Paul had assumed Lewis was moving equipment because the roof team had been ordered to clear the courtyard before donors arrived.
He did not see who instructed the driver to leave or what the van carried.
Mara asked whether Paul had ever spoken with Lewis afterward.
Paul said Lewis visited him at the hospital a week after the fire and urged him to stop describing the blocked passage.
He claimed the material had been moved before the incident and that discussing the warning would only hurt families who were already suffering.
Paul remembered Lewis making that argument because it resembled his own fears.
He later regretted agreeing to remain quiet.
Daniel and Mara left the retirement community with copies of documents Paul permitted them to retain.
On the drive back Daniel called Jessica’s attorney through Mara to report the interview.
He did not call Jessica directly.
He was still angry about the affair and wanted his boundaries to remain clear, yet he also knew Peter’s family deserved the new information as soon as it was responsibly checked.
That night he dreamed of a hallway that narrowed every time he walked down it.
A bell rang somewhere behind a closed door, and he kept finding keys that belonged to different houses.
When he woke, dawn was brightening the roofline over Luis’s garage.
He sat up, recognized where he was, and made coffee.
The dream was not evidence or prophecy.
It was his mind trying to turn too many uncertainties into one problem he could solve.
In the morning, he wrote only the facts from Paul’s interview into his timeline.
Lewis Gant had spent the years after Saint Alden repairing refrigeration units for small grocery stores.
His company website showed an ordinary man smiling beside a white service van.
He lived in a rural township with his partner and two grandchildren.
When Mara’s letter reached him, he refused to talk.
A week later an attorney responded that Lewis would cooperate with a lawful inquiry if his health and privacy were respected.
Daniel’s first reaction was anger that another person might hide behind conditions.
Then he remembered Paul’s hands and Theo’s fear.
It was easier to demand courage from strangers than to imagine what their lives had been like.
Mara sent Lewis’s attorney a limited set of questions about the loading bay, the van, and the maintenance supplies.
His written response acknowledged that he drove a white van from the center on the evening of the fire.
