Chapter 4: The Call That Changed the Shape of Everything
I almost didn't answer it.
Emily was still on the doorstep talking to Diane.
Kevin and Thomas had moved to the front step with the toy car.
Arthur Calloway was exchanging words with the reporter near the van.
The morning felt, for one brief moment, like it might be turning toward something good.
Then I looked at the phone again.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
I stepped inside and picked up.
"Is this Daniel?" A woman's voice.
Careful.
Measured.
"Yes."
"My name is Carol Marsh.
I'm a producer with Channel 4 News.
We've been covering the Calloway Building fire since yesterday evening." A short pause.
"We have footage of you carrying Diane Holloway and her son out of the building.
We've been trying to identify you since last night."
"How did you get this number?"
"A neighbor gave it to us this morning.
I apologize for calling without warning." Another pause, and this one felt deliberate.
"Mr.
Daniel, I need to tell you something before this goes any further, because I think you deserve to know before it becomes public."
I moved to the kitchen and closed the door.
"What is it?"
"The footage we have — it also captured something else.
In the background, about forty seconds before the fire alarm activated, there's a man on the second-floor exterior landing of the Calloway Building.
He's carrying something.
Our technical team enhanced the footage this morning."
I waited.
"The object he's carrying appears to be an accelerant container.
A fuel canister.
He sets it down near the exterior ventilation access panel, and then he leaves."
My hand tightened on the phone.
"You're saying the fire was deliberately set."
"We're saying the footage raises serious questions.
We haven't confirmed identity yet.
Our team is still working on the enhancement." She paused.
"But the man on the landing — he's wearing a jacket.
There's a logo on the back.
Our team has been trying to identify it."
"What logo?"
She said the name.
It was the name of Greg's company.
I sat down at the kitchen table.
"Mr.
Daniel, are you still there?"
"Yes," I said.
"I'm here."
"I want to be transparent with you.
We're going to run this story.
The footage is newsworthy regardless.
But given that you're central to what happened yesterday — you saved the people inside that building — I thought you should know what we know before it airs."
"When does it air?"
"Tonight.
Six o'clock."
I looked at the kitchen door.
Through the small window in it I could see Emily's back, still on the doorstep, still talking to Diane.
"Can I ask you something?" I said.
"Of course."
"The man in the footage.
Do you think he knew people were inside?"
A long silence.
"The fire started at 2:47 in the afternoon," Carol said quietly.
"It was a residential building.
Middle of the day." She didn't finish the sentence.
She didn't need to.
I thanked her and hung up.
I sat there for a moment without moving.
Then I picked up Arthur Calloway's card and turned it over in my hands.
On the back, he had written his personal cell number in blue ink.
I dialed it.
He picked up on the second ring.
"Arthur.
It's Daniel.
The man from the doorstep."
"I know who you are."
"I just got a call from a Channel 4 producer.
They have footage from yesterday.
There's a man on the second-floor landing before the fire started.
He's carrying a fuel canister.
He's wearing a jacket with your company's maintenance contractor logo on the back."
Silence.
"Arthur."
"I heard you." His voice had changed.
Flatter.
Harder.
"Send me her name and number."
"You already knew something was wrong," I said.
"That's why you came this morning.
It wasn't just about the inspection report."
He didn't deny it.
"I've had suspicions for three weeks," he said.
"The building was under a lease dispute.
A commercial tenant on the ground floor had been pressuring me to sell.
He'd been using Greg's company for his own properties for years."
"Who is the tenant?"
He told me the name.
I didn't recognize it.
But the way Arthur said it told me he'd been saying it quietly to himself for a long time.
"This is bigger than a failed inspection," I said.
"Yes," Arthur said.
"It is."
Outside, I heard Emily laugh at something Diane had said.
A real laugh — surprised and warm.
The kind she hadn't had in weeks.
I looked at the kitchen door.
Then Arthur said: "Daniel.
Don't tell anyone else what you just told me.
Not yet.
Not until tonight."
May you like
"Why?"
"Because if Greg finds out that footage exists before six o'clock, it disappears."
