Chapter 17 - The Missing Photograph
Daniel's hands trembled as he spoke with investigators. He had left the television studio after receiving a threatening message from his father's attorney, then gone to the hospital with chest pain. Tests found no heart attack, but the panic had been real. He'd spent years telling himself that signing papers without reading them was ignorance, not a choice.
"I was wrong," he told Naomi. "I helped make it possible."
He had brought emails saved from his corporate account. In one, Conrad ordered the relocation of Riverside's inspection records before the subsidy vote. In another, a Sterling executive instructed the security contractor to remove any document referring to locked exits or deficient sprinkler pressure. Daniel's reply read simply: Understood.
Naomi looked at that one word. "You knew?"
"I knew there were records we'd rather not release. I told myself the lawyers were handling a routine dispute. I didn't ask what was on them."
"My mother died because people kept not asking."
"Yes," he said. "I don't expect you to forgive me."
The fire marshal took custody of the recovered case. The next afternoon, with attorneys and city representatives present, a technician opened it. Water had seeped into the corners, but most pages remained legible. Ed identified the missing photograph from a stamped original and the marks of his own handwriting.
There was Rosa at the control panel. The warning light glowed red. On the door behind her hung a length of chain. The timestamp was eleven hours before the fire.
Attached was the field note Ed had dictated: Emergency exit secured contrary to code; low sprinkler pressure verified; immediate evacuation recommended if defects not corrected.
Maya read it aloud. Naomi felt the room tilt, not with shock this time, but with the terrible relief of seeing what she had known put into words.
Another paper documented a management decision to keep the building occupied while repairs were postponed. Conrad's signature appeared beside an instruction to avoid disruption of the scheduled tenant-renewal campaign.
The investigator would have to authenticate the records. A judge would have to decide what they proved. Naomi knew those steps mattered. But she also knew a very simple thing.
Her mother had warned them.
May you like
Maya squeezed her shoulder. "We're bringing her home," she said.
That night, Vanessa's attorney sent Naomi a new message. The assault complaint would be withdrawn—if Naomi signed an agreement never to speak publicly about the Sterlings again.
