story of an accidental fire impossible to accept without serious examination.
Gabriel looked at the photograph.
“Luc submitted a written objection,” he murmured.
“Yes,” Elise replied.
“And someone made sure nobody listened.”
He slowly pulled a chair away from the nearest table.
“I saw a summary of that objection,” he admitted.
Elise stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I was told the inspection complaint had been resolved.”
“By whom?”
“Celeste’s office.”
“Did you ask my father?”
“No.”
“Did you ask the families who were missing their generators?”
His silence answered her.
Elise felt something inside her settle into cold certainty.
For months she had imagined confronting the man whose businesses controlled Pier Twelve.
She had pictured him denying everything or threatening her into silence.
Instead, he was standing in front of her admitting that he had accepted convenient explanations when asking difficult questions might have cost him money.
“You weren’t the person who locked that door,” she said.
“Maybe you weren’t even the person who started the fire.
But you had the power to ask what happened.
You chose not to.”
Gabriel lowered his eyes.
For perhaps the first time in years, he had nothing useful to say.
Ruth arrived shortly afterward, accompanied by Dana Price, a state fire investigator who had reviewed the family’s earlier request to reopen the case.
Price did not pretend that she could instantly seize every document in the building.
She secured witness statements, photographed the exhibition area with the venue’s cooperation, and began documenting the reported confinement of Sabine and the removal of the inspection page.
Ruth formally identified the register and related shipping records as evidence requiring preservation.
Gabriel instructed his company’s attorneys to halt the property transfer and preserve the relevant digital and physical files.
Under Ruth’s watchful eye, he acknowledged that his own approval documents had to be included.
Then Ruth asked the question Elise had been waiting to hear.
“Where is Celeste Vauclair?”
A restaurant employee approached.
“She went toward the west elevator with a security man.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“Miles Keene.”
Elise looked at Ruth.
“We need to tell the officers before she leaves.”
They moved toward the west corridor with the venue manager.
Two responding officers were already arriving to investigate the locked door and the disturbance involving Sabine.
Near the elevator, they found Celeste standing beside Miles, who held a narrow leather document case.
Celeste’s face was composed again.
“What is this?” she demanded.
“Am I being detained because a waitress has invented a conspiracy?”
Elise did not raise her voice.
“Sabine saw someone remove a page from the register.
We have a photograph of it before it was taken.”
Miles shifted his weight.
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Where is the page?”
Celeste ignored him.
“Gabriel, you need to understand what this girl is doing.
Her father was blamed for the fire.
She’s desperate to find somebody wealthy enough to sue.”
Elise looked at her calmly.
“My father isn’t here to defend himself.
But the people who knew him are.
So are the records you tried to hide.”
Celeste’s eyes flickered toward the document case.
One of the officers noticed.
He separated the parties, asked everyone to remain available for statements, and began questioning Miles about the missing exhibit page and Sabine’s account of the locked room.
Celeste attempted
