Chapter 15 - The Winter Gala:
The annual Vance Foundation gala was scheduled at the Grand Harrington Hotel.
More than six hundred donors, executives, and public officials planned to attend.
Jonathan had controlled the event preparations for months.
Police evacuated the building before sunrise.
Bomb technicians searched every floor.
They found no explosives.
Hale remained suspicious.
“Jonathan wanted us to close the gala.”
“Why?” Richard asked.
“To move everyone somewhere else.”
Richard’s staff relocated the event to the Vance Foundation headquarters.
Rosa heard the news and immediately objected.
“That is what he wants.”
“The archive is beneath that building.”
“He wants everyone near the evidence.”
Jonathan sat in federal custody.
He refused to speak further.
Elias requested a deal.
He revealed that Jonathan had installed incendiary devices inside the old headquarters years earlier.
They were hidden within walls and connected to a private control system.
But Elias did not know the activation code.
Dr. Ross did.
Ross had been transferred to a secure medical unit.
When police reached his room, they found him unconscious.
Someone had poisoned his water.
He survived, but he could not speak.
Evelyn knew the code.
She refused to reveal it unless prosecutors guaranteed immunity.
Mia visited her hospital room.
Evelyn sat beside the window, her wounded shoulder immobilized.
“You slapped us because of a vase,” Mia said.
Evelyn looked away.
“I slapped you because I recognized Rosa’s eyes.”
“You knew who we were from the first day.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell Jonathan?”
“I did.”
“He told me to keep you close.”
“To watch for the key.”
“Every accusation.”
“Every search of our rooms.”
“You were looking for it.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Then the vase broke before you could find it.”
“The wind exposed what cruelty could not.”
Evelyn almost laughed.
“I suppose that sounds poetic to you.”
“No.”
“It sounds like justice.”
Mia placed photographs of the foundation headquarters on the table.
“Tell me how to stop the fire.”
“What do I receive?”
“The opportunity to save hundreds of people.”
“I stopped believing in moral rewards a long time ago.”
“Then believe in prison walls.”
“Jonathan intends to blame the fire on you.”
“He already transferred the device registrations into your name.”
Evelyn’s expression shifted.
Mia had guessed.
Again, silence confirmed the truth.
“If the building burns, you will be charged with mass murder.”
Evelyn stared at the photographs.
“The control panel is behind the founder’s portrait in the main hall.”
“The code is Chloe’s birth date.”
Mia felt sick.
Jonathan had built the plan around secrets only a few people knew.
Evelyn continued.
“There are four devices.”
“Destroying the panel will trigger them.”
“You must disarm them individually.”
“Where?”
“One beneath the archive.”
“One inside the ventilation room.”
“One above the main ballroom.”
“And one inside Samuel Vance’s memorial wall.”
“Who activates them?”
Evelyn looked at Mia.
“Someone Jonathan placed inside Richard’s family years ago.”
They searched every employee record.
No obvious suspect emerged.
The gala was officially canceled.
Richard announced that evidence from the foundation investigation would be presented through a secure broadcast instead.
Only a small group entered the headquarters.
Richard.
Mia.
Chloe.
Laura.
Rosa.
Nora.
Hale.
Bomb technicians accompanied them.
They found the first three devices exactly where Evelyn described.
Each was disarmed.
The fourth remained inside Samuel’s memorial wall.
The panel required two keys.
Mia and Nora inserted them.
The wall opened.
There was no incendiary device inside.
Only a video monitor.
Jonathan appeared on the screen.
The recording had been scheduled in advance.
“The fourth device was never in the wall.”
“It entered the building with one of you.”
Everyone looked at one another.
Hale ordered a full search.
Officers scanned bags, clothing, and equipment.
Nothing appeared.
Then Laura touched her bandaged arm.
Her hospital dressing felt unusually hard.
Chloe carefully removed it.
A small electronic device had been sewn beneath the gauze while Laura was unconscious after the chapel shooting.
Its timer displayed seven minutes.
The device was not an explosive.
It was a transmitter.
It had already activated the hidden fire system.
Metal doors dropped across the building.
Flames appeared in the upper ventilation shafts.
Smoke poured into the hall.
Hale called for evacuation.
The main exits would not open.
Jonathan’s voice continued from the monitor.
“You took my company.”
“You took my name.”
“Now watch the Vance legacy burn with everyone inside it.”
Rosa looked toward the underground archive.
“There is another tunnel.”
“Samuel built it during the Cold War.”
“Where does it open?” Mia asked.
“Beneath the river.”
Richard stared at the spreading fire.
“Get everyone into the tunnel.”
Mia looked toward the ballroom.
Chloe was no longer beside her.
Through the smoke, she saw Evelyn standing near the far staircase.
Evelyn had escaped police custody.
May you like
She held Chloe by the arm.
And a gun rested against her back.
