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The days after Chris leaves blur into an endless stream of letters and signatures. Dennis camps out at the site office with Jason, poring over every permit, blueprint, material order, and construction report. The east wing's cordoned off now, leaving the site eerily quiet—just them, the legal team, and where there used to be the constant buzz of workers.

No matter how many times he reviews the documents, the evidence keeps pointing at Chris. His father's suspicions about Lancaster, his mother's defense of Chris—none of it changes what's right in front of him.

Dennis rubs his eyes, vision going fuzzy from lack of sleep. His stomach protests loudly, but he ignores it, just like he's been ignoring the bed in his apartment.

The legal team builds their case steadily, but even with mounting evidence against Chris, it won't be enough to save Dennis's part of the company. He'll still have to sell to prevent bankruptcy.

Mr. Lancaster checks in daily, never pressuring Dennis about his offer. He's even pulled strings at city hall so they have access to the site office—officially, to retrieve their belongings.

It’s a relief and Dennis feels like he should be thankful.

Maybe his father was wrong about the man. As for what Chris said about him…

Well, trusting Chris's word about anything seems foolish now.

But something Mr. Lancaster said echoes in his head: "You're exactly the type he targets—talented, trusting, with something to destroy."

It sticks with him. Makes him consider any kindness twice. Trusting eh? Hit the nail on the head. He won’t let that kind of thing happen again, so Dennis keeps his guard up.

"Let's check out the damage while we're here," Dennis tells Jason, nodding toward the burnt section. They shouldn't cross the police tape, but he needs to see it up close. Jason grabs his camera, following close behind.

The destruction hits different in person. So much more destroyed than any of the pictures could show.

"Huh, that's weird." Jason crouches near a black spot on the floor.

"What is?"

"Didn't the police report say electrical failure from construction negligence?"

"Yeah." Dennis joins him at ground level. "Why?"

"Well..." Jason points at the mark. "You know how my brothers and I used to play with fireworks? One time we were camping, and my mom kept saying 'stop that, you'll hurt yourselves'—" He grins, settling into storyteller mode. "So Jeremy tries lighting this jumping jack, but we'd used up all the matches—"

"Jason." Dennis cuts him off. "Your point?"

Jason pulls a face at being interrupted, then glances at his camera like it reminds him why they're here. "Oh! Right. We accidentally lit up this bottle with gasoline. It was almost empty so no big deal, plus we had the fire extinguisher. My dad always says—"

He catches Dennis's raised eyebrows. Rolls his eyes at a good story gone to waste.

" Any gays, next morning we saw these marks exactly like these. If it was electrical, the pattern would be concentrated. See?"

Jason gestures at something Dennis is clearly missing. Reading his blank expression, Jason asks, "You're not following, are you?"

"Uhh... not really, no."

"Okay, look." Jason sighs. "It's already suspicious they called it an electrical failure since there's no power running through the wall circuits yet. I figured maybe a short from the crew's power tools. But these splatter marks..."

He tugs at Dennis’s arm, shifting them both sideways in a duck walk.

“Here.” Jason points to a blackened spot on the floor. “This is where the fire was strongest—where it started. But you see how it’s splattered?"

"Like someone poured liquid?"

"Exactly! Probably not gasoline since there's no smell, but plenty of accelerants would work the same way."

Dennis frowns. He'd assumed the fire was intentional since his conversation with Mr. Lancaster, figuring Chris had sabotaged the electrical work. But this suggests something else entirely.

"Got enough pictures?" Dennis pushes to his feet. Another janky piece to the shit-puzzle mess he needs to somehow jam together. "We should go."

"Just one more." At least ten camera clicks later, Jason pockets his camera. "Okay, let's go."