THE MAFIA BOSS CAME HOME TO SEE HIS WIFE PUSH HIS SIX-YEAR-OLD SON DOWN THE STAIRS—BUT THE BOY'S LAST WORD BEFORE THE AMBULANCE EXPOSED A SECRET SHE HAD BURIED FOR FOUR YEARS

Chapter 10 - The Contractor Who Wouldn't Look Up

Martin Kroll appeared at the interview with a lawyer, wearing a wrinkled jacket and carrying a paper bag of old receipts. He was not the mysterious villain Salvatore had imagined. He was a frightened man who had spent years convincing himself that following orders wasn't the same as choosing their consequences.

He admitted that Dominic had paid his company for maintenance work at the records annex. Some invoices had been inflated. He said he had been told to disconnect a fire-alarm circuit for a scheduled test on the evening the fire began. He claimed he did not know anyone would be inside.

Investigators would need to test every part of that account. Martin couldn't prove who caused the fire, and he didn't claim to have seen it start. But his records contradicted the official maintenance timeline.

Salvatore received a careful summary from Dana. He went outside to breathe. Elena had died in that building. He could still remember the voice of the officer who called and the way the kitchen tiles had seemed to tilt beneath his feet.

Anton joined him. “Do you want me to find Dominic?”

“No. Let the investigators do their work.”

“That's not how you used to handle betrayal.”

Salvatore looked toward the road. “I'm trying not to be who I used to be.”

Later he visited Elena's grave. He brought no expensive flowers, only a small bouquet of the yellow daisies she had preferred. He told her about Nicholas's cast, the fort, the missing letters, and his own terrible failure to listen.

“I don't know exactly what happened to you,” he whispered. “But I'm going to find out the right way. I won't teach our son that love means revenge.”

A breeze lifted the edge of his coat. He thought of the first time Elena had laughed at him for wearing black to a picnic. She'd said he looked like a man waiting to deliver bad news. Now he wished he'd spent more afternoons wearing ridiculous bright shirts for her.

He returned home in time for dinner. Nicholas inspected his tie. “You wore blue.”

“I did.”