Chapter 9 – the truth is not necessarily a good thing

" Get to the back of the room", Dan ordered Trixie firmly as he pushed her behind him . "I'm going to try and block off some of the smoke by putting my jacket under the door", he told Trixie. "That won't save us from the fire", Trixie muttered as moved behind Dan and held tight to the back of his shirt in anxiety. Dan took off his jacket and approached the door, rolling up the jacket he wedged it under the gap in the bottom. Reaching out to gingerly touch the door Dan was surprised to feel no warmth, "Trix, I'm not sure there is a fire out there", he exclaimed .Trixie felt her body instantly relax, "well that's a good thing", she told him. "Yeah but it's still going to get smelly in here, Dan pointed to where smoke was still coming under the door. "At least we are not in any real danger", Trixie countered with a smile. "At least not until the others figure out that we've gotten ourselves in trouble, again", Dan reflected . Trixie looked over at him, "yeah well this time it's you who gets to face the angry parent", she remarked.

Alena danced around the room her movements graceful and refined. She was still clinging to the dream of a future in dance even though every time she opened her mouth she claimed that dream would not happen. It was probably due to her age she figured, at twelve she was still young enough to dream. As she stopped to look at herself in the mirror the illusion that she was still a child was slipping away, her figure was changing and soon she would no longer be able to hide the fact that she was most definitely not a boy. Pulling herself away form the mirror she made her way to the door and flung it open intent on stamping moodily back to her bed. But the swirling smoke seemingly reaching out along the corridor like a long snake make her stop in her tracks. Running back into the room Alena pulled the fire alarm on the far wall.

The alarm screeched out loudly it's intensity loud enough to wake even those in the dormitories . "What's happening", Bill pulled his dressing gown around him tightly as he followed Simon out into the snow. "Could just be a false alarm", Simon replied. He watched as Honey and and Di joined Jim, Brian and Mart in the courtyard. Two people seemed to be missing and Simon felt his heart rate increase. Closing his eyes he reached out to Dan's presence. It didn't take long to discover that the location of Dan coincided exactly with the direction the alarm was coming from. He didn't bother sharing this information just grabbing Bill firmly and ordering ,"this way". The others didn't hesitate following after him after noticing in exactly one second who was missing.

"Why do I have this feeling our sister has found trouble again", Mart muttered as he ran.

They raced into the main building to find Mathew wheeler armed with a fire extinguisher dousing a pile of smoking clothing that was wedged close to the office door.

A few seconds of foam reduced the pile to a white soggy mess and Matt hurriedly kicked it out of the way so he could unlock the door.

The door opened to reveal a coughing Trixie and Dan standing with looks of relief upon their faces. Brian rushed in to take his sister into his arms while Simon did the same to Dan.

"What happened", he demanded as he held his son close. "We both decided to get some more log books and interrupted a robbery in progress", Dan explained.

"It was more than just a robbery, Matt protested angrily, "someone deliberately locked you both in there then tried to catch everything on fire"".

Trixie shivered as she thought about flames prompting Brian to ask, "are you alright Trix'.

Trixie nodded, "yeah all it got was a little smoky. Whoever it was did not do a good job of getting rid of us ". Dan looked down at the floor, "I think perhaps they just meant to scare us Trix, all the floors are hardwood they don't burn easily and there was nothing else to fuel the fire." "I don't care if it was meant to scare or not I just want to find whoever did this and smack him one, hard", Simon growled. I'll help", Bill agreed as he felt his own anger rise.

Trixie pulled out of her brothers arms and sighed heavily, "You two don't get to smack anyone", she told them, "our thief is long gone and he's taken any hope of ever finding the benefactor with him", she gestured toward the empty filing cabinets."

"This robbery and an attempted murder seem to indicate someone is intent on stopping us saving the home, Matt observed. I know Harold Dalton has a powerful backer somewhere and we all know money can be a great incentive for doing bad things".

"Yeah but since the guy got away we don't have any proof or real evidence, Trixie picked up the screwdriver, "except this". "The thief had that", Mart queried ,Trixie nodded.

"Okay everyone the question of the moment is what was he going to do with it", she asked.

"Well the fact that he stole files seems to indicate it's all about information", Dan mused, "so what type of information can you get with that", he pointed at the screwdriver.

"The type that is hidden", Sister Agnes replied as she made her way across the room.

"Yes we keep most things in the filing cabinets but there are some confidential details that we keep in here", she moved a couple of boxes out of the way to reveal a small free standing safe. "Of course it's not much use having a safe someone could lift up and carry off, she reported, unless you screw it to the wall".

They watched as the nun entered the combination and opened the safe to reveal several folders. "If the person is trying to stop us find the benefactor why bother with these, they are files regarding personal information of our orphans", the nun revealed.

Trixie thought aboiut that question, "Dan and I were thinking that the benefactor is possibly an orphan themselves, so perhaps their details are in those files", she hinted.

The benefactor would have to be only about 16 years old himself then because these files are only within that time frame. Older files are sent to an archive in the city", the nun explained.

Listening to their thoughts Simon found an idea beginning to come upon him, "maybe the benefactor is not an orphan themselves but fathered one, that could explain why the thief was trying to take these records. It could be potentially personally and professionally damaging to someone important if they had an illegitimate child in here".

The others knew that Simon spoke from experience, he was an illegitimate child himself, whose father had been legally married when he was conceived.'

"That may be right", Sister Agnes remarked, "the money would have been donated to the home instead of the child to protect the benefactors identity.'

"So all we have to do is find that child", Trixie remarked hopefully. "Actually that is probably the easier than you think", Sister Agnes surprised them by saying.

She pulled one file from the safe. "There were several babies found on the doorstep the same year the donation was made. But most of those babies are now with adoptive families and have been for years, all expect one". She opened the file to reveal a photo of Kelly.

"If I think more on this I see something horrible emerging" ,Sister Agnes voice trembled, "there has been about 3 families wanting to adopt Kelly in recent times. All of them have been turned down. Since I never saw those families again I assumed there was something in their background that caused their rejection, but what if it was for a different reason". She looked over at then with tears falling from her eyes, "how do you tell someone that their father is possibly still alive and is selfish enough to stop them ever finding a family of their own."