Chapter 6 - THE TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES
~1,100 words
Vincent was still in the harbor office when we returned.
He had poured himself a drink.
He hadn’t touched it.
James placed the red steel tag on the desk.
Vincent stared at it.
Then he closed his eyes.
“I thought Daniel lost that.”
“He gave it to Ruth.”
No response.
James placed the visitor badge beside it.
Then the forged approval.
“You used my signature.”
Vincent looked up.
“I used your stamp.”
“That distinction matter to you?”
“It did then.”
James’s voice lowered.
“Start talking.”
Vincent glanced at me.
“You shouldn’t be here for this.”
I almost laughed.
“My husband died in it.”
He looked ashamed.
Good.
“I changed suppliers,” he began.
“The company was bleeding money. Two city contracts had been delayed. Banks were tightening credit. We had nearly nine hundred employees.”
“So you bought unsafe steel,” I said.
“I bought cheaper steel.”
“Daniel said it failed a load test.”
“After we bought it.”
“And you kept using it.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“On one project.”
James stared at him.
“One?”
“At first.”
That word changed the room.
Leo stepped forward.
“How many?”
Vincent looked away.
“Four.”
James hit the desk so hard the glass jumped.
Chloe’s drawing slipped halfway from his jacket pocket.
He stopped.
His eyes went to it.
Then his hand slowly relaxed.
That little picture may have been the only reason Vincent remained standing.
James pulled out a chair.
“Continue.”
Vincent sat.
“Daniel discovered the batch numbers didn’t match the certifications.”
“So you fired him.”
“I tried.”
“He wouldn’t go.”
“No.”
Vincent sounded almost angry at the memory.
“He was impossible.”
Despite everything, a strange pride moved through me.
Yes.
Daniel could be impossible.
“When Daniel believed something was wrong, he became the most stubborn human being alive.”
Vincent looked at me.
“You knew him.”
“I loved him.”
That shut him up.
Vincent admitted he threatened Daniel with James’s reputation.
He told him investigators would tear through his finances.
That Moretti security would watch Grace.
That people around him might become uncomfortable.
He claimed he never intended actual violence.
I didn’t care.
Fear was violence when you knew how to use it.
“Daniel signed the resignation to keep me away from you,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Then he went to Pier Seven anyway.”
Vincent nodded.
“He wanted the steel removed.”
“And you refused.”
“I told him the project was almost complete.”
James stared at his cousin.
“Which project?”
Vincent hesitated.
“The Charlestown warehouse.”
The place Daniel died.
My whole body went cold.
James understood at the same moment.
“You put him back on that site?”
“He went there himself.”
“After resigning?”
“He wanted to warn the night crew.”
My nails cut into my palm.
“The building failed because of your steel.”
“Part of a temporary support failed.”
“Stop choosing smaller words.”
Vincent looked at me.
“It collapsed.”
There.
Finally.
The real word.
“Daniel saw it moving before anyone else. He pushed two men clear.”
Ruth had been right.
“He was hit by the falling support.”
I could barely ask.
“Was he conscious?”
Vincent’s silence answered.
James stood.
“Was he conscious?”
“Yes.”
My knees weakened.
I had spent three years imagining Daniel dying instantly because that was what I had been told.
No pain.
No fear.
That lie had been one of the few mercies I had.
Vincent took it away with one word.
“What did he say?”
I asked.
Vincent stared at the untouched drink.
“He kept asking whether the other men were alive.”
Of course he did.
I pressed both hands against the desk.
“And?”
“They were.”
“What else?”
“He asked for you.”
I closed my eyes.
Vincent’s voice became quieter.
“He said your name. Chloe’s too.”
James turned away.
Even Leo lowered his head.
“Why did the report say he died on impact?”
I asked.
Vincent didn’t answer.
Something inside me snapped.
I slapped him.
Hard.
Leo moved instinctively.
James stopped him with one hand.
Vincent didn’t touch his face.
I stood over him.
“You tell me the rest.”
His eyes filled.
It shocked me.
Not because I felt sorry for him.
Because guilty men looked human too.
That was harder than monsters.
“There were inspectors near the district,” Vincent whispered.
“What does that mean?”
“The site had already received a safety warning.”
James stared.
“You delayed the ambulance.”
Vincent shook his head.
“I delayed opening the gate.”
My heart stopped.
“The ambulance reached Pier Seven access road at 10:24.”
He swallowed.
“I told security to send them around to the south entrance.”
Leo cursed.
“The south entrance was closed.”
“I know.”
James’s face changed into something I had never seen.
Murder lived there.
Vincent stood quickly.
“I thought Daniel had a broken leg. Maybe ribs. I thought we had minutes.”
“How many?”
James asked.
Vincent’s lips barely moved.
“Twenty-seven.”
I stared.
Twenty-seven minutes.
Twenty-seven minutes while Daniel lay under Christmas lights somewhere in Charlestown asking if his coworkers were alive.
Twenty-seven minutes because a rich man was frightened inspectors might see the wrong steel.
James grabbed Vincent by the front of his shirt.
Leo did not stop him.
Vincent didn’t resist.
“You killed him.”
James’s voice was almost soundless.
I saw where this could go.
One dead husband.
One dead cousin.
More men making terrible decisions because fear felt easier than truth.
I grabbed James’s wrist.
“Don’t.”
He looked at me.
“He let Daniel die.”
“I know.”
“Grace—”
“If you kill him, you make this about you.”
That reached him.
Slowly, James released Vincent.
Vincent fell back against the desk.
I looked at him.
“You’re going to answer for Daniel.”
He nodded.
But then his expression changed.
“There’s something you still don’t know.”
I was sick of those words.
“What?”
Vincent walked to a locked drawer.
From it, he removed a red construction helmet.
Daniel’s name was still printed across the front.
D. BENNETT.
I stopped breathing.
Vincent set it between us.
“He was alive when they put him in the ambulance.”
My voice disappeared.
Vincent looked at me.
“He lived another two hours at Massachusetts General.”
James stared at him.
“How do you know?”
Vincent’s eyes met mine.
May you like
“Because I was there when he died.”
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