Chapter 8 - THE FIRE BY THE LAKE
The flames were taller than the cottage roof by the time Evelyn arrived at the outer gate.
Miriam refused to let her leave the SUV.
Evelyn ignored her.
Smoke rolled across the lawn.
Fire crews rushed hoses toward the building while security officers shouted conflicting instructions.
Sophie remained inside the vehicle with an officer.
Jonah ran toward the cottage.
“Jonah!” Evelyn shouted.
He turned.
“Stay back!”
“Who’s inside?”
“We don’t know!”
The cottage windows glowed orange.
For one terrible second, Evelyn saw Thomas standing behind them.
Not literally.
Memory.
Thomas leaning over his desk.
Thomas arguing with contractors over coffee.
Thomas falling asleep in an armchair with financial reports over his chest.
That cottage had held his last ordinary days.
Now somebody wanted to erase them.
A firefighter emerged from the side door pulling another man by the arm.
Evelyn recognized him.
Arthur Miles.
The estate’s night groundskeeper.
He was coughing but conscious.
Jonah reached them.
“Arthur!”
Arthur bent over.
“I saw somebody near the back.”
“Who?”
“Couldn’t tell.”
A crash sounded from inside the cottage.
Part of the ceiling collapsed.
Evelyn flinched.
Then headlights appeared near the service road.
A dark SUV accelerated away from the property.
One security vehicle immediately followed.
Miriam grabbed Evelyn.
“Inside the car.”
“That could be Blake.”
“Exactly.”
They moved back toward the SUV.
Minutes later, police stopped the fleeing vehicle two miles away.
The driver was not Blake.
It was one of Blake’s friends.
Twenty-two-year-old Tyler Gage.
He had gasoline residue on his clothing.
In the cargo area were empty fuel containers, gloves, and a backpack containing five thousand dollars in cash.
Tyler initially claimed he had come to the estate to party.
Then claimed he had been hired to move furniture.
Then stopped talking entirely.
The fire department controlled the cottage blaze shortly after 1 a.m.
Half the structure was destroyed.
But Thomas had been paranoid about records.
That was the word Evelyn used to tease him with.
Paranoid.
He had installed a fire-resistant records room after a pipe burst at one of their first facilities in 1994.
The door survived.
Inside were dozens of boxes.
Damaged.
Wet.
But mostly intact.
Miriam exhaled.
“Thomas just became my favorite dead client.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
Then Jonah approached carrying a small metal case.
“They found this in the fire room.”
“What is it?”
“It has Thomas’s initials.”
The case required a key.
Joseph Arlen had the key.
By sunrise, he was driving toward the estate.
Police questioned Tyler Gage through the morning.
At 7:20, he asked for a deal.
By 8:05, Blake Hale was a wanted man.
Tyler said Blake paid him ten thousand dollars to burn the cottage and specifically instructed him to destroy the filing cabinets in the back room.
Blake had said the papers were “old tax junk.”
Tyler knew nothing about Thomas.
Nothing about the company.
Nothing about Richard.
According to him.
Then detectives recovered deleted messages from Tyler’s phone.
One was from Blake.
Dad says tonight. No delays.
Evelyn read the screenshot without reacting.
Miriam watched her.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Reasonable.”
Evelyn looked toward the lake.
Morning sunlight made the water look harmless.
Beautiful, even.
She hated it for that.
“What happens now?”
“Police find Blake.”
“And Richard?”
“They’re speaking with his attorney.”
“Speaking?”
“He hasn’t been directly tied to the arson beyond Tyler’s message.”
“He told Blake to do it.”
“According to Tyler’s phone.”
“So arrest him.”
“Evelyn.”
“I know.”
She rubbed her forehead.
“I know how this works.”
Evidence.
Procedure.
Patience.
Three things she had once respected.
Now they felt unbearable.
Joseph arrived at 9:30.
The metal case opened.
Inside was an external hard drive.
Several mini audio recorders.
Photographs.
And a spiral notebook.
Thomas’s handwriting filled the notebook.
Dates.
Amounts.
Names.
Concerns about Richard.
One entry was dated six weeks before Thomas’s death.
R is lying again. Evelyn believes he is improving. I cannot bear to hurt her without certainty.
Another:
Spoke to bank. Transfers larger than I thought.
Another:
Richard knows I am changing succession.
Then the final entry.
The day before Thomas died.
Meeting R at lake tomorrow. He asked that we go alone. Says he wants to explain everything.
Evelyn could barely breathe.
Miriam turned the page.
Blank.
That was it.
Thomas had gone to meet his son.
Then he drowned.
The official investigation had concluded that Thomas likely slipped from his boat after drinking.
Evelyn had always hated that conclusion.
Thomas rarely drank before boating.
But a half-empty whiskey bottle had been found on board.
Richard said his father had seemed depressed.
Evelyn remembered arguing with investigators.
They told her grief made people reject simple answers.
Maybe there had never been a simple answer.
At noon, police finally located Blake.
He was hiding in a hotel under his girlfriend’s name.
He surrendered.
His phone was missing.
His laptop was missing.
But Blake was frightened enough to talk.
Within four hours, his story changed twice.
By evening, he admitted paying Tyler.
“Who told you to burn the cottage?” the detective asked.
Blake asked for his lawyer.
That answer was enough for Evelyn.
At 6:40 p.m., Richard’s attorney informed investigators that his client was unavailable.
Unavailable.
Not missing.
Not fleeing.
Unavailable.
Evelyn called Richard.
Voicemail.
Again.
Voicemail.
She texted.
CALL ME.
No response.
Then Hale Meridian’s interim CFO contacted Miriam.
Someone had attempted to initiate a six-million-dollar transfer from a reserve account using an authorization code associated with Richard’s former executive credentials.
The bank had stopped it.
Richard was running.
Police issued an alert.
At 9:15 p.m., Jonah came into the library.
His face told Evelyn something else had happened.
“What?”
“They found Mr. Richard’s boat.”
Evelyn stood.
“Where?”
“North side of the lake.”
“Was he on it?”
Jonah shook his head.
“The boat was drifting.”
Evelyn’s throat closed.
“And Richard?”
“No sign of him.”
Miriam appeared in the doorway.
“There’s more.”
Evelyn did not want more.
But more came anyway.
“Police found blood on the deck.”
The room tilted.
For eight years, Evelyn had wondered what Thomas felt during his final minutes in that lake.
May you like
Now her son was missing on the same water.
And someone had left blood behind.
