Chapter 12 - THE SECOND COPY
The caller was Frank Delaney, a retired River Street supervisor.
Harris found him before Maya did.
Frank was alive, frightened, and staying at his sister’s house outside the city.
He had kept copies of maintenance reports after Daniel’s death.
Then he had hidden them.
“I had two kids in college,” he told Harris.
“Adrian said the whole plant would close if I made noise.”
Maya listened to the interview from another room.
She wanted to break something.
Instead, she held a paper cup until the sides collapsed.
Frank explained the warning.
Adrian’s assistant had contacted him that morning.
She said the company wanted to correct the record and offered to collect his documents for delivery to investigators.
Frank had almost agreed.
Then he saw Maya’s name in a news report and called her instead.
The papers reached Harris in a sealed evidence bag.
Daniel’s load sheets showed repeated warnings about the platform.
The company’s public report showed none.
Someone had replaced the original pages after his death.
Attached to Frank’s copies was an email from Adrian.
Use the chairman’s authorization.
No additional review necessary.
Below it sat an electronic version of Luca’s signature.
Luca read the email in silence.
“I never saw this.”
“We know,” Evelyn said.
“The file history matters.”
“But they used my name.”
“Yes.”
He looked at Maya.
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head.
“Don’t say it because you need me to forgive you.”
“I don’t.”
“Then do something with it.”
Luca asked Evelyn to prepare a public statement.
She warned him it could expose the company to substantial claims.
He stared at her.
“A man died under a platform they knew was unsafe.”
“I’m making sure you understand.”
“I understand.”
That afternoon, he recorded a statement from his hospital room.
He acknowledged his earlier failures.
He promised full cooperation.
He asked former employees to preserve documents and speak to investigators.
He named Daniel.
Maya watched from behind the camera.
For the first time in three years, someone with power said her brother’s name without following it with a reason he was to blame.
An hour later, Adrian appeared on television.
Distinguished.
Calm.
Grieving.
“My nephew has been manipulated during a fragile medical crisis.”
Then the station played security footage from Luca’s bedroom.
Maya was holding a syringe.
The time stamp was from the previous week.
May you like
Luca turned toward her.
“What is that?”
