Chapter 8 - Smoke and Glass
The corridor filled with smoke in less than thirty seconds.
Lucas pulled his jacket over his mouth.
“Stairs.”
Willow grabbed the Hale folder.
Lucas seized her wrist.
“Leave it.”
She ripped away.
“I left enough things behind for your family.”
They ran.
Sprinklers activated.
Water crashed from the ceiling.
The smoke became thicker.
At the stairwell entrance, Willow pulled the door.
Locked.
Lucas stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Willow understood immediately.
“This wasn’t meant to burn records.”
Lucas looked at her.
“It was meant to trap us.”
For the first time, he looked afraid of his father.
Willow smashed the emergency cover beside the door.
Nothing happened.
Lucas kicked the metal frame.
Again.
Again.
The door did not move.
Willow’s phone showed one bar of signal.
She called Helena.
“Forty-two.”
Helena answered instantly.
“What happened?”
“Fire.”
Michael’s voice sounded in the background.
Willow shouted.
“The west stairwell is locked.”
The call cut out.
Smoke rolled lower.
Lucas coughed violently.
Then glass shattered at the far end of the corridor.
A firefighter’s axe punched through a service door.
Willow heard shouting.
Minutes later, she stumbled down the emergency stairs wrapped in a firefighter’s coat.
Lucas followed.
Outside, cameras surrounded the building.
The fire had already become news.
Michael pushed through the crowd and pulled Willow into his arms.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
She handed him the wet folder.
“And I got it.”
Lucas emerged behind her.
Richard was waiting near a black sedan.
Father and son stared at each other.
Lucas walked toward him.
“You locked the stairwell.”
Richard’s expression did not change.
“You were supposed to be home.”
Lucas stopped.
The sentence hit him harder than a confession.
“You knew I was up there.”
Richard stepped closer.
“You chose your wife over instructions.”
Lucas laughed bitterly.
“She’s barely my wife after what I did.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“Then stop behaving like one.”
Lucas looked at him as if seeing him for the first time.
Willow watched from across the street.
Lucas had spent his entire life seeking Richard’s approval.
Now he finally understood the price of receiving it.
A police officer approached Willow.
“Mrs. Sterling, we need to ask you about possible arson.”
Willow looked toward Richard.
Richard smiled faintly.
He still believed money would protect him.
Willow opened the wet folder.
Inside was the payment record tied to her mother’s crash.
May you like
She looked at the officer.
“I think you’re going to need a bigger investigation.”
