Chapter 5 - The Night the Fairbank Market Caught Fire
The fire started at 2:12 a.m.
Josie smelled smoke before she saw flames.
At first she thought someone had burned something in the deli.
Then Peg shouted.
“Fire!”
Customers ran.
Emergency alarms began screaming.
Josie grabbed the nearest extinguisher.
The flames had started near the stock room.
She pushed through the smoke.
“Peg!”
“I'm here!”
Peg was trapped behind a fallen rack.
Josie tried to lift it.
It would not move.
“Stay with me!”
“I can't breathe.”
“Look at me.”
Peg coughed.
“Get out.”
“No.”
“Josie!”
“No.”
She tried again.
The metal rack shifted.
A beam crashed nearby.
Josie screamed.
Then two arms grabbed the rack.
Elias.
He had arrived before the fire department.
Behind him were Rocco and three others.
“What are you doing here?” Josie shouted.
“Saving you.”
“You broke the rule.”
“Yes.”
He lifted the rack.
“Argue later.”
Peg crawled free.
They moved toward the exit.
Smoke filled the store.
A ceiling panel collapsed.
Elias pushed Josie down.
The panel hit the floor.
They reached outside.
Firefighters rushed in.
Josie turned toward the building.
“My notebook.”
Elias grabbed her wrist.
“Forget it.”
“No.”
“It isn't worth your life.”
“It has names.”
He froze.
“What names?”
“Everything.”
The list.
Her observations.
Dates.
Times.
People.
Suspicious activity.
Elias stared at the burning store.
“We'll get another copy.”
“There isn't one.”
Silence.
Then Josie's face changed.
“There is.”
She reached into her jacket.
A small drive.
“I copied it.”
Elias looked at her.
“You didn't tell me.”
“You would have taken it away.”
“That was the plan.”
She smiled weakly.
A firefighter approached.
“Everyone clear?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
He looked at the building.
“This wasn't accidental.”
Elias went still.
“Why?”
“The accelerant pattern.”
Rocco exchanged a glance with him.
“Someone set it.”
Josie's face went pale.
Mason Mercer.
Warren.
Someone higher.
They didn't know.
But they knew it wasn't random.
The next morning, the city reported the fire as suspicious.
Fairbank closed indefinitely.
Employees were relocated.
Priscilla was missing.
Warren had disappeared.
And Mason Mercer had left Rhode Island.
The investigation widened.
Josie sat in Elias's office.
“You're not going back.”
She looked at him.
“I can't.”
“Yes, you can.”
“The store is gone.”
“Temporarily.”
“Maybe.”
He sat beside her.
“What do you want?”
She looked down.
“Justice.”
“For whom?”
“Peg.”
“She survived.”
“So did I.”
Elias waited.
Josie took a breath.
“I want to know why.”
He nodded.
“Then we'll find out.”
They began with Warren.
His financial accounts had been frozen.
His house was empty.
His phone was destroyed.
His wife claimed she hadn't seen him in two days.
Then Rocco found a hidden account.
Payments from Mercer Development.
But the account had one more sender.
A company called North Harbor Consulting.
Elias recognized the name.
It was supposed to be defunct.
He opened the records.
The owner was listed as:
Victor Sloane.
Josie frowned.
“Who is he?”
“My father's old attorney.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Boston.”
They drove there that night.
Sloane lived in a quiet neighborhood.
He opened the door.
Saw Elias.
Then Josie.
His face changed.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Elias stepped inside.
“Tell me about North Harbor.”
Sloane shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because your father wasn't the only one keeping records.”
Elias's expression hardened.
“What does that mean?”
Sloane looked at Josie.
“He kept a second list.”
“What kind?”
“Names of people he believed would betray him.”
Josie felt cold.
“Was I on it?”
Sloane stared at her.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Everyone else.”
He handed Elias a box.
Inside were old folders.
Receipts.
Letters.
Photographs.
One photograph stopped Josie's breath.
Her father.
Elias's father.
And Salvatore.
Standing together twenty years earlier.
Josie looked at Elias.
“Why?”
He shook his head.
“I didn't know.”
Sloane said:
“They were partners.”
“Partners in what?”
“Money laundering.”
Silence.
Elias's face hardened.
“My father didn't do that.”
Sloane gave a sad smile.
“He did.”
“But he changed.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“When he met your wife.”
Josie froze.
“What?”
“He told me there was one person in the world who made him want to stop.”
Elias stared.
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
Then Sloane revealed the part that destroyed Elias.
His father's criminal empire had not been built solely for money.
It had been built around a private network of judges, politicians, and union officials.
The list contained every name.
And Elias's father had spent years trying to dismantle it.
The problem was simple.
Someone else still wanted it alive.
Whoever had burned Fairbank was not trying to steal the list.
They were trying to see whether Josie had it.
Sloane looked at her.
“Your husband trusted you with something dangerous.”
“I don't have it.”
Sloane shook his head.
“You may.”
“How?”
“The list isn't on paper anymore.”
Josie looked at the drive in her hand.
Sloane stared.
“That's only part of it.”
Elias turned.
“What do you mean?”
Sloane pointed toward Josie's notebook.
“She has the living list.”
“What?”
“Every time she wrote down someone's name, she created a pattern.”
Josie understood.
Her notebook was not simply observations.
It was evidence.
Sloane whispered:
“You noticed things nobody else noticed.”
Elias looked at his wife.
She had spent months believing she was only watching bad behavior.
She had actually been reconstructing the network.
Then Sloane said:
“There's one more thing.”
“What?”
“Someone inside Fairbank was feeding information to Mercer.”
Josie's face changed.
“Who?”
Sloane stared at her.
“Peg.”
Silence.
“No.”
Sloane opened another folder.
Payments.
Peg's name.
Josie felt sick.
“She wouldn't.”
“She did.”
Elias looked at her.
“There's more.”
Sloane's voice lowered.
“Peg's grandson isn't really her grandson.”
Josie stared.
“What?”
“Owen is the son of the man who controls the network.”
She felt the room tilt.
“Who?”
Sloane said:
“Salvatore Marchetti.”
Elias went completely still.
His uncle.
The man he had trusted all his life.
The man who had encouraged his reforms.
The man who had asked who would be afraid of them if they became legitimate.
The man who had known about Josie.
The fire.
The list.
Everything.
Elias stood.
“No.”
Sloane looked at him.
“I didn't want to believe it either.”
Elias turned toward the window.
Josie touched his hand.
He was shaking.
“You knew something was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“You knew before I did.”
“Yes.”
“And now you think Salvatore is behind this.”
“I know he is.”
The door downstairs closed.
Sloane looked toward the hall.
Someone had entered.
Rocco drew his weapon.
Footsteps approached.
Sloane whispered:
“Run.”
The lights went out.
A gunshot echoed through the house.
May you like
And Josie heard Salvatore's voice from the darkness.
“Elias.”
