The explosion threw me against the projection-room wall.
\nGlass shattered somewhere behind us.
\nCaleb screamed his mother\u2019s name as the lights vanished and smoke pushed through the doorway.
\n\u201cEveryone stay low!\u201d Detective Ortiz shouted.
\nEmergency lights should have illuminated the aisle.
\nThey did not.
\nSomeone had disabled them.
\nRachel found Caleb in the darkness and pulled him against her.
\nMr. Harlow had fallen beside a row of broken seats. Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow, but he was conscious.
\n\u201cI\u2019m fine,\u201d he insisted.
\nA second sound came from beneath the stage.
\nNot another explosion.
\nFire.
\nOrange light appeared through gaps in the floorboards.
\nThe evidence technician grabbed the metal box containing Thomas\u2019s tapes and documents.
\n\u201cI already uploaded the digital copies,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we need to move.\u201d
\nDetective Ortiz directed us toward a side exit.
\nSmoke filled the auditorium so quickly that I could no longer see the stage.<\/p>\n
Caleb coughed behind me.<\/p>\n
I reached backward until I found his hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t let go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen hold both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
We moved through the darkness like a chain.<\/p>\n
Rachel held Caleb.<\/p>\n
Caleb held me.<\/p>\n
I supported Mr. Harlow while Detective Ortiz led us toward daylight.<\/p>\n
A burning section of curtain fell behind us.<\/p>\n
Heat pressed against my back.<\/p>\n
Then an officer forced open the side door.<\/p>\n
Cold morning air rushed over us.<\/p>\n
We stumbled into the alley as firefighters ran toward the theater.<\/p>\n
Rachel dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Caleb.<\/p>\n
Mr. Harlow sat against a brick wall while a paramedic treated his head.<\/p>\n
The evidence technician emerged last, carrying Thomas\u2019s metal box against her chest.<\/p>\n
Victor stood across the street beneath a large black umbrella.<\/p>\n
He watched smoke rise from the building he had attempted to demolish an hour earlier.<\/p>\n
He did not look shocked.<\/p>\n
He looked disappointed.<\/p>\n
Detective Ortiz walked toward him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Samuel Croft?\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor raised an eyebrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Croft does not work weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis company vehicle delivered Rachel Reed to Ethan\u2019s house last night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you should ask him about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe intend to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor glanced toward the burning theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cOld buildings have old wiring. This tragedy proves why the Rialto should have been demolished years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fire marshal heard him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know what caused the explosion yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was offering an opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou offered it very quickly,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
His eyes found mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should be more concerned about your injured attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m concerned about the person who disabled the emergency lights.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time, his expression shifted.<\/p>\n
Only slightly.<\/p>\n
But I saw it.<\/p>\n
Then he turned away and called someone on his phone.<\/p>\n
The fire department contained the flames before they reached the front lobby.<\/p>\n
The hidden dressing room beneath the stage suffered the worst damage.<\/p>\n
If we had found Thomas\u2019s box twenty minutes later, everything inside it would have been destroyed.<\/p>\n
A fire investigator located the source of the explosion in a utility chamber beneath the auditorium.<\/p>\n
The gas line had been opened deliberately.<\/p>\n
An electronic ignition device had been attached to the main breaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not faulty wiring,\u201d Detective Ortiz told us. \u201cSomeone wanted the building to burn after we entered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCroft,\u201d Rachel whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need evidence before we name him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The theater\u2019s security system belonged to Mercer Development.<\/p>\n
Most of the cameras had been turned off.<\/p>\n
But one exterior camera remained active.<\/p>\n
At five forty-one that morning, it recorded a man entering through the side service door.<\/p>\n
He wore a Mercer security jacket and a baseball cap.<\/p>\n
The image was unclear.<\/p>\n
The access record was not.<\/p>\n
The door had been opened with Samuel Croft\u2019s security code.<\/p>\n
Victor immediately denied knowing anything.<\/p>\n
His company issued a statement saying Croft had been placed on administrative leave and could not be located.<\/p>\n
He was already preparing to sacrifice the man who had protected him for seventeen years.<\/p>\n
By noon, we were inside a temporary police command room two blocks from the theater.<\/p>\n
Mr. Harlow had three stitches above his eyebrow.<\/p>\n
Rachel sat beside Caleb while the evidence technician opened Thomas\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n
The bottom edge had been darkened by smoke, but the pages were readable.<\/p>\n
Rachel,<\/p>\n
If you are holding this, then the worst thing I feared may have happened.<\/p>\n
Do not blame yourself.<\/p>\n
Victor made his choices.<\/p>\n
I made mine.<\/p>\n
And Daniel made the mistake of believing the truth would protect us simply because it was true.<\/p>\n
It will not.<\/p>\n
Truth needs witnesses.<\/p>\n
Truth needs copies.<\/p>\n
And truth needs people willing to survive long enough to speak.<\/p>\n
Rachel paused.<\/p>\n
Caleb stared at his father\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n
She continued.<\/p>\n
The tape in this box contains my statement.<\/p>\n
It may help, but Victor will call me frightened, angry, or unstable.<\/p>\n
He will say I blamed him because I was about to lose my job.<\/p>\n
So I made another recording.<\/p>\n
This one contains Victor\u2019s own voice.<\/p>\n
He spoke to Croft inside the site office. Neither of them knew the recorder was running.<\/p>\n
I hid that tape somewhere Croft would never search.<\/p>\n
Inside the rear control compartment of Daniel\u2019s guitar.<\/p>\n
Daniel left it at the Rialto after rehearsal. I borrowed it for one final show.<\/p>\n
Tell him I\u2019m sorry I returned it with something more dangerous than music inside.<\/p>\n
My heart stopped.<\/p>\n
Dad\u2019s guitar was not with us.<\/p>\n
It was inside the Whitmore Music Room.<\/p>\n
With Mason.<\/p>\n
I called him.<\/p>\n
No answer.<\/p>\n
I tried again.<\/p>\n
Straight to voicemail.<\/p>\n
I opened the home-security application.<\/p>\n
The camera above the driveway was still active.<\/p>\n
I moved backward through the recording.<\/p>\n
At ten forty-seven, a dark sedan stopped outside the house.<\/p>\n
A man stepped out wearing a police jacket.<\/p>\n
He walked to the music-room entrance and showed something to the camera.<\/p>\n
A badge.<\/p>\n
Mason opened the door.<\/p>\n
The man lifted his face.<\/p>\n
Samuel Croft.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s inside my house,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Detective Ortiz grabbed her radio and dispatched the officers stationed nearby.<\/p>\n
The security feed suddenly went black.<\/p>\n
My phone rang.<\/p>\n
Mason.<\/p>\n
I answered immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice was barely a whisper.<\/p>\n
\u201cUpstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. But he\u2019s between me and the front door.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice are coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe keeps asking where you put the guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n
A floorboard creaked through the phone.<\/p>\n
Mason stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
Then Croft\u2019s voice sounded somewhere behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour friend cannot protect you, Mason.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call disconnected.<\/p>\n
PART 8 \u2014 THE EXPLOSION IN THE DARK The explosion threw me against the projection-room wall. Glass shattered somewhere behind us. Caleb screamed his mother\u2019s name as the lights vanished … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4109,"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions\/4109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nexttaleus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}