Chapter 22 - Fire at Joliet
Rachel saw the orange glow from three miles away.
Daniel drove while she watched smoke rise beyond the highway.
Fire engines screamed past them.
“Faster.”
“I’m already doing seventy.”
“Then do—”
Daniel looked at her.
Rachel stopped.
“Fine.”
When they reached Joliet, firefighters had surrounded Warehouse Three.
The building was not part of the active freight terminal.
It stored old equipment, archived records, and surplus packaging.
Arthur met Rachel beyond the security perimeter.
“Everyone is accounted for.”
That was all Rachel needed to hear first.
“No injuries?”
“One security guard inhaled smoke. He’s being checked.”
Rachel exhaled.
Then she looked at the flames.
“What was inside?”
“Mostly old inventory.”
Arthur’s face changed.
“And compliance archives.”
Rachel stared at him.
“What kind?”
“Historical property inspection records.”
Sarah arrived twenty minutes later.
Agent Sloan followed.
The fire department declared the blaze suspicious before sunrise.
Three ignition points.
No electrical cause.
No accidental fuel source.
Arson.
Grant had moved from financial sabotage to fire.
But there was a problem.
Grant had an alibi.
He had attended a televised charity dinner when the fire started.
Rachel watched the replay.
Grant stood beneath bright lights, shaking hands with donors while her warehouse burned forty miles away.
“He wants everyone to know he wasn’t there,” Sarah said.
Sloan nodded.
“Which means whoever did this probably was.”
Investigators reviewed security footage.
One camera near the western service road had gone dark seventeen minutes before the fire.
Another captured a maintenance van.
The vehicle carried the logo of a legitimate electrical contractor.
The contractor denied sending anyone.
Malik Johnson arrived before his morning shift.
He looked at a still image of the van.
“That truck was here last week.”
Arthur turned.
“What?”
“Same dent above the rear wheel.”
“When?”
“Tuesday afternoon.”
“Who was driving?”
Malik thought.
“White guy. Maybe forty. Baseball cap.”
Sloan displayed several photographs.
Malik stopped at one.
“That’s him.”
Leonard Pike’s former assistant.
Evan Cole.
Arthur swore.
Cole had been fired three months earlier during the restructuring.
He had access to facility layouts.
By noon, police found the maintenance van abandoned near a commuter station.
Inside were gasoline residue, cloned access badges, and a burner phone.
The phone contained only one stored number.
It belonged to a shell company.
Sarah traced the shell company.
Northstar Agricultural Holdings.
For the first time, the evidence pointed directly toward Grant’s operation.
But Grant’s attorneys moved instantly.
They claimed the van had been planted.
They accused Rachel of manufacturing another crisis.
Financial networks repeated the accusation.
Then something unexpected happened.
Victor called Rachel.
She stared at his name.
She had not blocked his new number because federal investigators had occasionally used him as a witness.
She answered.
“What?”
“I saw the fire.”
“We’re safe.”
“I know.”
Victor hesitated.
“Warehouse Three had old executive archives.”
“Yes.”
“There’s something you need to know.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“What did you hide there, Victor?”
“A physical backup of acquisition files.”
“What acquisitions?”
“Companies we considered buying.”
“So?”
Victor’s breathing became uneasy.
“One file concerned Ward Continental Development.”
Grant’s father’s company.
Rachel stood straighter.
“When?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
“Why?”
“We considered buying distressed real estate from them after Douglas Ward died.”
“What was in the file?”
“Financial records.”
Victor paused.
“And legal disputes.”
Rachel’s heart accelerated.
“About my grandfather?”
“I don’t know. I never read everything.”
Of course he hadn’t.
“What happened to the backup?”
“If the fire destroyed it, maybe nothing.”
Rachel could hear shame in his voice.
“But there should be another copy.”
“Where?”
“Old bank records.”
“Which bank?”
Victor gave her the name.
Sarah immediately began making calls.
Three hours later, the bank’s archival division confirmed it possessed microfilm copies of the acquisition due-diligence package.
A subpoena was issued.
By evening, Sarah held a scanned report.
She read the first page.
Then sat down.
Rachel watched her.
“What?”
Sarah looked stunned.
“Douglas Ward didn’t just try to steal your grandfather’s land.”
She turned the document.
“He owed William Vance money.”
“How much?”
“Adjusted for today?”
Sarah swallowed.
“More than eight million dollars.”
Rachel stared at the page.
The report showed that Douglas Ward had borrowed money from several regional farmers during a failed development project.
William had personally guaranteed part of the financing.
When Douglas defaulted, William paid creditors to prevent neighboring farms from collapsing.
Douglas then tried to seize William’s most valuable acreage through the fraudulent deed.
“This wasn’t business,” Rachel whispered.
“No.”
Sarah looked toward the smoking warehouse.
“This was revenge.”
Grant had inherited more than his father’s company.
May you like
He had inherited the grudge.
And now he had tried to burn the evidence proving why it began.
