Chapter 7 - THE BLAZE OF TRUTH—Drop the lantern, Esteban! You're only destroying your own life! —Daniela yelled, stepping to the edge of the stairwell, her weapon locked squarely on his chest.
Esteban’s eyes darted wildly between Daniela and the open hatch above. The flames from the lantern licked dangerously close to an unstable stack of old newspapers lining the cellar walls.
—My life? My life was stolen the day they audited this family! —he shrieked, his voice cracking with unhinged fury. —I built this archive to preserve the names of everyone who wronged us! Every debt, every lie, every person who walked away!
Before Méndez could react, Esteban intentionally hurled the blazing lantern directly at a tower of cardboard boxes against the northern cellar wall.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted instantly, greedily consuming decades of dry paper, old clothing, and plastic. Thick, choking black smoke billowed upward into the kitchen, blinding the officers and turning the confined space into an inferno.
—Get out! Everyone out now! —Méndez coughed, grabbing Daniela by the tactical vest as the heat surged upward.
They scrambled back toward the front door, dragging the coughing, disoriented suspect who had stumbled backward into the smoke. But as they burst out into the cool night air, Daniela suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, her blood turning to ice.
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Mateo was no longer sitting in the ambulance.
The thermal blanket he had been wrapped in lay abandoned on the pavement, and the rear doors of the vehicle were wide open.
