Chapter 7 - THE FIRE AT THE COPPER ANCHOR
The Copper Anchor caught fire at 3:17 a.m.
Mave was asleep at her cousin's apartment when her phone began ringing.
Arthur.
She answered groggily.
“Hello?”
“Mave!”
His voice was frantic.
“The restaurant!”
She sat upright.
“What?”
“It's burning!”
By the time she arrived, firefighters had surrounded the building.
Smoke poured from the roof.
The front windows were shattered.
Flames climbed through the old wooden interior.
Mave stood behind the police line.
Her stomach dropped.
The Copper Anchor had been miserable.
Dangerous.
Exhausting.
But it had also been the place where she earned enough money to keep her mother in care.
Now it was disappearing.
Declan arrived minutes later.
He found Mave standing in the rain.
Her face was pale.
He approached.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Arthur?”
“Safe.”
“The kitchen staff?”
“Everyone's accounted for.”
Mave exhaled.
Then began crying.
Declan stood beside her.
He didn't touch her.
He simply stayed.
Investigators later determined the fire had been deliberately set.
Security footage showed two masked figures entering through a service door.
One carried a container.
The other disabled the cameras.
The timing was deliberate.
The restaurant had been empty.
But the fire destroyed records stored in the manager's office.
Records related to private dinners.
Cash payments.
And meetings involving Anthony Rourke.
Mave stared at the ruined building the next morning.
Declan stood beside her.
“I'll make sure the employees receive temporary financial support.”
She looked at him.
“You don't own the restaurant.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
His expression hardened.
“Because someone burned it to hide what happened in my world.”
Mave looked down.
Then she noticed something in the debris.
A small metal tag.
Partially blackened.
She pointed it out to the fire investigator.
The tag was recovered and photographed.
On one side was a number.
On the other, a symbol.
A circle containing three vertical lines.
Declan's face changed when he saw it.
Mave noticed.
“What?”
He swallowed.
“That symbol belongs to a warehouse.”
“Which warehouse?”
Declan looked toward the harbor.
“One I thought had been closed for years.”
May you like
He paused.
“It's where my younger brother died.”
