Chapter 26 - The Fire
The fire started at 3:42 a.m.
Marigold's emergency housing wing was full.
Fourteen women.
Nine children.
One infant.
The alarm woke them.
The sprinklers didn't.
Someone had disabled them.
I arrived while flames were still pouring from the second floor.
“Where's Maya?”
Nobody answered.
“Maya!”
Frank grabbed me.
“You cannot go inside.”
“She was working overnight.”
“Fire department—”
I heard screaming.
A child.
I stopped thinking.
I ran.
My left leg screamed as I crossed the entrance.
Smoke swallowed the hallway.
I found Maya near the stairs.
She was carrying a little boy.
Another child clung to her coat.
“Emily!”
“This way!”
We reached the lobby as part of the ceiling collapsed behind us.
Outside, firefighters took the children.
I bent over coughing.
Frank grabbed my shoulders.
“What were you thinking?”
“I wasn't.”
“Exactly!”
Then I saw Victoria.
She stood across the street.
Her face was white.
“Richard,” she whispered.
Yes.
But he had made one mistake.
Everyone survived.
And the security system had captured him.
Not setting the fire.
Entering the utility room two hours earlier.
We finally had him.
Attempted murder.
Arson.
Conspiracy.
The FBI released his photograph nationwide.
Richard Sterling became a fugitive.
And Marigold became national news.
Donations flooded in.
Volunteers arrived.
Hotels offered rooms.
Contractors offered free repairs.
Richard had tried to destroy the foundation.
Instead, he made the entire country learn its name.
Three days later, a package arrived from Vermont.
Claire.
Inside was her original 2004 evidence.
May you like
And one handwritten note.
Finish it.
