Chapter 5 - KNOX RAN INTO THE FIRE FOR A LITTLE GIRL WHO WASN’T THERE
The smoke was visible three blocks away.
Jolene made a sound Knox never forgot.
“Mabel.”
Perry accelerated.
Mabel sat between Knox and Jolene in the SUV.
Safe.
Physically safe.
But Jolene was already shaking.
“My restaurant.”
Knox watched black smoke rise above Lamar.
His own chest felt tight.
By the time they arrived, firefighters had closed the street.
Flames pushed through the rear windows of Maize.
The white sign had blackened on one side.
Mrs. Glenda stood behind the barricade crying.
Jolene ran.
A firefighter stopped her.
“That’s mine!”
“Ma’am, you can’t—”
“My grandmother’s books are inside.”
Knox saw the frames on the wall through the front window.
One had already fallen.
Fire rolled along the kitchen ceiling.
He moved toward the entrance.
Perry grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“The books.”
“Knox.”
“Let go.”
“You run into that building for paper, I’ll personally break your legs.”
Jolene heard.
She turned sharply.
“No.”
Knox looked at her.
“Don’t.”
Her face was wet with tears.
“Those books are not worth dying for.”
“They’re Ruth’s.”
“They’re recipes.”
“They’re your history.”
“You think I want Mabel watching another building burn with someone she knows inside it?”
That stopped him.
Firefighters pushed through the front.
Minutes later, one came out carrying both frames.
Damaged.
Soot-blackened.
But intact.
Jolene cried harder.
Knox had never understood crying from relief until then.
The fire chief approached forty minutes later.
“Rear ignition.”
Knox already knew.
“Accidental?”
The chief looked toward Perry.
“No.”
Jolene closed her eyes.
“Accelerant?”
“Yes.”
Gasoline.
Again.
Except this time someone had lit it.
Knox walked away from the crowd and called Silas.
Silas answered on the fourth ring.
“Knox.”
“You burned Maize.”
A pause.
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“You knew Ruth Ward.”
“I told you—”
“You knew Eddie.”
Silence.
“We found the ledger.”
Longer silence.
Then Silas exhaled.
“You should have left the dead alone.”
There it was.
No denial.
Knox’s voice became quiet.
“You knew I saw you.”
“You were fourteen.”
“You stayed beside me for twenty years.”
“I stayed where I could see you.”
Perry moved closer.
Knox put the call on speaker.
Silas continued.
“At first, I thought you remembered everything. Then you grew up and never said a word.”
“So you decided you were safe.”
“I made you rich.”
“You made yourself rich.”
“I built your legitimate empire while you were playing gangster with your father’s leftovers.”
Knox’s jaw tightened.
“And Eddie?”
“Eddie was stupid.”
Jolene turned at the sound of her father’s name.
Knox’s eyes met hers.
“Say that again.”
Silas laughed.
“He found numbers he didn’t understand.”
“He understood enough to scare you.”
“Everyone becomes brave when they think paper can protect them.”
Jolene walked closer.
Her face had gone completely still.
Knox knew that stillness.
He lived inside it himself.
“Did you kill him?” Knox asked.
Silas did not answer directly.
“He should have taken the money.”
Jolene made one broken sound.
Knox wanted to kill Silas in that moment.
Old Knox would have.
One call.
One address.
Silas would disappear beneath the Mississippi mud before midnight.
But Mabel stood ten feet away.
Holding Ruth Ward’s smoke-stained recipe frame against her chest.
Knox looked at her.
Then said, “Perry, record everything.”
Silas went quiet.
Knox continued.
“You’re finished.”
“You think you can threaten me?”
“No.”
His voice was almost calm.
“I’m telling you what’s already happened.”
“You don’t know where I am.”
“Not yet.”
Silas hung up.
Perry was already moving.
“Phone trace.”
“Do it.”
Jolene approached Knox.
“You’re not going to kill him.”
It was not a question.
Knox looked at her.
“Do you want me to?”
Her answer took a long time.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Mabel already lives in a world where people burn restaurants.”
Jolene wiped her face.
“I don’t want her living in one where killing people is how we fix things.”
Knox felt something uncomfortable shift inside him.
“You think men like Silas stop because you ask politely?”
“No.”
“I don’t either.”
“Then make him stop without becoming him.”
There were very few people in Memphis who would have said that to Knox Sheridan.
Fewer still who would have survived saying it with that tone.
Knox simply nodded.
“I’ll try.”
By nightfall, they had more problems.
The fire destroyed the kitchen.
Insurance coverage had been delayed because Maize was a new business.
Jolene had forty-three dollars in the register.
A maxed-out credit card.
And no restaurant.
Knox offered money.
She refused before he finished the sentence.
“No.”
“You need repairs.”
“I know.”
“I can pay for them.”
“No.”
“Jolene.”
“You own the company that tried to take the building.”
“I’m freezing the project permanently.”
“That doesn’t make me your charity.”
“It’s not charity.”
“What is it?”
He almost said repayment.
For Ruth.
For Eddie.
For twenty years of not knowing.
But that would make the money about him.
Jolene would see through it.
So Knox said, “Investment.”
She stared.
“In four tables?”
“In your food.”
“No.”
He clenched his jaw.
“You’re difficult.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Mrs. Glenda stepped between them.
“Both of you hush.”
Knox blinked.
Nobody told him to hush.
Apparently Maize had different laws.
Mrs. Glenda pointed at Jolene.
“You need help.”
Then at Knox.
“You need a soul.”
Perry coughed violently.
Mrs. Glenda continued.
“Seems to me there may be an arrangement.”
Jolene almost smiled.
Knox did not know whether he had just been insulted or assigned homework.
The next morning, Memphis surprised them.
At seven, a harbor worker arrived with lumber.
At seven-ten, Mrs. Glenda brought coffee.
At seven-thirty, a church group showed up with paintbrushes.
By eight, twenty-six people stood outside Maize.
Nobody had organized it officially.
Someone posted the fire online.
Someone else wrote that a little family restaurant had been targeted twice.
Then the neighborhood came.
Knox arrived in a black SUV.
He stepped out carrying nothing.
Mabel looked at him.
“Where’s your hammer?”
Knox stared.
“My what?”
“If you’re helping, you need tools.”
Perry handed him a hammer from behind his back.
Knox glared.
Perry smiled.
For the next five hours, the most feared man in Memphis helped rebuild a four-table restaurant.
He was terrible at drywall.
Good at demolition.
Predictably.
At noon, Jolene stood beside him watching Mabel paint a crooked yellow stripe across one repaired wall.
“You could have paid people.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Knox looked at the crowd.
“Because this isn’t mine.”
Jolene turned toward him.
He continued.
“I think I’m finally learning the difference.”
Her eyes softened.
Then Perry approached.
“We found Silas.”
“Where?”
“Warehouse Four.”
The same warehouse Eddie mentioned on the tape.
Knox’s hand tightened around the hammer.
Perry lowered his voice.
“He isn’t alone.”
“How many?”
“Eight, maybe ten.”
“Police?”
“Two retired cops and one current detective.”
Jolene heard.
“You’re going.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Mabel.
Then back at Knox.
“Come back.”
Two simple words.
Not an order.
Not a plea.
Something stronger.
Knox looked at her.
“I will.”
May you like
He meant it.
For the first time in years, he had somewhere he wanted to return to.
