Chapter 10 - THE FIRE AT THE OLD WARD ESTATE
Malcolm’s confession was incomplete.
That was the problem.
Three pages.
Signed.
Dated seventeen years earlier.
But the fourth page was missing.
The first three were enough to prove he had manipulated Bell Urban’s valuation.
They were not enough to show why.
Or who else had helped him.
Evelyn sat at the safe-house table while Valerie read every line.
“You kept this?”
Valerie asked.
“Yes.”
“For seventeen years?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Evelyn did not defend herself.
“Fear.”
Valerie stared at her.
Evelyn continued.
“Malcolm died before he could sign the final page.”
“How?”
Sebastian asked through the speakerphone.
“Car accident.”
Valerie went still.
“My father died in a car accident.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Eight years later.”
Sebastian’s voice became colder.
“That’s a coincidence you never thought worth mentioning?”
“I thought about it every day.”
“Then why didn’t you investigate?”
“Because Malcolm’s death looked accidental.”
“So did Dad’s.”
“Yes.”
“And Thomas Bell’s.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Valerie looked at the missing-page marks.
“What was on page four?”
“I don’t know.”
“You read the first three.”
“Malcolm dictated them to a lawyer.”
“Who?”
“Gerald Hume.”
Sebastian spoke.
“He retired ten years ago.”
Evelyn nodded.
“He died last winter.”
Valerie’s frustration rose.
“So everyone who knew anything is dead.”
“Not everyone.”
Evelyn looked at Sebastian’s voice on the phone.
“Charles kept duplicate records at the old estate.”
Sebastian went silent.
“Where?”
“In the archive room behind his study.”
“I searched that room after he died.”
“You searched the visible room.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“Of course.”
The old Ward estate stood two hours north.
Abandoned except for a caretaker.
Sebastian wanted police.
Valerie wanted Detective Price.
Evelyn refused.
“If the local department is compromised, we announce exactly where we’re going.”
Sebastian stared at his mother.
“You’re becoming paranoid.”
“No.”
Evelyn looked at Valerie.
“I’m finally becoming useful.”
They left before sunset.
Jonah remained under investigation.
Detective Price quietly assigned two plainclothes officers to follow at a distance.
The estate looked frozen in time.
Sebastian had not visited in eleven years.
His father’s study still smelled faintly of leather and old wood.
Evelyn walked directly to the fireplace.
She pressed a carved panel.
Nothing happened.
She frowned.
“Power.”
Sebastian found the breaker.
The hidden mechanism clicked.
A section of bookshelf moved.
Valerie stared.
“Your family really does enjoy secrets.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“I’m beginning to find them exhausting.”
Behind the shelf was a narrow archive room.
Metal filing cabinets.
Boxes.
Old computer drives.
Evelyn pointed.
“Ward Urban.”
Sebastian opened the first cabinet.
Empty.
His face changed.
“Someone’s been here.”
Dust covered most surfaces.
Except one shelf.
Clean.
Valerie ran her finger along it.
“Recently.”
Sebastian’s phone buzzed.
No signal.
Evelyn checked hers.
Nothing.
Then the lights went out.
Valerie’s stomach dropped.
“Again?”
Sebastian immediately reached for her.
Then stopped himself.
“Can I?”
She almost smiled in the darkness.
“Yes.”
He took her hand.
Smoke reached them thirty seconds later.
Evelyn coughed.
Sebastian turned.
“Fire.”
Valerie tried the hidden door.
It didn’t move.
“It’s locked.”
“Manual release?”
Evelyn coughed again.
“Inside cabinet.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t remember.”
Flames crackled somewhere beyond the study.
Sebastian began opening cabinets.
Valerie searched the walls.
Evelyn pulled drawers.
Smoke thickened.
“Sebastian.”
Valerie pointed toward a low vent.
“Airflow.”
He crouched.
“Service tunnel.”
“You know?”
