Chapter 6 - THE FIRE IN THE EAST WING
Emergency alarms began sounding.
Smoke entered the study through the ventilation system.
Victor’s attorney shouted that the estate was on fire.
The police moved Elena and Lily toward the hallway.
Ethan looked back at the archive.
A red light flashed inside the steel cabinet.
“Automatic destruction system,” Mara said.
“Someone activated it.”
Victor remained near the doorway.
His expression had become calm again.
Too calm.
Samuel grabbed him.
“What did you do?”
“I am standing beside you.”
The archive shelves began retracting toward the walls.
Flames appeared behind the upper panels.
Arthur had installed no destruction system.
Victor had added it.
He knew the archive might eventually be opened.
Ethan pushed Elena’s wheelchair toward the corridor.
She locked the brakes.
“The center cabinet.”
“That is where Dad kept the original ledger.”
“We have to leave,” Ethan said.
“If that burns, Victor walks free.”
Mara handed Ethan a fire blanket.
“I will get it.”
“No,” Elena said.
“The cabinet uses my fingerprint too.”
Smoke thickened.
Lily began coughing.
Ethan lifted her.
Samuel and another officer dragged Victor toward the exit.
Victor resisted for the first time.
“Leave the cabinet.”
The command exposed him.
Elena moved back toward the archive.
Ethan pushed her chair.
Mara followed with an extinguisher.
The heat struck them immediately.
Elena pressed her thumb against the cabinet sensor.
The door opened.
Inside were three ledgers, a hard drive, and Arthur’s sealed will.
Ethan loaded everything into a fireproof evidence bag.
The ceiling above them cracked.
Mara shouted.
They moved toward the study.
A burning beam fell behind the wheelchair.
Flames blocked the corridor.
Samuel appeared through the smoke.
“There is another exit through the library.”
He lifted Elena from the chair.
Ethan carried Lily and the evidence.
They escaped through a service passage seconds before the east-wing ceiling collapsed.
Fire crews entered the estate.
The archive burned.
The original evidence survived.
Outside, Victor stared at the evidence bag.
Then he looked toward his sister.
“You should have stayed beneath the floor.”
Ethan heard him.
May you like
So did three police officers.
Victor was arrested before the fire was extinguished.
