Chapter 5 - THE FIRE AT BLACK PINE SPRINGS
The east lodge burned for forty-three minutes.
Firefighters saved most of the structure.
They did not save Dominic’s mother’s room.
By the time Emily reached Black Pine Springs, flames had already broken through the roof above the east hallway.
Dominic stood behind the emergency line.
No coat.
Snow landed in his hair.
Caleb argued with firefighters.
Ruth sat wrapped in a blanket.
Emily ran toward her first.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Smoke?”
“Nothing serious.”
“Where was Dominic?”
Ruth looked toward him.
“Trying to go inside.”
Of course.
Emily’s chest tightened.
“What started it?”
“Unknown.”
A firefighter approached Caleb.
His expression was grim.
“We found evidence of accelerant.”
Dominic heard.
He turned.
Everything in his face disappeared.
Not grief.
Not rage.
Control.
That was worse.
Emily knew exactly what he was thinking.
Frederick.
“Don’t.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Not now.”
“You don’t know.”
“He threatened Black Pine.”
“He sued.”
“He didn’t threaten fire.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“My mother’s room burned.”
Emily’s expression softened.
“I know.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“She died in that room.”
Ruth stood.
“Dominic.”
He looked away.
The east lodge roof collapsed behind them.
Emily saw him flinch.
Just once.
Then Caleb returned.
“Security system was disabled fourteen minutes before ignition.”
“By who?”
“Employee credentials.”
“Name?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Ruth Bell.”
Everyone froze.
Ruth stared.
“What?”
Dominic turned.
Caleb looked sick.
“Your code opened the east service panel.”
“I was in the main lodge.”
“I know.”
“Cameras?”
“Show you there.”
“So cloned.”
“Likely.”
Dominic looked at Caleb.
“Who has access to administrative credentials?”
“Five people.”
“List.”
“Me.”
“You.”
“Ruth.”
“Systems director Aaron Pike.”
“And facilities chief Tom Reilly.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“Find both.”
Tom Reilly was already outside helping firefighters.
Aaron Pike was gone.
His apartment empty.
Phone off.
Vehicle missing.
A search of his financial records revealed a payment forty-eight hours earlier.
Two hundred thousand dollars.
From an Alder Ridge subcontractor.
Emily felt sick.
Dominic said nothing.
Too little.
Caleb looked at him.
“Say it.”
Dominic stared at the burning lodge.
“Find Frederick.”
Emily stepped between them.
“No.”
Both men looked at her.
“We have evidence against Pike.”
“Not Frederick.”
Caleb said quietly:
“She’s right.”
Dominic looked betrayed.
Caleb shrugged.
“Terrible feeling.”
Dominic walked away.
Emily followed.
He entered the private hot-spring courtyard.
Smoke darkened the sky.
Ash drifted with snow.
The brass sign still remained.
EMILY HARPER IS AUTHORIZED.
She found Dominic beside the stone bench.
He stared toward the east wing.
“I should have sold.”
Emily stopped.
“What?”
“If I sold Black Pine, this doesn’t happen.”
“No.”
“Frederick gets what he wants.”
“Yes.”
“Ruth isn’t nearly burned alive.”
“You don’t know the fire came from Frederick.”
“He built the pressure.”
“That does not make every result his direct choice.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“You sound like yourself talking to me.”
“Yes.”
“Annoying.”
“Very.”
He sat.
Emily joined him.
For several seconds, Dominic said nothing.
Then:
“My mother hated hospitals.”
Emily listened.
“When she got sick, she refused to leave Black Pine.”
“Doctors came here.”
“She stayed in the east room because sunrise hit the windows.”
His voice softened.
“She couldn’t walk down to the spring by the end.”
“So we carried hot water upstairs.”
Emily’s throat tightened.
“She died two days after Christmas.”
Dominic looked at the smoke.
“I left everything exactly the way it was.”
“For ten years?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why nobody used the east rooms.”
“Yes.”
Emily understood.
The fire had not destroyed a building.
