“He will panic or he will try to finish the job,” she said plainly.
I swallowed hard. “Can we go to the police?”
“Not yet. He has too much influence and time to spin a story about your mental health,” she warned.
She looked at Toby sleeping on the couch. “We need to build a case that he cannot charm his way out of,” she said.
She motioned toward a small back room. “You stay here tonight. It is locked and it is safe,” she promised.
I hesitated at the door. “Why are you doing all of this for us?”
Sarah’s face softened for a moment. “Because your father saved my life when my own husband tried to hurt me,” she said.
“I know exactly what this feels like, Ayira,” she continued.
I stayed awake all night with Toby curled against me. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the fire.
At dawn, Sarah knocked on the door. “Turn on the news,” she said.
We watched the footage of our house in silence. It was a blackened shell.
Then the camera cut to Dominic. He stood in front of the wreckage with a look of practiced horror on his face.
“My wife and my son were in there,” he sobbed for the cameras.
Then he asked a question that made my skin crawl. “Have you found the bodies yet?” he asked.
Sarah clicked the television off. “He is performing for an audience,” she said.
“Ayira, does Dominic have a safe in his home office?” she asked.
“Yes, it is hidden behind a bookshelf,” I replied.
“Do you know the code?” she pressed.
“It is his birthday,” I said.
Sarah nodded. “We need what is inside that safe before it disappears,” she said.
“The police are there,” I argued.
“They will secure the perimeter but they won’t stay inside a charred ruin all night,” she countered.
“Dominic will be at a hotel pretending to grieve,” she added.
Toby sat up on the bed. “I am going with you,” he said firmly.
“No, it is too dangerous,” I told him.
“Mom, I know where he hides the extra things. I watch him,” the boy said.
Sarah looked at me and then at the child. “He is right. We don’t have time for hesitation,” she said.
I looked at my brave son. “Okay, but you stay with me every second,” I warned.
We left after the sun went down. Sarah drove us back to the neighborhood but parked several blocks away.
“You have twenty minutes. If I honk the horn, you run,” she said.
Toby and I moved through the shadows of the backyards. The smell of the house was even worse now.
The back door was warped but I managed to push it open. Inside, the house was a graveyard of our memories.
