Chapter 5 - The Man Beneath the Cap
By sunrise, Center Seven was locked down.
Nobody called it that.
Officially, operations were suspended for an emergency structural inspection.
Unofficially, Gabriel had ordered every manager who had been employed at the warehouse during Madison's accident to remain on site.
Mercer sat alone in a conference room.
Richard Voss had vanished.
That was the first problem.
The second was Madison.
She stood outside Gabriel's temporary office, furious.
“You lied to me.”
Gabriel looked up.
“I withheld my surname.”
“You dressed like maintenance.”
“That wasn't a lie.”
“You inspected electrical panels?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know anything about electrical panels?”
“Enough not to touch the wrong wire.”
Madison didn't smile.
“You watched me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody tried to hide what happened to you.”
She stopped.
Gabriel removed the washer from an evidence bag.
“Mercer recognized this.”
“I saw.”
“He says he didn't.”
“He's lying.”
“Yes.”
Madison studied Gabriel.
“Why do you care?”
The question caught him off guard.
“Because this happened in my building.”
“Things happen in your buildings every day.”
“Not this.”
“Why is this different?”
Gabriel leaned back.
“Because someone used my company to bury the truth.”
Madison's anger softened slightly.
“And because you got hurt.”
She looked away.
A doctor arrived forty minutes later.
Not a company doctor.
Dr. Elaine Porter was an orthopedic trauma specialist from Manhattan.
Madison initially refused examination.
Then another wave of pain changed her mind.
Gabriel gave her privacy.
An hour later, Porter entered his office.
Her expression was grim.
“She needs imaging immediately.”
“How serious?”
“I can't diagnose without scans, but her symptoms are consistent with a sacral or coccygeal fracture, possibly nerve involvement.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“She worked three weeks like this.”
“She shouldn't have.”
“What would sitting do?”
“Depending on the injury? Exactly what she's describing.”
Gabriel stared through the glass at Madison.
She stood beside the wall.
Still standing.
Something inside him hardened.
“Get her to the hospital.”
Madison objected.
Gabriel ignored her.
“You can't order me around.”
“No.”
“Then stop.”
“You're right.”
He handed her his phone.
On the screen was her recovered maintenance complaint.
Madison read it.
Her anger vanished.
“That’s mine.”
“Yes.”
“I told them.”
“I know.”
“They said it never existed.”
“I know.”
She looked at the deletion record.
“R. Voss.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Richard Voss deleted it.”
“Why?”
“That is what I'm going to find out.”
Madison looked toward the conference room where Mercer waited.
“And him?”
“He knows something.”
“Are you going to hurt him?”
Gabriel studied her.
“No.”
She wasn't convinced.
Gabriel added, “I'm going to make him tell the truth.”
“That sounds worse.”
For the first time, he smiled.
Barely.
“Go to the hospital, Madison.”
She looked at the complaint again.
Twenty-one days of people doubting her.
Twenty-one days of wondering whether she had remembered incorrectly.
Twenty-one days of pain.
The proof was now glowing on a phone screen.
She handed it back.
“I'll go.”
As she turned, Gabriel said, “Madison.”
She stopped.
“You weren't careless.”
Her eyes filled instantly.
She hated that they did.
Gabriel continued.
“You reported the danger. Somebody ignored it.”
Madison nodded once and walked away.
Gabriel's phone rang.
His investigator.
“We traced Trevor Cole's forty thousand.”
Gabriel closed the office door.
“Who paid him?”
“Shell company.”
“Owner?”
“We dug through three layers.”
“And?”
A pause.
“Richard Voss.”
Gabriel looked toward the warehouse.
“Find Voss.”
“We have another problem.”
“What?”
“Trevor Cole isn't missing anymore.”
Gabriel went still.
“Where is he?”
“Police pulled a car from the Hudson this morning.”
Silence.
“Cole?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel's eyes closed briefly.
“How long?”
“Preliminary estimate says about three weeks.”
Three weeks.
Right after Madison fell.
Gabriel looked through the glass toward the doors Madison had just walked through.
Someone had paid Trevor.
Then Trevor died.
And if Madison had seen what Trevor did that night, she might be the only living witness left.
“Put security on Madison.”
“Does she know?”
“No.”
“Should we tell her?”
Gabriel looked at the empty chair beside her desk.
“Yes.”
May you like
His voice hardened.
“Because whoever killed Trevor Cole may already know she remembers him.”
