The red point widened across the dome.
It was not a star.
It became a small circle, followed by five more arranged in two uneven rows. Thin lines connected them until the ceiling resembled a building plan rather than a constellation.
Lucas looked at Forge.
“What is it?”
Forge kept his eyes on Director Porter.
“The alarm panel from your father’s last fire.”
Elaine moved toward the control desk.
“Turn the projector off.”
The technician reached for the main switch, but Forge shook his head.
“It isn’t connected to your system.”
The wooden projector had its own battery and a hand-cranked mechanism Andrew designed so Lucas could use it during power cuts. The dome remained lit after the museum controls went dark.
Andrew’s voice returned.
“Lucas, those red lights should have turned green when the fire doors opened.”
Only one point changed colour.
The others remained red.
His final call had come from an apartment building owned by the company funding the museum’s new fire-safety wing. The official report said an electrical fault disabled the alarms shortly before Andrew entered.
Forge said that was not true.
The system had been shut down during an inspection two days earlier and never restored.
Elaine had signed the museum partnership with the building owner. Andrew discovered the missing inspection record after three tenants died.
“He brought the evidence here?” I asked.
Forge nodded toward the lenses.
Andrew had cut each one from material recovered after different fires. Under normal light, they showed bedtime constellations. Inside the projector, they aligned into diagrams, dates and equipment patterns that could not be altered without destroying the stories he made for Lucas.
Elaine faced Lucas’s mother, Nora.
“You knew he was hiding evidence in a child’s toy?”
Nora looked at the floor.
That was answer enough.
Lucas turned toward her.
“You knew about this?”
“I knew he was frightened.”
“You said Dad died because Forge left him.”
Forge’s jaw tightened, but he stayed silent.
Nora sat beside her son.
“The department told me Forge ignored an evacuation order. They said your father went back because of him.”
Andrew’s recording interrupted her.
“Forge did not leave me.”
The words filled the dark auditorium.
“He carried Mrs. Delgado’s grandson down six flights after the stairwell collapsed. I ordered him out.”
Forge lowered his head.
For eight months, the city had treated him as the disgraced firefighter who abandoned his captain. The museum removed his name from the memorial. Nora refused his calls.
Lucas reached for his hand.
Forge stepped back.
“Let him finish.”
The projection changed.
One red circle began flashing near the building’s south stairwell.
Andrew said he had found the missing alarm log in the fire-command cabinet. He placed it inside his helmet before the ceiling failed.
That helmet was now displayed in the museum lobby.
Elaine moved first.
She ran toward the auditorium doors and ordered security to secure the exhibit.
The deputies stopped her.
She insisted the helmet had been empty when it arrived.
Forge looked at her.
“You checked it?”
Elaine froze.
No one had said the evidence was still inside.
A deputy radioed the lobby. The display case was opened under camera supervision. The helmet contained no paper log.
Only a narrow strip of burned fabric stitched beneath the inner lining.
Nora recognised it.
It came from Andrew’s uniform.
The technician scanned the strip and found a small flexible data chip sealed inside.
Lucas watched his mother.
“Did Dad give that to you?”
Nora began crying.
“He asked me to take it to the state investigator.”
Forge’s voice remained quiet.
“But you gave it to Elaine.”
Nora nodded.
Elaine had threatened to release photographs showing Lucas inside the condemned building one week before the fire. Andrew sometimes brought him there while checking alarms after hours.
If those photographs became public, Nora feared she would lose custody for allowing Lucas into an unsafe property.
So she surrendered the chip.
Elaine promised to destroy it.
Instead, she hid it inside Andrew’s memorial helmet, where no one would search without dishonouring the display.
The technician connected the chip.
A final video appeared across the dome.
Andrew stood inside the smoke-filled stairwell, looking directly into his helmet camera.
“Lucas, your mother made the wrong choice because she was afraid of losing you.”
Nora covered her mouth.
Andrew continued.
“But Elaine was not protecting the building owner.”
The video shifted toward someone standing behind him in firefighter gear.
Forge looked up sharply.
Andrew spoke the person’s name.
It was the deputy standing beside the projector.