Chapter 5 - WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT HUDSON LANDING
“Then you have to stop the opening.”
Rosa's voice shook as she faced Gabriel in the map room.
He was still holding Matteo's inspection ticket.
“Gabriel, people are going to bring their children there.”
“I know.”
“Then call whoever can close it.”
“I intend to.”
He took out his phone, but Rosa caught his sleeve.
“Not just your security people. Someone who can actually inspect the structure.”
Gabriel studied her.
She was right.
The Moretti name could clear a street in minutes.
It couldn't prove whether a bridge was safe.
He contacted the county building department and requested an emergency structural review.
He also called his operations director and ordered all Moretti personnel to stop preparing for the Hudson Landing opening.
When he finished, Rosa looked relieved.
But only slightly.
“Will that be enough?”
“No. We need to find out what Matteo knew.”
They returned downstairs.
Lily was awake, sitting at the breakfast table beside Mrs. Keene.
The little girl had been given sliced apples and a bowl of oatmeal.
When Rosa entered, Lily held up her spoon.
“Mommy, look.”
“I see, sweetheart.”
“Apple.”
“That's right.”
Rosa kissed the top of her head.
Gabriel watched them.
He couldn't stop thinking about his brother.
Matteo would have loved that child.
He would have celebrated every ridiculous little accomplishment.
He would have bought her too many toys, taught her terrible jokes, and argued with Rosa about whether three-year-olds needed their own bicycles.
Instead, Gabriel had spent years allowing the family to remember him as a criminal and a fool.
He turned to Mr. Bell.
“Have the car brought around.”
Rosa straightened.
“Where are you going?”
“Hudson Landing.”
“I'm coming.”
“You have Lily.”
“I also knew Matteo better than anyone else in this house.”
Gabriel glanced at the child.
Mrs. Keene stepped forward.
“Lily can stay with me, Rosa. We can make cookies.”
Rosa hesitated.
The housekeeper touched her arm.
“I'll keep her safe. I give you my word.”
Lily looked up.
“Cookies?”
Rosa almost smiled.
“Maybe one.”
“Two?”
“We'll talk about it.”
Forty minutes later, Gabriel and Rosa arrived at Hudson Landing.
The riverfront looked completely different from the photographs taken after the accident.
Fresh stone paving.
Steel railings.
Landscaped gardens.
A row of expensive restaurants facing the water.
Workers hung banners announcing Saturday's grand opening.
Gabriel stared at the north platform.
“That used to be the loading area.”
Rosa followed his gaze.
A new pedestrian walkway now stretched above the old concrete supports.
“That's where Matteo died?”
Gabriel nodded.
She closed her eyes.
For years, she'd avoided this place.
Now she forced herself to look.
Near the construction fence, an older man in a brown work jacket was loading tools into a truck.
His left hand had two missing fingertips.
Gabriel recognized him immediately.
“Walter Dempsey.”
The man turned.
His face hardened.
“Well, look who finally remembered the river exists.”
Gabriel approached.
“I need to ask you about Matteo.”
Walter gave a bitter laugh.
“Funny. Four years ago, nobody wanted to hear his name.”
“I know.”
“No, Mr. Moretti. You don't.”
Walter dropped a wrench into his toolbox.
“Your brother was the only man in that company who listened when we told him the platform was dangerous.”
Rosa stepped forward.
“I'm Rosa Delgado.”
Walter studied her.
Then his expression softened.
“Matteo talked about you.”
She pressed her lips together.
“He did?”
“Said he'd met a woman who made him want to come home early.”
Rosa looked down.
Walter shook his head.
“Poor kid never got the chance.”
Gabriel held out the inspection ticket.
Walter's face changed immediately.
“Where did you find that?”
“In my brother's coat.”
Walter took the paper carefully.
“I watched him fill this out.”
Gabriel waited.
“The anchor bolts were supposed to hold the northern supports in place. They sent us cheaper ones. Wrong steel grade. Wrong load rating.”
“Who ordered them?”
“Romano Construction handled purchasing.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“And why wasn't that in the official report?”
Walter looked at him with open contempt.
“Ask your future father-in-law.”
Rosa felt her stomach drop.
Vittorio Romano.
Isabella's father.
