Chapter 7 - Fire in the Rain
The old carriage house burned fast despite the rain. Firefighters arrived within minutes, but the roof collapsed before they could enter.
Gertrude claimed the live video had been sent anonymously. Detective Chen took her phone and found the clip had originated from Leonard’s device. Leonard insisted his phone had been stolen.
Charlotte stood beneath an umbrella watching black water run down the driveway. The carriage house had stored old Mercer Civil Works records, but Thomas’s message had warned that visible archives were decoys. The fire was either an act of panic or a performance meant to convince someone that evidence had been destroyed.
Skylar waited with Naomi inside a patrol car. Charlotte joined her.
“Grandma knew it was burning before we did,” Skylar said.
“Yes.”
“Did she start it?”
“Someone working with her may have.”
Skylar looked toward the house. “Dad knew they gave me noodles. He looked at me and kept eating.”
Charlotte had no legal language that could soften that truth.
“What happens now?” Skylar asked.
“We stop letting people call cruelty a misunderstanding.”
The next morning, forensic accountant Priya Nand joined the team. Within hours she traced the false renovation invoices through three shell companies. One belonged to Leonard, one to Bell, and the third to a retired paralegal named Samuel Cross.
Charlotte called the number listed for Cross. Disconnected.
Priya found a property tax record for a cabin two counties north. Charlotte wanted to go immediately, but Naomi insisted on notifying Detective Chen. They drove in separate cars and reached the cabin near dusk.
The door stood open.
Inside, drawers had been emptied and papers burned in a sink. An elderly man lay unconscious beside the kitchen table, breathing weakly. Paramedics took him away before Charlotte could ask a question.
Detective Chen found a photograph beneath the refrigerator. It showed Thomas Mercer, Samuel Cross and Victor Dane as young men standing before Mercer House. On the back, Thomas had written:
Three founders. One betrayal. The house keeps the proof.
Charlotte turned the photograph over again. In the lower corner, almost hidden by Thomas’s hand, stood a woman holding a baby.
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The woman was Gertrude.
The baby wore a bracelet marked B.