“I designed restoration systems for houses this old.”
“Can we fit?”
“Maybe.”
Sebastian kicked at the vent cover.
Nothing.
Again.
Metal bent.
Evelyn looked toward the hidden door.
Flames appeared beneath it.
“Faster.”
Sebastian kicked again.
The cover broke loose.
Valerie dropped to her knees.
“Go.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“You first.”
“Mrs. Ward.”
“Go.”
Valerie crawled into the tunnel.
Sebastian helped his mother next.
Then followed.
The space was barely wide enough.
Smoke chased them.
Valerie moved forward using her phone light.
“Keep going.”
Sebastian heard Evelyn struggling behind Valerie.
Then a crash sounded.
The ceiling shifted.
“Move!”
A wooden support fell.
Sebastian pushed Evelyn forward.
The beam struck his shoulder.
He grunted.
Valerie turned.
“Sebastian!”
“I’m fine.”
“You are not.”
“Move.”
She crawled backward.
“Valerie.”
“Shut up.”
She wedged herself beside him.
The beam pinned his jacket.
Not his body.
Valerie pulled.
Nothing.
Evelyn tried from the other side.
Smoke grew thicker.
Sebastian looked at Valerie.
“Cut the jacket.”
“With what?”
He handed her a pocketknife.
“You carry a knife?”
“I contain multitudes.”
“Not funny.”
“Little funny.”
She cut through the fabric.
Sebastian pulled free.
They crawled.
Seconds later, the archive room behind them roared with flames.
They emerged through an exterior grate near the garden.
Valerie dragged herself onto wet grass.
Evelyn followed.
Sebastian came last.
Then collapsed.
Valerie turned.
“Sebastian?”
He tried to sit.
His left arm hung strangely.
“Shoulder.”
Valerie touched his face.
“Look at me.”
He did.
“Can you breathe?”
“Yes.”
“Dizzy?”
“A little.”
Evelyn stared at the burning estate.
“That was not accidental.”
Police sirens sounded in the distance.
Sebastian looked at his mother.
“No.”
“It wasn’t.”
Detective Price arrived with firefighters.
Within minutes, paramedics placed Sebastian on a stretcher.
Valerie walked beside him.
He caught her wrist.
“Don’t leave.”
She froze.
His eyes were half closed.
Maybe pain.
Maybe fear.
“I’m here.”
He held on.
Paramedics loaded him into the ambulance.
Valerie climbed inside.
Evelyn stayed with Price.
As the doors closed, Sebastian looked at Valerie.
Smoke streaked her face.
Her hair was tangled.
One sleeve was torn.
She had never looked more beautiful to him.
“I love you.”
Valerie stopped.
The ambulance seemed to disappear around them.
Sebastian’s eyes remained on hers.
“I love you.”
Her throat tightened.
“Don’t.”
His face changed.
“Why?”
“Because you’re scared.”
“I’m not.”
“You almost died.”
“So did you.”
“That’s exactly my point.”
He tried to sit.
The paramedic pushed him down.
“Sir.”
Sebastian ignored him.
“Valerie.”
She held his hand.
“I believe you feel something.”
“That is the least satisfying response to ‘I love you’ in human history.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
Then tears filled her eyes.
“I won’t let tragedy make decisions for me.”
He went quiet.
“I gave you something important because I chose to.”
“I won’t turn that night into a chain around either of us.”
Sebastian stared at her.
“Then what do I do?”
“For once?”
She squeezed his hand.
“Nothing.”
“Recover.”
“Tell the truth.”
“And when this is over…”
She swallowed.
“…ask me again.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“Fine.”
A moment later, Valerie’s phone buzzed.
A message from Naomi.
She opened it.
Her face changed.
“What?”
Sebastian asked.
Naomi had sent a security still.
Taken twenty minutes before the estate fire.
A vehicle entering the property.
May you like
The driver’s face was visible.
Adrian Ward.
