Chapter 18 - THE FIRE AT THE LAKE
Federal agents immediately ordered everyone away from the windows.
The cabin lights were turned off.
Lucy crouched behind the stone fireplace.
Ethan stayed beside her.
Robert stood near the hall.
“You should sit down.”
Ethan told him.
Robert shook his head.
“I've sat down for twenty-six years.”
Agents searched the woods.
For fifteen minutes, nothing moved.
Then the smell came.
Smoke.
An agent shouted from the rear of the cabin.
“Fire.”
Flames climbed the back porch.
Someone had poured accelerant beneath the wooden steps.
The old cedar caught quickly.
“Out.”
Agents moved Lucy toward the front.
Ethan followed.
Then Robert stopped.
“Elizabeth's evidence.”
“Leave it.”
“It hasn't all been removed.”
“Dad.”
Robert turned toward the writing room.
“Those files can put Graham away.”
“Agents already photographed them.”
“The originals matter.”
Robert ran.
Ethan swore and followed.
Smoke thickened inside the hallway.
“Robert.”
Robert reached the cabinet.
Fire spread along the kitchen wall.
He grabbed the metal evidence case investigators had packed.
A ceiling beam cracked.
Ethan reached him.
“Move.”
They ran toward the front.
Then the beam fell.
Robert shoved Ethan forward.
The burning timber struck Robert across the shoulder.
He went down.
“Dad.”
Ethan turned back.
“Go.”
Robert coughed.
“Take the evidence.”
Ethan threw the case aside.
“I don't care about the evidence.”
He lifted the beam enough for Robert to pull free.
Agents rushed back inside.
Together they carried Robert toward the door.
Lucy stood outside screaming.
“Dad.”
Ethan emerged through smoke.
Robert was carried behind him.
Seconds later, the roof began collapsing.
They reached the tree line.
The entire rear half of the cabin burned.
Robert lay on the ground gasping.
Lucy ran toward Ethan.
He grabbed her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
She looked at Robert.
“Grandpa?”
The word slipped out.
Robert heard it.
His eyes filled with tears.
“I am fine.”
He wasn't.
His shoulder was badly injured.
But he was conscious.
Agents searched the perimeter.
A vehicle engine started somewhere beyond the trees.
Then shots were heard.
Not toward the family.
Federal officers ordered everyone down.
Minutes later, a radio call came.
Dana Cross had been captured near the private road.
She had attempted to flee through the woods.
She carried fake identification.
Cash.
A burner phone.
And photographs of Lucy.
Ethan held his daughter tighter.
Dana was brought past them in handcuffs.
She looked at Ethan.
No regret.
No fear.
Only exhaustion.
“You should have married Victoria.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Why?”
Dana laughed softly.
“Because people who enter the Hale family never leave clean.”
Agents moved her away.
The fire burned until midnight.
The cabin could not be saved.
But most evidence had already been transferred.
Elizabeth's letter survived inside Ethan's coat.
The cassette survived inside the federal evidence vehicle.
The original financial files Robert carried out survived too.
At the hospital, Robert was treated for burns and a fractured shoulder.
Lucy sat beside his bed.
“You went back for papers.”
Robert nodded.
“That was stupid.”
“Yes.”
“You could have died.”
“Yes.”
Lucy crossed her arms.
Robert looked at her.
“Are you angry?”
“Yes.”
He almost smiled.
“Good.”
Lucy shook her head.
“Adults are exhausting.”
Ethan laughed for the first time in days.
Then he received a message.
OLIVIA IS ASKING FOR YOU.
He and Lucy went upstairs together.
Olivia looked weak.
But awake.
Lucy ran to her.
Olivia held her as tightly as she could.
“My brave girl.”
“I found Dad.”
Lucy whispered.
Olivia looked at Ethan.
“So you did.”
Ethan sat beside them.
“We found more than that.”
He told her about Elizabeth's letter.
The archive.
The fire.
Dana's arrest.
Victoria's cooperation.
Graham's evidence.
Olivia listened.
Then she looked at Lucy.
“It is over?”
Ethan wanted to say yes.
Instead, he answered truthfully.
“Almost.”
His phone vibrated.
Mason.
Ethan answered.
“We digitized Elizabeth's cassette.”
Mason said.
“And?”
“You need to hear it.”
“Why?”
A long pause followed.
“Because Victoria wasn't just protecting the plan.”
Ethan frowned.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Mason's voice became grim.
“She was there the night your mother died.”
