Chapter 16 - Ashes On The Lawn
I couldn't stay at the bank forever.
By nightfall, the custodian knocked gently on the frosted glass door, informing us that the vault had to close.
I transferred the tapes, the ledger, and the vial into my large handbag.
I took the brown lunch bag and slid it carefully under Lily’s jacket.
We walked out into the cold evening drizzle, blending into the sea of commuters rushing toward the train station.
I needed to see my home with my own eyes.
I needed to know if Marcus’s final warning was true.
We took a taxi that dropped us off three blocks away from our street.
Holding Lily’s hand tightly, I stepped into the shadows of the maple trees lining our avenue.
The smell of wet ash and scorched wood hit my nostrils before we even turned the corner.
My stomach plummeted into an abyss.
Fire engines with flashing red beacons clogged our quiet street.
Smoke billowed into the dark autumn sky, thick and gray.
Where our cozy, two-story colonial home had stood—where Marcus had kissed me goodbye every morning, where Lily had learned to ride her bicycle—there was only a smoldering, blackened skeleton of charred timber.
Firefighters were dragging heavy yellow hoses across our ruined front lawn.
"Gas leak," I heard a neighbor tell an onlooker at the police tape.
"Exploded from the basement up about two hours ago."
"Thank God the widow and her little girl were out."
I stepped back behind the trunk of a massive oak, shielding Lily from the horrifying view.
Lily buried her face in my hip, sobbing silently.
They hadn't just searched the house.
They had erased every photograph, every baby blanket, every physical memory of Marcus’s touch.
Through the crowd of onlookers across the street, a familiar silhouette caught my eye.
Standing next to an unmarked police cruiser was Chairman Arthur Sterling.
He wore a cashmere overcoat, an umbrella held over his head by a young chauffeur.
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He wasn't looking at the fire with sorrow.
He was scanning the crowd with cold, calculating eyes, searching for a mother and a child holding a brown paper bag.
