Chapter 62
MARCUS
The second inspector's name surfaced almost by accident, buried in a supplemental filing my paralegal pulled while cross-referencing old insurance records connected to the Rayne case. Thomas Whitlock. Independent fire inspector, contracted by the same insurance company that had signed off on the original Rayne warehouse fire, dead five years now, his death ruled a suicide, a single-car accident off a bridge outside the city with no note and no witnesses.
I sat with the file open in front of me for a long time after I first read it, something cold working through my chest that had nothing to do with ordinary case fatigue.
Suicides didn't usually get filed as cleanly as this one had. No note, minimal investigation, a quick, tidy ruling that closed the file within weeks
