Chapter 10: In the Open

The morning of the hearing, Nora put Evan’s notebook in a plain brown envelope.

She had carried it for six years. Its corners were soft, and the back cover was held in place with tape. Maisie saw her handling it at Grace’s kitchen table.

“Is that Uncle Evan’s?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Are you giving it away?”

“No.” Nora pressed the cover flat. “I’m letting people see what he wrote.”

Maisie considered that. Then she offered Bunny. “He can help.”

Nora kissed the rabbit’s worn ear and handed him back. “You keep him safe for me.”

The hearing was being held by the harbor redevelopment authority. It could not decide who had set the Pier Nine fire, but its members could examine the project records in public and decide whether the company should retain its development agreement. Vega’s criminal investigation was continuing separately.

Helen had warned us that Gideon might use the hearing to accuse Evan. She had not seen the document he intended to produce.

Nora walked into the chamber with the notebook under her arm. I followed several paces behind her. She had asked me to sit where she could see me, but not beside her.

Gideon was already at the front table, his lawyer leaning close to speak into his ear. Caleb was absent. Vega had told Nora that officers were looking for him after his call the previous afternoon.

Tessa Rowan sat two rows behind Nora. They had met in person for the first time that morning. Tessa had apologized for disappearing; Nora had thanked her for keeping the records. Neither had tried to make six lost years fit into a single conversation.

The authority’s chair began with the alarm logs. The insurance company had provided the originals under a records request. An investigator described the manual overrides, the missing section of the report I had signed, and the payments routed through the security contractor.

When my turn came, I told them what I knew then and what I had learned since.

“Yes,” I said when the chair asked, “I signed the settlement. I accepted a revised report without checking why a section had been removed.”

Gideon’s lawyer objected that my statement assigned motives to others. The chair asked me to limit myself to my own actions.

“That is my action,” I said. “I did not check. Evan Ellis’s family lived with the result.”

Nora looked down at the notebook. I did not need her to turn around.

Gideon waited until Nora had described Evan’s warnings before producing the access request. His lawyer placed an enlarged copy on the display screen. It showed Evan’s name, an apparent signature, and permission for an after-hours delivery on the night of the fire.

“Ms. Ellis,” the lawyer asked, “is that your brother’s signature?”

“It resembles it.”

“Can you say it isn’t?”

“I can say he wrote down the number of this form because he was investigating it.”

She opened the notebook to the final page. The chair allowed a clerk to display it. Under a list of damaged fire doors, Evan had written the access-request number, followed by four words:

Check who received copy.

Gideon leaned toward his lawyer.

The lawyer tried a different question. “Your brother knew this delivery was scheduled, didn’t he?”

“He knew a request existed. That doesn’t mean he made it.”

“You have no proof that someone else signed it.”

Nora looked at the enlarged document. “I have three questions. Who created the electronic request? Who received it? And why does the copy shown here carry a date my brother didn’t write?”

The chair asked the records investigator to answer what he could. The electronic request had originated from a terminal in the security contractor’s office. It had been transmitted to the warehouse manager and copied to Gideon’s project office. Evan was neither the sender nor a listed recipient.

The signature was still a problem. The investigator would not call it forged without examining the original paper. The original was among records Gideon’s office had failed to produce.

“Then this copy should not be treated as an answer,” Nora said.

Gideon stood. “Evan had access to the warehouse. He went inside that night. No one forced him.”

Nora turned to face him. “He went inside because somebody told him he could see what was being moved there. Who was he meeting?”

“That’s speculation.”

“Then tell us why your office received the access request and Evan didn’t.”

Gideon sat down. He did not answer.

During the recess, Helen received a call from Vega. Officers had found Caleb at a motel near the interstate. He was being brought in for questioning. Vega had also obtained the original access request from a storage box identified through Tessa’s routing sheet.

Helen took the call into the hall. When she returned, she handed the chair a notice that the original had been secured and requested that no finding about Evan’s role be made from Gideon’s copy.

The chair agreed. Gideon’s lawyer protested, but the document was withdrawn from consideration pending examination.

It was a victory. Nora’s hands shook as she closed Evan’s notebook.

Outside the chamber, I caught up with her near a water fountain.

“You made them ask the right questions,” I said.

“They should have asked them six years ago.”

“Yes.”

Tessa came out behind us. “I should have spoken sooner.”

Nora shook her head. “You’re here now.”

Across the hall, Gideon emerged with his lawyer. He stopped when he saw us together.

“You think this saves Roman?” he asked Nora.

“I didn’t come to save Roman.”

His eyes flicked toward me. “Then perhaps you should ask him about the money he paid before the fire.”

“I have,” Nora said. “He answered in there. You can do the same.”

For the first time since I had known Gideon, he had nothing polished to say.

Vega’s call came before the recess ended. An examiner had made a preliminary comparison of the original access request and Gideon’s copy. The signature appeared to have been lifted from an older form. The person who created the request had used Caleb’s security terminal.

There was still a question the evidence could not answer: whether Gideon had ordered the fire, or whether Caleb had decided to start it to hide what was moving through Pier Nine.

Nora listened, then looked through the chamber doors at Gideon taking his seat.

“Ask Caleb who gave the order,” she told Vega. “Tell him we have the original.”