It had attacked a frozen piece of grief.
She touched Dominic’s arm.
“You can still remember her.”
“I know.”
“But?”
He looked at her.
“Objects are easier.”
Honest.
Emily nodded.
“Yes.”
He almost smiled.
“You agree too quickly.”
“My grandfather’s coffee mug is still behind the register.”
“Cracked.”
“Ugly.”
“Completely unusable.”
“Mom threatens to throw it away every six months.”
“Dad threatens divorce.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“There.”
“What?”
“You’re human again.”
He looked at her.
Something changed.
They were close.
Closer than the January evening.
Emily noticed his eyes move to her mouth.
Her heartbeat changed.
Then Dominic asked:
“Can I kiss you?”
The question surprised her more than a kiss would have.
This man negotiated debt with threats hidden inside polite sentences.
Yet he asked.
Emily swallowed.
“Are you asking because your mother’s room burned and you’re upset?”
Dominic went still.
Good question.
He looked away.
Then back.
“Partly.”
“Then no.”
Pain crossed his face.
Not anger.
Emily’s chest tightened.
She continued:
“Ask me on a day nobody tried to burn your resort.”
He stared.
Then slowly smiled.
“Fair.”
She smiled too.
Progress.
The investigation moved quickly.
Aaron Pike was found the next morning at a motel near Syracuse.
Alive.
Terrified.
He confessed to disabling the alarms.
He denied setting the fire.
A man named Patrick Shaw paid him to create a twenty-minute security window.
Shaw worked for a demolition contractor tied to Alder Ridge.
Frederick’s company.
Dominic wanted him arrested immediately.
State investigators did.
Shaw surrendered.
Then the twist.
Frederick called Dominic himself.
“This was not mine.”
Dominic laughed.
“Your contractor.”
“Without authorization.”
“Convenient.”
“I can prove it.”
“How?”
“Shaw received money from Victor Salerno.”
Dominic went still.
Victor.
Under indictment.
Supposedly broke.
Apparently not done.
Frederick continued.
“Victor believes if our development fails, I’ll abandon him.”
“He’s trying to create a war between us.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Why would he burn Black Pine?”
“To make you blame me.”
“And?”
“To make me blame you for whatever you do next.”
Emily listened through speaker again.
Frederick said:
“Victor still controls files on both our families.”
“He knows things Walter did.”
“He knows things I did.”
“And things you did, Dominic.”
The room became silent.
“Meet me.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Where?”
“Public.”
“Albany.”
“No guns.”
Dominic laughed.
“That request alone proves we’re related.”
Frederick ignored it.
“Bring Emily.”
Dominic immediately said:
“No.”
Emily simultaneously said:
“Yes.”
Both men stopped.
Frederick laughed.
“She really does make you uncomfortable.”
Emily looked at Dominic.
“Good.”
The meeting took place in a private conference room at a downtown hotel surrounded by state investigators.
Frederick Vale walked in at noon.
Fifty-eight.
Silver beginning at his temples.
Tall.
Same eyes as Dominic.
Older.
More tired.
Dominic stood.
Neither brother spoke.
Then Frederick looked at Emily.
“So you’re the waitress.”
Emily’s eyebrows rose.
Dominic’s face hardened.
Frederick corrected:
“Emily Harper.”
“Better.”
He almost smiled.
The brothers sat opposite each other.
Frederick placed a flash drive on the table.
“Victor Salerno kept insurance.”
“Against who?”
“Everyone.”
“What’s on it?”
“Enough to send both of us to prison if prosecutors interpret things aggressively.”
Emily looked at Dominic.
His expression remained unreadable.
Frederick continued.
“And enough to prove Walter Carver did something neither of us knew.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“What?”
Frederick looked at his brother.
“Father didn’t only force me out.”
“He changed your mother’s will.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
Emily felt cold.
Frederick continued.
“Black Pine Springs was never supposed to belong only to you.”
May you like
Silence.
“Half of it,” Frederick said, “was mine.”
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