Chapter 5 - Fire Under Glass
The smoke thickened fast.
Daniel wrapped his jacket around Claire’s face.
Owen searched the underground room for another exit.
“There has to be ventilation.”
Daniel kicked through stacked boxes.
Nothing.
Above them, glass began cracking from heat.
Claire coughed.
“We’re trapped.”
“No.”
Daniel refused to believe it.
Rebecca had used this room.
She would never have entered without another way out.
He remembered her obsession with old architecture.
Secret passages.
Service corridors.
She had once joked that every old estate had a second door somewhere.
Daniel scanned the walls.
Behind a filing cabinet was a rusted metal panel.
He pulled it open.
A narrow maintenance tunnel stretched beyond.
“Move.”
They crawled through darkness.
After nearly seventy feet, Owen found a ladder.
The hatch opened behind the garden wall.
Fresh night air hit Daniel’s face.
He climbed out.
Across the lawn, flames consumed the greenhouse.
Security teams raced toward it.
Daniel looked around.
Whoever had set the fire was already gone.
Claire bent over coughing.
Then Daniel saw Michael approaching from the main house.
“What happened?”
Daniel stared at the signet ring on his brother’s hand.
Michael noticed.
“What?”
Daniel walked toward him.
“Where were you ten minutes ago?”
Michael frowned.
“In the billiard room with two officers.”
“Before that?”
“What is this?”
“Answer me.”
Michael’s expression hardened.
“You think I did this?”
Daniel didn’t blink.
Michael laughed in disbelief.
“My brother nearly burns alive and somehow I’m the suspect?”
Daniel removed Rebecca’s photograph from his pocket.
He held it out.
Michael looked.
His anger disappeared.
“That isn’t me.”
“You’re wearing the same ring.”
“So are you sometimes.”
“I wasn’t secretly meeting my wife.”
“Neither was I.”
Claire approached.
“You told Rebecca something about the trust.”
Michael looked at her.
“What?”
“She wrote it down.”
Michael stared between them.
“You went through Rebecca’s things?”
“She believed someone was altering Daniel’s medication.”
Michael’s face went pale.
Daniel saw it.
“You knew.”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“Because that sounds insane.”
“Rebecca also wrote your name.”
Michael looked toward the burning greenhouse.
Then back at Daniel.
“I never wanted you dead.”
“Interesting choice of words.”
Michael swore.
Owen stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Michael looked at the detective.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“I met Rebecca three days before she died.”
Daniel froze.
“Where?”
“The Mercer Hotel downtown.”
“Why?”
“She called me.”
“What did she want?”
Michael hesitated.
Daniel stepped forward.
“What did she want?”
“She thought someone was stealing from the company.”
“That’s in her notebook.”
“She thought it went beyond money.”
“How?”
“She found payments connected to private medical consultants.”
Daniel felt a chill.
“What consultants?”
Michael shook his head.
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Why meet you?”
“She asked me to protect Lily.”
Daniel stared.
“If something happened to her?”
Michael nodded.
“And you never told me?”
“She made me swear.”
“My wife died.”
“I know.”
“And you kept quiet?”
Michael’s voice rose.
“Because the day after she died, somebody sent me a photograph of my daughter leaving school.”
Daniel stopped.
Michael pulled out his phone.
He searched old encrypted files.
Then showed Daniel an image.
His teenage daughter, Ava.
Walking toward a car.
Taken from across the street.
Below it had been a message.
Rebecca talked too much. Don’t make the same mistake.
Claire covered her mouth.
Daniel stared at his brother.
“You never went to police?”
“The detective investigating Rebecca’s accident was already receiving information from inside the family.”
Owen stiffened.
Michael looked at him.
“I didn’t know who to trust.”
Owen said quietly, “You think someone in my department was compromised?”
“I know they were.”
“How?”
Michael took back his phone.
“Because the threat included details I only told the first responding officer.”
Owen’s expression changed.
Daniel felt the conspiracy expand again.
This was no longer about one poisoned cup.
Someone had been protecting a secret for years.
A phone rang.
Owen answered.
He listened.
Then looked at Daniel.
“They found Nora.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Owen’s eyes darkened.
“In your father’s old hunting cabin.”
Michael frowned.
“That place has been empty for ten years.”
“Not tonight.”
They drove there immediately.
The cabin stood four miles beyond the estate.
Police lights flashed between pine trees.
Daniel entered.
Nora sat on the floor wrapped in a blanket.
A cut marked her temple.
Daniel knelt beside her.
“Nora.”
She looked up.
“They took me.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“What happened?”
“The lights went out.”
“Yes.”
“Someone came through the terrace door.”
“Man or woman?”
“I don’t know.”
“They covered my head.”
Daniel glanced around.
“Why bring you here?”
Nora’s lips trembled.
“Because of Rebecca.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“What about Rebecca?”
Nora reached beneath the blanket.
She held a folded piece of paper.
“They left this in my coat.”
Daniel opened it.
A single sentence had been printed.
THE WRONG MERCER DRANK THE FIRST CUP.
Daniel read it twice.
“What does that mean?”
Nora began crying.
“I think Rebecca was poisoned.”
Daniel’s heartbeat stopped for a second.
“What?”
“The week before her accident.”
“You said she suspected it.”
“She did.”
“No.”
Nora shook her head.
“I mean I think she actually drank something.”
Daniel stared.
“She became dizzy.”
“Yes.”
“She complained she couldn’t focus.”
“Yes.”
“And then she crashed.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Daniel felt sick.
But before he could ask another question, Owen called from the doorway.
“Daniel.”
He sounded different.
Daniel stood.
Owen held up his phone.
“The lab has preliminary results from your cup.”
Daniel waited.
Owen looked at Nora.
Then at Daniel.
“Whatever was put in your tea was not intended to kill you immediately.”
Daniel frowned.
“What was it intended to do?”
Owen’s answer changed everything.
“To make you appear intoxicated, confused, and medically unstable.”
Daniel stared.
Owen continued.
“And according to the dosage they estimate…”
He paused.
May you like
“…someone wanted you conscious long enough to sign something.”
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