Chapter 15 - The Fire
Pike was not arrested that afternoon. The investigators took him to a recorded interview and released him after several hours. His attorney claimed the warrant concerned “old and unreliable allegations.”Priya warned them that a court order was not the same as safety.“People who lose legal control sometimes try to regain it physically,” she said.June moved into Mara’s apartment. The house remained sealed while the county reviewed the property records. A patrol car passed the building twice each night.Mara began sleeping with her phone in her hand.“You need rest,” June told her.“You need to stop giving advice about things you don’t do.”June smiled faintly. “That sounds like something Rose would have said.”The prosecutor offered Caleb a cooperation agreement. He would plead to assault, attempted financial exploitation, and filing a false report. In return, the state would recommend a reduced sentence if he testified truthfully against Pike and paid restitution.Caleb accepted.“Does that mean he’s helping us?” Mara asked.“It means he is helping himself while providing information,” Priya said. “Both things can be true.”The next week, Helen Cho found a second set of accounts connected to Barlow Care Partners. The records showed payments to Hearthstone after Rose’s death and a final transfer from the facility to an account controlled by Pike.“There’s a gap,” Helen said. “Three days are missing from the patient records.”“The three days Rose was there,” Mara replied.“Exactly.”The missing records were stored in the basement of the old Barlow building, according to a former administrator. A judge issued a preservation order, but the building remained in the hands of a development company that had not yet been served.Priya arranged for an investigator to deliver the order the next morning.That night, Mara woke to the smell of smoke.She sat upright. The apartment was dark. June was asleep in the other bedroom.A red glow flickered against the curtains.Mara called emergency services and shouted for her mother. They ran into the hallway as smoke pushed beneath the apartment door.“Stairs,” Mara said.The building’s alarm began to shriek.June stumbled. Mara pulled her toward the fire exit, keeping one hand over June’s mouth and nose. The hallway lights went out. Someone was shouting below.They reached the stairwell as flames climbed the wall beside the mailboxes. Mara pushed the exit bar, but the door would not open.“It’s locked,” June said.Mara grabbed the emergency hammer from its case and struck the small glass panel. The alarm made the sound impossible to think through.She struck again. The panel broke. Mara reached inside and released the latch.They emerged into the alley behind the building. June was coughing hard. Mara turned back toward the fire.“Don’t,” June said.“My bag.”“Leave it.”The padded envelope containing the original cassette was in the bag, along with Rose’s photograph and the blue ledger scans.Firefighters arrived within minutes. They forced residents onto the sidewalk and used ladders against the rear windows. The fire had begun beside the basement stairwell, near the building’s electrical controls.Detective Ortega arrived in a jacket over his clothes.“Are you both safe?”“Yes.”“Did you see anyone?”“No.”Mara pointed toward the alley. “My evidence is inside.”“We’ll recover what we can.”June stared at the flames. “Pike.”“We don’t know that yet,” Ortega said.“He told Mara Rose’s death wasn’t his worst mistake.”“That still isn’t proof.”Mara looked up at the building. A shadow moved behind a second-floor window.“There,” she said.Ortega turned. The shadow disappeared.Two officers entered through the front after the firefighters cleared the first floor. They found no one, but the basement door had been forced open from inside. A set of wet footprints led toward the rear entrance.Mara noticed a dark object beneath a parked van. It was a canvas tool bag.Ortega opened it with gloves. Inside were bolt cutters, a flashlight, a can of accelerant, and a single brass key.June recognized it immediately.“That opens the locker,” she said.“The key Caleb took from the house?” Mara asked.June nodded.“Why would Pike have it?”Ortega examined the key. “Maybe he took it from Caleb.”The fire department located Mara’s bag in the apartment hallway. The outer fabric was burned, but the padded envelope had protected the cassette. The photograph was singed along one edge. The blue ledger scans were gone.“The original is enough,” Priya said when she arrived. “And now we have an attempted arson scene connected to someone who had motive and access.”“The key could have been planted,” Mara said.“It could have.”Ortega crouched beside the tool bag. “The accelerant can will be tested. So will the footprints.”June’s hands shook. “He tried to burn us out.”“Maybe he wanted the records,” Mara said.“He wanted both.”Across the street, a man stood beneath an awning. He wore a dark wool coat.Mara stepped toward him.“Pike,” she said.The man turned. It was not Pike. It was Caleb.He looked at the smoking building, then at June.“I didn’t do this,” he said.“Why are you here?”“Pike called me.”“When?”“An hour ago.”“What did he want?”Caleb’s face had gone gray.“He said if I testified, he would tell the prosecutor I started the fire at Barlow.”Mara took out her phone. “Say that again.”Caleb saw the phone and did not object.“He said he could make me look like the person who destroyed the evidence,” he said. “He told me to meet him here and bring the original tape.”Ortega took Caleb’s statement.At the end, Caleb looked at June. “I’m sorry.”June did not move closer.“You should be,” she said.Behind them, part of the apartment roof collapsed with a shower of sparks.The sound rolled through the street.Mara held the damaged cassette against her chest.The fire had not destroyed the truth.It had only shown them how desperately someone wanted it gone.
