Chapter 9 - The Restaurant That Burned
The burned restaurant was called Le Jardin Rouge.
It had been one of the city's most celebrated restaurants.
Until a kitchen fire destroyed it.
One employee died.
The investigation concluded that faulty wiring caused the fire.
But Daniel's records suggested otherwise.
Payments had been made two weeks before the fire.
Insurance money arrived afterward.
Then the same shell companies appeared in Maison Dubois's records.
I stared at the documents.
“This isn't just about food.”
Beatrice shook her head.
“No.”
“What happened at Le Jardin Rouge?”
“I don't know.”
“Who owned it?”
She gave me a name.
Victor Mercier.
Julian's father.
Everything suddenly connected.
Julian wasn't merely an investor.
He had inherited the network.
Maison Dubois was being used to continue what had started years earlier.
But there was still one unanswered question.
Why me?
Marco arrived before dawn.
I showed him the records.
He stared at the signature.
“Clara.”
“What?”
“Look at the old fire report.”
He placed a copy beside the ledger.
The deceased employee had been Daniel's younger brother.
I stared at the page.
Daniel hadn't been investigating for money.
He had been investigating because his brother had died.
And I understood why he had trusted nobody.
This wasn't an ordinary fraud investigation.
It was a family secret buried beneath a restaurant empire.
Then Marco found something else.
A handwritten note from Daniel.
“Find the woman who survived.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
He pointed to a name in the report.
Margaret Hale.
A former pastry assistant.
She had survived the fire.
She had disappeared afterward.
Marco searched the database.
Then looked up.
“She lives forty minutes away.”
I grabbed my coat.
We drove before sunrise.
Margaret opened the door only after Marco showed his identification.
When she saw Daniel's name, her expression collapsed.
“He finally found someone willing to listen.”
I stepped forward.
“What happened that night?”
She looked behind us.
Then whispered:
“The fire wasn't an accident.”
She closed the door.
May you like
“And Julian Mercier was there before it started.”
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