Then she realized which building had burned down, and her next reaction was panic and paranoia.

* * *

Upon entering the school Iona strode directly to her office, closed the door, and locked it. She went over the events of last night in her mind. She had told nobody they were going to the construction site. Alyssa said she’d had the idea about going there on the way to her office, so it was unlikely she had told anyone. And they hadn’t actually gone inside the unfinished newspaper offices, and it said in the report that the fire had started inside the building. Iona was feeling so guilty she had to remind herself that she had not started the fire. She and Alyssa had left the building exactly as they’d found it.

But they had gone into the building site last night. Had anyone seen them do that? From a window across the street perhaps? If so, Iona could truthfully say she hadn’t gone into the building itself but nobody would have reason to believe that. Had the rickshaw driver realized where she’d just come from? Iona didn’t think so—she’d hailed him from around the corner—but maybe when he heard about the fire he’d put two and two together?

And was Iona certain Alyssa had nothing to do with this? Could Alyssa have tossed something inside while Iona wasn’t looking? Left something burning so slowly it didn’t catch until they’d gone?

Iona had a choice. She could come forward and tell the Bureau of Order she’d been there last night. If Alyssa was involved in what had happened, Iona would be helping bring her to justice. Iona was innocent so she had nothing to fear.

Or did she? Nobody knew why she had associated with Alyssa. Only the two of them knew why they had gone to that building. If Alyssa chose to bring Iona down with her, she could easily name Iona as her accomplice, claim they’d planned it together. And even if she didn’t, people might say Iona had helped her unwittingly and was a fool for doing so. People might judge Iona a liability, decide she should have asked more questions and next time the consequences could be more serious. She might be punished. Stripped of her position. Retired in disgrace.

She would say nothing.

* * *

Unfortunately, nobody in the staff room talked of anything else.

Had the fire been an accident? Or had it been started deliberately? Either way, would it happen again? Who could have done something like this, and why? Iona had none of the answers and didn’t want to give anything away by speculating. She just said she felt bad about the waste of materials and labor.

“Yes,” said Hammond, a senior member of the teaching staff. “But we can’t rest easy until we find out who did this.” He theorized that it might have been burned in protest at the deaths of Weston and the others: because they wanted more severe punishment for those responsible, or were outraged the building wasn’t going to be abandoned, or both.