Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
Hillary watched Russ enter the grand sitting room, freshly showered and changed, his face still flushed from the ordeal but his gaze steady. He crossed the room to where she was sitting and took a seat beside her, his shoulders tense as they waited for the fire marshal and police detective to share their findings.
The room was quiet, a heavy tension hanging in the air. Claire sat across from them, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her eyes darting anxiously between the officials. Madame Fournier stood nearby, her expression somber but her gaze fixed sharply on the fire marshal as he began to speak.
"The fire was intentionally set," the fire marshal said, his voice clipped and professional. "We found traces of gasoline accelerant around the barn’s entrance and along the hay bales stacked inside. Whoever did this intended to create a blaze that would spread quickly and do as much damage as possible."
A murmur of shock rippled through the room, and Hillary felt her pulse quicken. She glanced at Russ, whose jaw was clenched. Reaching out her hand, she took his and squeezed. They were, after all, supposed to be newlyweds. Surely, she should be comforting him.
The fire marshal continued, his eyes sweeping over the gathered group, pausing briefly on Russ before moving on.
"And it seems the keys that would have allowed the horses to be freed from the paddocks were stolen beforehand," he added grimly. "Whoever planned this wanted to ensure that the animals would be trapped. At a minimum, their goal was the loss of the animals in the fire... but it could have been far worse. Someone could have been killed."
The fire marshal's gaze settled pointedly on Russ as he said this, the unspoken implication lingering in the air. Russ didn’t flinch, but Hillary could feel the tension radiating from him.
The police detective stepped forward, clearing his throat. "We’ll be conducting interviews with everyone involved and reviewing any security footage from the property. Although the barn didn’t have surveillance cameras, the gates leading into the estate do. We’ll see if we can identify anyone who might have entered the property before or after the fire was set."
The detective’s gaze drifted over each person in the room, his eyes sharp and assessing. When he reached Russ, he paused, a frown creasing his brow as he studied him more closely.
“You look familiar,” the detective said slowly, as if trying to place where he’d seen Russ before. “Have we met?”
Russ shook his head, his face carefully neutral. “Not that I’m aware of,” he replied evenly, but Hillary could sense the undercurrent of anxiety beneath his calm exterior.
This was exactly the kind of attention they couldn’t afford. She felt her heart thudding and wondered if anyone else could hear it.
The detective gave Russ another long, searching look before finally nodding, as if deciding to let it go for now. “Well,” he said, his tone still clipped, “we’ll continue to work on this and update you with what we find.”
With that, the detective and the fire marshal turned to leave, but not before the detective cast one last look at Russ, his gaze filled with suspicion.
As the door closed behind them, silence fell over the room, thick and oppressive. Claire looked as though she was on the verge of a breakdown, her eyes wide with fear.
Hillary was done waiting. She was done with Claire’s mysterious comments. Russ could have died in that fire. It was time to get answers.
“Claire,” her grandmother said sharply. “You need to go clean yourself up. You look a fright. There are more guests arriving who will be at the celebration tonight, and I don’t want them to see you like this.”
“I’ll take her upstairs,” Hillary said, not waiting for Claire to agree. She took her by the elbow and tugged her to her feet. They headed up in silence, Claire not having the fortitude to protest. They were behind the closed door of Claire’s bedroom before Hillary spoke.
“What the hell is going on?”
“The fire. I think it was a message to scare me.”
“Why?”
“I can’t say.” She shook her head as the tears fell.
“Cut the shit right now.” It was time for some tough love. “I need to know if that fire was a message for you, or for Russ and me. If we aren’t safe here, we need to leave now. Not just for our own protection but for all the innocent people here. Tell me everything. Right now.”
Claire’s face crumpled, the weight of her hidden fears and secrets finally seeming to crash down on her. She sank onto the edge of the bed, pressing her fingers to her temples, her breaths coming in shaky, uneven gasps.
Hillary crossed her arms, waiting, not relenting for even a moment. “I’m not leaving here until you tell me the truth. Every part of it, Claire. You owe us that much after what happened today.”
With a shuddering breath, Claire looked up, her eyes haunted. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Hillary nodded, bracing herself.
“It’s about my lab. We... we’ve been lying about the data we’re providing to the FDA. Falsifying results, inflating numbers of success. Our drug... it’s not as effective as we’ve claimed.” Her voice trembled as she spoke, each word sounding like it was being torn from her.
