreed to send photographs and speak to Maya. Before they hung up, Aaron asked if Naomi could tell him where Rosa was buried. He wanted to leave flowers next time he came north.

Naomi swallowed hard. "She'd like that."

Then Theo appeared at Naomi's apartment door, wearing a hoodie and a bandage across one knuckle. He refused coffee. He refused to sit.

"I kept my phone down by my waist," he said. "I got most of the kick. But the hotel's people made me unlock it. They deleted the video."

"Did you back it up?" Naomi asked.

"No. I was stupid."

"You weren't stupid. They scared you."

He looked at Isabel in the hallway. "I heard Vanessa say your mom caused the fire. And I heard you ask her to stop using the picture. I heard everything."

Maya had told Naomi not to rely on a witness without a recording. But people mattered, too. Naomi gave Theo a glass of water and asked what he needed.

"A new job," he said. "They fired me for insubordination. I've got a little girl."

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Before he left, he reached into his pocket and handed Naomi a hotel event-program card. He'd circled the name of the company providing the ballroom's live screens and sound.

"The hotel cameras aren't the only ones that were running," he said. "The production crew was recording a donor video."