Chapter 19 - The People Who Finally Spoke
Holt wore a plain dark suit and tried to look harmless. He said Mateo had tampered with safety systems. He said the voice recording was staged. He said he had followed orders but couldn't remember who gave them.
"You remember cashing the payment," the prosecutor said.
"It was a bonus."
"For securing occupied fire exits?"
Holt stared at the floor.
The prosecutor showed him the bank transfer, the copied order, and a photograph of the chain bracket taken before it had been removed. She played Rosa's voice, low and tired: Cedric says the red exit stays secured. She had told him people were working.
In the gallery, Marisol reached for Iris's hand. They had been strangers before that night in the ballroom. Now their grief had learned to stand together.
Then Adrian took the stand. He confirmed his father's absence on the day of the fire, described the settlement he had signed afterward, and admitted that he had accepted the board's version without asking to see the raw records.
"You benefited from that silence?" Mateo's lawyer asked.
"Yes," Adrian replied. "The company did, and so did I."
His answer was quiet. It changed more than a speech would have.
Celeste's sworn statement followed. It said her father and Sloane had demanded a quick clearance of the wing, that she had approved the locked exits, and that Holt had been paid to keep employees away from the inspection route. She had not planned a fire, she wrote. She had known people might need those doors. That was enough.
The judge listened to the final arguments. She reviewed the evidence that the original jury had never seen. At last she looked toward Mateo Reyes.
"Mr. Reyes," she said, "will you please stand?"
He rose slowly, with one hand against the table. Marisol stood beside him even though the deputy started to object.
May you like
The judge lifted a signed order from her desk.
For nine years, Mateo had imagined hearing the next words. Now, with the whole courtroom holding its breath, he was afraid to hear them.
