Chapter 4 - THE MAN RAFAEL TRUSTED
“Tell me why you're in this photograph.”
Rafael placed the picture on his desk.
Elias Ward stared at it.
For several seconds, he didn't move.
Then he removed his security badge and laid it beside the photograph.
“I made a mistake.”
Rafael gave a short, bitter laugh.
“A mistake?”
“I let Julian into the sitting room.”
“Why?”
“Bianca told me he needed to collect something for the announcement.”
“And the watch?”
“I saw him holding it. I didn't know what was inside.”
Rafael pointed toward the picture.
“What's nine-seventeen?”
Ward rubbed his forehead.
“The time Julian asked me to disable the motion alarm in that room.”
My stomach tightened.
The chandelier had fallen shortly after nine-thirty.
The theft was planned before the panic.
Rafael noticed the same thing.
“So the watch wasn't stolen during the evacuation.”
“No.”
“Then the chandelier was meant to serve another purpose.”
Ward looked up.
“I didn't know anyone was going to get hurt.”
Rafael stared at him.
“You keep saying that. It's not an answer.”
Ward's voice became strained.
“Julian told me he had found problems with the installation. He said Bianca didn't want the guests frightened before the announcement. He asked me to keep the maintenance corridor clear.”
“And you agreed?”
“He said he'd fix it.”
Rafael stepped away.
The silence was worse than shouting.
Finally, he said, “Hand over your radio and keys. You're off duty. Stay available for the investigators.”
Ward obeyed.
But just before he left, he turned toward Elena.
“Mrs. Blackstone, I'm sorry.”
She didn't answer.
After he was gone, Rafael asked Daniel to examine the photograph more closely.
Daniel pointed to the watch in Julian's hand.
“That model has a removable back cover. If someone opened it, they could hide a folded document inside.”
Elena nodded.
“Your father had it repaired shortly before he died. He told me the watch had stopped at nine-seventeen.”
“Why did that matter?” Rafael asked.
“Because he wanted me to remember the time.”
I looked at the photograph again.
The handwritten words made a little more sense.
Someone had recorded the minute the watch was removed.
But why?
Elena seemed to be struggling with herself.
Then she finally spoke.
“Rafael, your father and I had an argument about Harborview.”
Rafael sat down.
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
He frowned.
“Dad never mentioned it.”
“He didn't want you involved.”
“Involved in what?”
Elena looked at the damaged bolt Daniel had placed on the desk.
“Your father discovered that a contractor had substituted cheaper structural components during construction. He wanted the work stopped.”
“Did he report it?”
“He tried.”
“What happened?”
“The original engineering records disappeared. The replacement reports said everything was safe.”
Rafael looked toward the ballroom.
“Moreland Engineering?”
Elena shook her head.
“Julian's company didn't have that name yet. But the manufacturer used a symbol your father recognized.”
She pointed to the stamped M.
“The same one.”
Rafael was silent.
Then he said, “Why didn't Dad tell me?”
“Because he'd already made one decision he regretted.”
Before she could explain, Daniel's phone rang.
He listened briefly.
Then his expression changed.
“Mr. Blackstone, we have another problem.”
“What?”
“Our maintenance team checked the serial number on that bolt.”
“And?”
“It matches a discontinued industrial fastening system.”
Rafael frowned.
“Discontinued why?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Because it failed independent load testing.”
I stared at the tiny piece of metal.
It looked ordinary.
Something anyone might find in a hardware drawer.
But it had nearly killed an elderly woman.
Daniel continued.
“There was a product recall eight years ago. Several distributors were ordered to remove the entire batch from circulation.”
Rafael looked toward his mother.
“Harborview opened eight years ago.”
Elena nodded slowly.
“And your father was the one who demanded those bolts be removed.”
The implications settled over the room.
Finally, Rafael asked the question none of us wanted to hear.
“Daniel, could those same components still be in the Harborview buildings?”
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
Then he said, “We won't know until we inspect them.”
I thought of the elderly residents whose Christmas baskets I had delivered the previous winter.
I thought of their photographs, their grandchildren, their little apartments overlooking the water.
“How many people live there?” I asked.
Daniel checked the property information on his tablet.
“Forty-three in the oldest residential wing.”
Rafael reached for his phone.
“Get the independent structural engineer we use at our other properties. Tonight.”
Elena suddenly caught his hand.
“Rafael, there's something else.”
He turned.
She looked frightened.
“Your father kept a second copy of the test results.”
“Where?”
“I don't know anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
Her voice trembled.
“Three weeks before he died, he told me someone had found out he still possessed the original report.”
Rafael leaned forward.
“Who?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Then she said, “He didn't give me a name. But he showed me a photograph.”
“Of whom?”
She looked directly at me.
“Of Bianca Moreland standing beside Julian outside the Harborview construction office.”
I felt my throat tighten.
Bianca had told everyone she first met Rafael three years ago.
But Harborview had been built eight years earlier.
And according to Elena, she'd already been involved.
Rafael stared at the photograph Oliver had brought him.
May you like
Then he said something that changed everything.
“My fiancée didn't enter this family three years ago. She's been watching us for eight.”