The man whose company stood to earn millions from the new development.
Walter returned the ticket.
“Matteo ordered us to stop work. He said nobody was setting foot on that platform until the bolts were replaced.”
“But the accident happened anyway,” Gabriel said.
“Because somebody reopened it.”
“Who?”
Walter's expression grew guarded.
“I never saw the written authorization.”
“Did Matteo?”
“He went looking for it.”
Walter leaned against his truck.
“The night before the collapse, your brother transferred money from the company emergency account. Everybody called it theft.”
Gabriel felt his shoulders stiffen.
“Four hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
Walter nodded.
“That's what the newspapers said.”
“What was it really?”
“Payroll advances. Motel rooms. Medical bills. He knew we'd be laid off if the job stopped, and he didn't want families paying the price for doing the right thing.”
Gabriel stared.
His brother had used the money to protect workers.
Not to enrich himself.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Walter's face twisted.
“We tried.”
He pointed toward the office building behind them.
“Twenty-three men signed statements. We sent them to your headquarters.”
“I never received them.”
“Someone received them.”
Walter's voice broke.
“My wife was dying of cancer that winter. Matteo paid three months of her treatment before he was killed. When she found out what the newspapers were saying, she cried harder for that boy than she did for herself.”
Gabriel turned away.
He couldn't bear the shame on Rosa's face.
She had been living with this grief while he remained comfortable inside his mansion.
Walter opened his truck.
From the glove compartment, he removed an old plastic identification badge.
A child's photograph had been tucked behind it.
A brown-haired boy smiling with two front teeth missing.
“That's my grandson, Evan.”
Rosa leaned closer.
“He's adorable.”
“He was five when the platform collapsed.”
Gabriel frowned.
“A child was there?”
“His father brought him by after school. We were supposed to be finished for the day. Then the support beam shifted.”
Walter swallowed.
“Matteo went back onto that platform to get him.”
Gabriel's breath stopped.
“The official report said he entered the restricted area to remove equipment.”
“Equipment?”
Walter shook his head.
“Your brother was carrying a little boy.”
For a moment, the sounds of construction seemed far away.
Gabriel remembered the police photographs.
The twisted railing.
The broken concrete.
The tarp covering Matteo's body.
He had never asked who else had been there.
“Did Evan survive?”
Walter nodded.
“Broken leg. Bruised ribs. Matteo handed him down to another worker before the whole thing gave way.”
Rosa covered her mouth.
Walter wiped his eyes.
“Evan's ten now. He still keeps the little toy lighthouse Matteo gave him while we waited for the ambulance.”
Gabriel stared at the river.
The lighthouse.
The same symbol engraved on the gold button Lily had found.
His brother had died saving a child.
And Gabriel had allowed the world to remember him as a thief.
A construction supervisor approached.
“Mr. Moretti, the county inspector is here.”
Gabriel turned.
A woman wearing a yellow safety vest introduced herself as Inspector Helen Price.
He handed her the old laboratory ticket.
She examined it closely.
Then she asked the site supervisor to bring the current purchasing records.
Ten minutes later, the supervisor returned with a clipboard.
Inspector Price compared the numbers.
Her expression darkened.
“Mr. Moretti, where did this old ticket come from?”
“My brother. He died here.”
She looked toward the unfinished walkway.
Then back at the documents.
“These aren't merely similar parts.”
She pointed to the supplier code.
“It's the same rejected specification.”
Gabriel looked at the hundreds of feet of new railing stretching above the river.
“Can you close the site?”
“I can issue an immediate safety hold while we verify the installation.”
She was already reaching for her radio.
Rosa felt relief rising.
Then the supervisor spoke.
“Inspector, there's something else.”
He turned the clipboard around.
The delivery records showed that several pallets had already been installed along the public promenade.
Inspector Price's expression grew grim.
“These materials were rejected four years ago,” she said.
She looked at Gabriel.
“And someone deliberately approved them for use again.”
At that moment, a black sedan entered the construction area.
Vittorio Romano stepped out.
He smiled when he saw Gabriel.
Then he noticed the inspection ticket.
The smile disappeared.
May you like
And his first words revealed far more than he intended.
“Who gave you Matteo's coat?”
