CHAPTER FOURTEEN: WHAT THE SPONSOR BOUGHT
The mayor ordered the maze closed and the crowd redirected toward the food stalls.
Iris disconnected the motor under the supervision of two committee members.
The brothers’ mother arrived breathless and angry after a volunteer found her near the entrance.
She embraced both boys, then demanded to know who had left a maintenance gap open.
Nobody offered a convincing answer.
Daniel helped remove the damaged scenery while Voss argued with the committee chair beside the control station.
Through the open doorway, Daniel heard Voss mention a live investor demonstration scheduled for four.
The sponsor had planned to show how quickly the rotating maze could change its layout between groups.
Its dramatic moving corridors were the feature he hoped to sell to several amusement operators.
A manual selector that prevented unsafe configurations would have slowed the demonstration.
Daniel finally understood why the system had been altered.
The failure was not a simple oversight.
Someone had prioritized a demonstration over safe evacuation.
He approached the committee chair.
“Who signed off on the motorized layout?”
The chair looked uncomfortable.
“We approved the general concept.”
“Did you review the door positions?”
“Mr. Voss assured us his engineers had done so.”
Iris joined them with the original diagram.
“I objected to the corridor before installation,” she said.
“My objections weren’t included in the final meeting summary.”
The chair rubbed his forehead.
“We should have listened.”
“Yes,” Iris said.
“You should have.”
Voss attempted to leave through the service gate.
Carol stepped into his path, though she did not touch him.
“The selector was in the crate your crew sent for disposal,” she said.
“Who gave them the instruction?”
Voss glanced at Daniel.
“Your neighbor has been obsessed with this old device for weeks.”
“That doesn’t answer her question,” Daniel said.
Voss admitted that he had authorized removing the original mechanism because it interfered with his new motor controls.
He insisted the redesigned maze would have been safe once construction was complete.
Iris pointed out that he had attempted to open it before construction was complete.
A town administrator began documenting the statements for the safety review.
Carol watched without triumph.
She had spent days imagining how the truth might emerge.
Now two frightened boys had almost paid for the delay.
Daniel turned to her.
“You could have brought that case to me without destroying my porch.”
“I thought I had to make you pay attention.”
“You had my attention the moment you told me there was danger.”
“I never told you clearly.”
“No,” he said.
“You didn’t.”
Carol stared at the paper lantern in Benji’s hand.
“I was angry because people kept calling me confused.”
“They were wrong about the maze,” Daniel said.
“That doesn’t make everything you did right.”
She nodded once.
