Chapter 5 - The Hour Miles Knew
The recording captured every word.
Reyes listened twice.
Miles claimed he guessed the meeting would last until seven.
Phone records proved otherwise.
He called Helen Park’s office at 5:42 and asked whether I was still there.
The receptionist refused to answer.
A traffic camera later recorded his truck two blocks from my apartment at 5:51.
Miles insisted he was visiting a friend.
The friend denied seeing him.
Police obtained a warrant for my parents’ house and Miles’s truck.
Inside the garage, they found a plastic fuel container.
It carried the same accelerant mixture discovered in my apartment.
My mother said the container belonged to my father’s lawn equipment.
My father said he had not used it in months.
Miles’s fingerprints covered the handle.
That was not enough to prove arson.
Then investigators searched his phone.
Most messages had been deleted.
Cloud backups recovered a conversation with my mother.
Diane wrote:
Make sure the closet is gone.
Miles answered:
What about Claire?
Diane replied:
She will be at the lawyer’s office.
My father’s response appeared two minutes later.
Do not involve me.
He had received the plan.
He had not warned me.
Miles was arrested for arson and attempted murder.
My mother was arrested for conspiracy.
My father was arrested for failing to report the plot and financial fraud connected to the trust.
As officers led Diane from the house, she looked at me.
“You did this.”
“No.”
“You called the police.”
“You made the fire.”
She shook her head as though I were a difficult child.
“We were trying to protect what your grandmother built.”
“By burning her building?”
“By stopping you from giving it away.”
I had mentioned converting two properties into affordable housing.
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My mother called it throwing away family wealth.
She believed money belonged to the person ruthless enough to keep it.
