Chapter 14
“Why?”
“That is why Vincent is paying me.”
Luca sat at the end of the table.
Gabriel had not been told the review had begun.
“You believe the bridge failed because of negligence,” Luca said.
Hayes shook his head.
“I believe the official record is incomplete. Belief is what we use before evidence arrives.”
Luca’s hands tightened.
“For three years, the Castano family remained the primary suspect.”
“Based on what?”
“An intercepted threat. Their interest in our transport route. An informant.”
“Whose informant?”
Luca went still.
“Gabriel’s.”
Hayes made one note.
“What did you do to the Castanos?”
“That is not relevant to the bridge.”
“It is relevant to motive if someone benefited from directing you toward them.”
Luca’s voice cooled.
“Careful.”
Hayes looked over his glasses.
“I reopened a municipal collapse tied to a man whose name makes detectives develop sudden family emergencies. Careful and frightened are separate conditions.”
Luca leaned back.
“Two warehouses changed hands. Three alliances ended. Men were hurt.”
“Were any killed?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
The word sat heavily.
Luca looked toward the window.
“I believed they murdered my wife and crippled my daughter.”
Hayes closed the file.
“Then we need facts before your grief harms another innocent person.”
Luca’s eyes flashed.
I placed my hand on the table.
Not on his.
Between us.
“Read first,” I said. “Defend later.”
He looked at me.
Then nodded.
Hayes found the original inspector eleven days later.
Arthur Bell was seventy-two and living in Wisconsin. He had retained a draft of the missing inspection report because, in his words, city archiving had disappointed him since 1989.
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The report identified severe corrosion in two load-bearing cables and recommended immediate lane restriction followed by reinforcement.
The work estimate was one point eight million dollars.
