Chapter 6 - FIRE IN THE WORKSHOP
By the time they reached the colonial property, smoke was rising behind the house.
Robert’s workshop was burning.
Firefighters pushed Brittney back as flames consumed the cedar walls, workbenches, and hand tools Robert had collected over a lifetime. The place where he had built the walnut box collapsed beneath a shower of sparks.
Grant Mercer was gone.
Police found evidence of accelerant and fresh tire tracks near the rear lane. They also discovered that the workshop’s security system had been disabled using Michael’s access code.
Michael denied involvement. Vanessa did not defend him.
She confessed that Grant had been using their debts to control Michael for years. Michael had gambled on speculative developments and lost millions. Grant offered to rescue him if he helped acquire Brittney’s property. Vanessa knew about the forged mortgage but claimed she believed Michael would repay it before anyone discovered the truth.
“Believing a lie because it benefits you is still choosing the lie,” Brittney said.
Vanessa cried without answering.
The fire destroyed most of the workshop, but firefighters recovered a steel cabinet bolted beneath the floor. Inside were carbon copies of Robert’s land surveys and an old map showing a conservation easement across eight acres of the property.
That easement made Grant’s resort plan impossible.
Unless the original filing disappeared from county records.
Anna checked the public database and discovered it already had.
Someone inside the recorder’s office had deleted the digital record and replaced the parcel map. Robert’s paper copy was now the only surviving evidence.
Grant’s scheme had become larger than fraud against one widow. It involved public corruption.
Federal investigators entered the case.
Michael began to unravel. He arrived at Brittney’s temporary apartment late one night, soaked by rain, asking for protection. Grant had threatened Vanessa and the children. Michael offered to testify if Brittney convinced prosecutors to spare him prison.
Brittney listened as he described years of choices as though they had happened to him. He blamed pressure, debt, Robert’s expectations, and Grant’s threats.
“What do you blame for grabbing my arm at dinner?” she asked. “What do you blame for asking a court to declare me incompetent?”
Michael had no answer.
Still, he gave Evelyn the location of Grant’s private records: a hunting lodge near the New York border. Federal agents raided it before dawn and found account books, forged deeds, and surveillance photographs of Brittney.
Grant escaped through a service road.
Among the recovered papers was a life-insurance policy on Robert.
The beneficiary was a company controlled by Grant.
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The policy had been purchased four months before Robert’s workshop fall.
And the application carried Michael’s signature as witness.