Hillary felt a chill crawl down her spine. She’d expected something troubling, but this was a level of corruption that went beyond anything she’d imagined. “Why?” she asked, her tone sharp. “What could possibly make you risk everything for falsified data?”
Claire swallowed, hesitating before she continued. “There’s a surgeon we partnered with. Dr. Michael Hale. He’s brilliant, cutting-edge. He developed a procedure that, combined with our pharmaceutical advancements, would revolutionize the current methods of treatment for a range of chronic illnesses. We believed we were on the brink of a breakthrough, something that could change medicine. But things weren’t going as planned.”
Hillary narrowed her eyes. “Tell me more about Dr. Hale. Why does it feel like there’s more to this story?”
Claire’s cheeks flushed, and she looked away, as though ashamed. “We dated, I suppose. Or at least, I thought we had. I don’t know if you could call it that now. It wasn’t exclusive—he made it very clear eventually, though it took me longer to realize than I’d like to admit. And I know how cliché it all sounds. Falling for this high-powered surgeon and letting him take advantage of me.” She let out a bitter laugh. “He had this way of making you feel like you were the only person in the room, that you were special, that he needed you to make his vision come true. But I was one of many.”
Hillary raised an eyebrow, sensing the vulnerability beneath Claire’s words. Men like Dr. Hale, charismatic and driven, could easily draw someone in, especially someone like Claire, who seemed to crave purpose and validation she didn’t get from her family. “So, he charmed you, convinced you to join him in this vision of his? What exactly did he need you to do?”
Claire nodded slowly. “He approached me at a gala. He knew everything about our lab, our ongoing trials. He was persuasive, said we could ‘change the world’ together. It was intoxicating—the idea of being part of something monumental. He made it sound like our work could end suffering for millions.” Her voice cracked slightly, the disillusionment clear.
“But then what?” Hillary pressed. “When did you know something was not right?”
“As the trials went on, we realized that the results weren’t as promising as we’d hoped. There were side effects, complications. The drug wasn’t ready, and his procedure was still experimental. But Dr. Hale... he wouldn’t let go. He told me the real problems were the ethics boards and compliance teams. They were corrupt. Targeting him because they didn’t want him to succeed. His method and breakthroughs would cost big pharma too much money in all they had invested in the old ways. He started suggesting ways to ‘tweak’ the data, to only show the best cases. He insisted it was just a minor delay and everything would work itself out, but we needed to keep the funding going. He made it sound like the ends justified the means.”
“And you went along with it?” Hillary’s voice held a note of reproach.
Claire looked down, her expression one of shame. “I believed him. I thought... I thought I was part of something revolutionary and maybe we just needed to buy a little more time. But the longer it went on, the more trapped I felt. By then, it wasn’t only my lab—it was my reputation, my family name. If this got out, it would ruin everything.”
“You realize how dangerous this is,” Hillary said finally. “If someone set that fire as a message, this is only the beginning. They think you’re going to be a whistle-blower? Why do they think that?”
Claire nodded, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I tried to break it off with him, to step away. But Dr. Hale doesn’t take rejection well. At first I started putting distance between the two of us. Going out of town. Changing my work schedule and ignoring his calls. I thought maybe he’d move on and I could take a breath and figure out what to do next.”
Hillary clenched her jaw, the full picture beginning to take shape. “He’s threatening you. And he’s willing to go to extreme lengths to make sure you stay silent. But the caller the other night was a woman. Who was that?”
“Chelsea Villow. She’s the head of the lab. Another one of Michael’s girlfriends. Someone else he played for a fool. We didn’t know about each other. And when we did find out, she kept her loyalty to him and I didn’t. Now she’s trying to make sure I don’t expose everything.”
“Have you told them you planned to?”
Claire covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking. “No, but they know I’m acting strangely. They’ve known for a while. I don’t know what to do. I’m trapped, Hillary. I thought I could control it, but it’s spiraling.”
Hillary moved closer, her voice softening. “Do you plan to expose them?”
“I will disgrace my entire family. I’ll prove everything they’ve said about me is right. But there are people who suffered real consequences and losses. I have to make that right.”
Hillary placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We have to assume they are here. Either someone in the house you can’t trust or someone who has come all this way to threaten and silence you. Either way, you aren’t safe.”
“I can’t leave. I’m not safe anywhere.”
“I agree. But you are going to tell me everything that happened, everything you know, and get me whatever evidence you can. And you’re going to do it quickly.”
“Before they kill me?”
“Hey, looks like you and I have more in common than you thought.”