Chapter 6 - The Fire Nobody Reported
The second fire happened four months after Elena's death, at a small storage warehouse in Queens. Antonio had never heard of it. Carlo said it was a minor electrical incident. But the fire department's public report listed an unidentified woman who escaped through a loading bay.
I found the report while Antonio met with his attorney. The woman had given the name Nora Price and refused treatment. Her description matched Isabella.
Antonio hired a retired investigator named Helen Ward. Helen had worked Elena's case and had never accepted the official conclusion that the summer-house fire was accidental. She arrived carrying a folder full of photographs and an exhausted expression.
“Elena called me two days before she died,” Helen said. “She said the money wasn't the worst part.”
“What was?” Antonio asked.
“She said someone had been using the foundation to pay men who intimidated witnesses.”
The room went silent. Antonio's organization had enemies, but the charity was supposed to be separate from every criminal operation. Elena had built it to support families displaced by house fires.
Helen showed us a photograph from the Queens warehouse. Behind the scorched door was a painted number seventeen.
The same number as the chapel room.
May you like
Mia entered before we could hide the picture. She stared at the painted door and began to tremble.
“I've seen that place,” she whispered. “Mom took me there.”
