Chapter 2 - The Fall Everyone Wanted Forgotten
Madison did not answer.
The stranger waited.
That made him more unsettling.
Most people filled uncomfortable silence. They repeated questions. They demanded explanations.
He simply stood there.
Finally Madison said, “I can sit.”
“Then sit.”
Her eyes moved to the chair.
He didn't touch it.
Didn't smile.
Didn't challenge her with his expression.
He merely waited.
Madison hated him for that.
Because the chair was less than three feet away.
All she had to do was prove him wrong.
She stepped toward it.
Her hand touched the backrest.
The memory returned instantly.
Falling.
Steel screaming against steel.
Concrete rushing toward her.
Bolts bouncing beside her face.
Trevor's shoe sliding something underneath the rack.
Madison released the chair.
“I don't have time for this.”
“You finished your report.”
“How would you know?”
“I watched you submit it.”
“You've been watching me?”
“I've been watching everyone.”
“That doesn't make it better.”
“No.”
She turned away.
Pain shot through her hip.
Her breath caught.
The stranger saw it.
Madison saw him see it.
That frightened her more than anything.
“Good night,” she said.
“Which platform?”
She stopped.
“What?”
“The fall.”
Madison turned slowly.
For the first time, the stranger's expression had changed.
Barely.
But the casual curiosity was gone.
“How do you know about that?”
“Which platform?”
“Seven.”
His jaw tightened.
“You fell from Platform Seven?”
“Yes.”
“How far?”
“Sixteen feet.”
“And you're working?”
“My doctor cleared me.”
“What doctor?”
“That isn't your business.”
“It may be.”
Madison laughed once, without humor.
“You're maintenance.”
The stranger looked toward the dark warehouse.
“Tonight.”
Before Madison could ask what that meant, footsteps approached.
Kelly returned carrying her jacket.
“There you are.”
She noticed the stranger.
“Everything okay?”
Madison hesitated.
“Yes.”
The stranger walked away.
Kelly watched him.
“Who was that?”
“I still don't know.”
They left together.
Outside, dawn had begun coloring the eastern sky.
Madison climbed carefully into Kelly's car.
She did not sit normally.
She lowered the passenger seat almost flat and eased herself sideways onto it, jaw clenched against the pain.
Kelly stared.
“You've got to tell somebody.”
“I did.”
“Then tell somebody else.”
“Who?”
“The company.”
Madison looked through the windshield at the enormous DELORENZO LOGISTICS sign above the warehouse.
“I told them before I fell.”
Kelly went silent.
Madison had never said that before.
“What do you mean?”
“Three days before the accident, I filed a maintenance complaint.”
“About the railing?”
“It moved when I leaned against it.”
Kelly's face changed.
“What happened to the complaint?”
“Apparently I never filed one.”
“But you did.”
“Yes.”
“You have the email?”
“The system generates an internal ticket. No email.”
“Then somebody deleted it.”
Madison looked at her.
“That is exactly why I haven't been talking about this.”
Kelly swallowed.
“Madison, that's not an accident.”
“I know.”
Neither woman noticed the black sedan parked across the road.
Inside it, the stranger from the warehouse sat in the rear seat.
Without the maintenance coat, he looked entirely different.
His name was Gabriel DeLorenzo.
And the building behind Madison belonged to him.
“Follow them,” Gabriel said.
The driver glanced at him through the mirror.
“Sir?”
“Not closely.”
The sedan began moving.
Gabriel looked down at the photographs on his phone.
Platform Seven.
He had inspected it personally earlier that night.
The repaired railing looked perfect.
Too perfect.
New anchors.
New bolts.
Fresh welding.
Entire mounting assemblies replaced.
That made no sense.
If Madison Hayes had simply lost her balance, there had been no reason to replace structural hardware.
Unless someone wanted the original hardware gone.
Gabriel made a call.
A man answered immediately.
“Boss.”
“I need every maintenance ticket submitted at Center Seven during the thirty days before Madison Hayes fell.”
“Already requested?”
“No.”
“Then I'll have it in an hour.”
“Not from the current database.”
Silence.
Gabriel looked back at the warehouse.
“Restore the backups.”
“That could take longer.”
“Do it.”
“And if something was deleted?”
“Find out who deleted it.”
Gabriel disconnected.
He had spent fifteen years building legitimate logistics operations around businesses inherited from a family whose reputation was considerably darker than its tax returns.
People feared the DeLorenzo name.
Gabriel had learned to use that fear when necessary.
But Center Seven was supposed to be different.
Clean.
Professional.
Safe.
If somebody inside his company had covered up an employee's injury, Gabriel wanted to know why.
If somebody had deliberately loosened that railing—
His phone rang.
“Speak.”
“Mr. DeLorenzo, you asked about Trevor Cole.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
“Yes.”
“He resigned nineteen days ago.”
“Address?”
“Apartment is empty.”
“Family?”
“Mother in Queens. Sister in Jersey.”
“Financial activity?”
A pause.
“That's interesting.”
Gabriel sat forward.
“What?”
“Cole received forty thousand dollars two days after Hayes fell.”
“From whom?”
“We're tracing it.”
Gabriel looked toward Kelly's car ahead.
“Find him.”
He ended the call.
Then another message appeared.
RESTORE COMPLETE.
One deleted maintenance ticket had been recovered.
Submitted by: MADISON HAYES.
Location: INSPECTION PLATFORM 7.
Description:
WEST SAFETY RAIL MOVES UNDER LIGHT PRESSURE. POSSIBLE LOOSE ANCHOR. URGENT INSPECTION REQUESTED.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
The ticket had been deleted six hours after Madison submitted it.
Three days later, she fell.
Someone had known.
Someone had been warned.
And someone had erased the warning.
Then his phone displayed another piece of information.
USER WHO DELETED TICKET:
ADMINISTRATOR OVERRIDE — R. VOSS.
Gabriel knew that name.
Richard Voss.
Director of Operations.
A man who had worked for the DeLorenzo family for seventeen years.
A man Gabriel trusted enough to hold master administrative privileges across six warehouses.
Gabriel slowly raised his eyes.
“Turn around.”
The driver looked at him.
“Back to Center Seven?”
“Yes.”
May you like
Gabriel's voice became very quiet.
“I want to know what Richard Voss was doing three days before Madison Hayes almost died.”
