Chapter 13 - The Archive
The old Vance headquarters stood empty on Lower Broadway, wrapped in scaffolding and demolition netting.
By 10:00 p.m., federal agents had sealed the block.
Daniel wanted inside.
Ortiz refused.
“You are not law enforcement.”
“It’s my building.”
“That does not make you fireproof.”
Smoke appeared behind a sixth-floor window.
Then another.
“She’s already inside,” Daniel said.
Fire alarms began screaming.
Agents entered from the loading dock while firefighters moved in from the front.
The archive vault was in the basement, protected by a fire-rated door.
Eleanor knew that.
Which meant the fires upstairs were a distraction.
Ortiz realized it at the same moment Daniel did.
“Basement.”
They reached the vault corridor and found the door open.
Boxes were scattered across the floor.
An accelerant smell filled the air.
At the far end stood Eleanor.
Her cream suit was gone. She wore black pants, a dark coat, and no jewelry.
In one hand she held a lighter.
In the other, a red ledger.
Ortiz raised her weapon.
“Drop both.”
Eleanor smiled.
“You’re all very dramatic.”
“Drop them.”
Daniel stepped from behind Ortiz.
Eleanor’s face changed.
“You always were weak where women were concerned.”
“My wife is alive.”
“For now.”
Ortiz’s voice sharpened. “Eleanor.”
She flicked the lighter open.
Daniel saw the floor.
Accelerant ran in a thin line from her feet toward dozens of old cardboard boxes.
“If this burns,” Eleanor said, “there is no case.”
“You pushed a pregnant woman on camera,” Daniel said.
“That case.” She shrugged. “A good lawyer can create doubt.”
“And my father?”
For the first time, Eleanor’s smile disappeared.
“He should have signed what I gave him.”
Daniel’s stomach turned.
Ortiz’s body camera captured every word.
“You killed him?” Daniel asked.
Eleanor tilted her head. “Your father was dying anyway.”
Daniel took one step forward.
Ortiz blocked him with her arm.
Eleanor looked almost pleased.
“There he is. Charles’s temper.”
Then she dropped the lighter.
Flame raced across the floor.
Ortiz fired a fire extinguisher from the wall while agents rushed Eleanor.
She threw the red ledger toward the flames and bolted through a side door.
Daniel lunged and caught the ledger inches from the fire.
By the time agents reached the stairwell, Eleanor was gone.
Ortiz cursed.
Then Daniel opened the ledger.
Inside were handwritten payments dating back twenty-two years.
Beside one payment was Arthur Bell’s name.
Beside another was Rebecca Sloan’s.
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And on the final page, under Charles Vance’s date of death, was a single entry:
G.M. — $500,000 — MEDICATION.
