Chapter 7 - A PROMISE THAT COULD BE KEPT
Neta did not tell Laith that a stranger had photographed Aunt Yvonne's car. She told him that they were spending a few nights at Yvonne's apartment because the bakery had maintenance problems and she needed help with deliveries. It was not the entire truth, but it was true enough for a six-year-old who already had too much information about dangerous adults.
At Yvonne's kitchen table, she drew a plan. School pickup would be handled by one of three named people. No unfamiliar adult would be allowed to collect Laith, even if they claimed to know his mother. The bakery's alarm would be checked. The police would receive copies of every threat. Neta wrote the details on paper rather than trusting a conversation she might remember differently under stress.
"You look like you're planning a military operation," Yvonne said.
"I'm planning to make it to Friday."
"That's a smaller goal."
"It's the one I can control."
When Gideon called that afternoon, Neta told him about the latest photograph. He went silent. She had learned that his silence could precede anger, but this time he asked how Laith was doing and whether she had people nearby.
"My sister," she said. "The detective knows."
"I have an unused guest suite in a secure building. You're welcome to it. No conditions."
"Thank you. I'm staying with Yvonne."
"Then I won't ask again."
The absence of argument surprised her. She thanked him and prepared to end the call, but he asked one more question.
"Do you want me to stop contacting you?"
Neta looked at Laith, who was constructing a fortress from cereal boxes. "Not yet. But I need you to understand something. I can't be useful to you at the expense of my son."
"I understand."
"I need actions, Gideon. Not promises."
"Then judge me by the actions."
She put down the phone and sat with the feeling of having told an extremely powerful man no without losing anything essential. It was a small kind of freedom. She was reluctant to trust it, but she noticed it.
At the courthouse, Gideon's petition had triggered a wider examination of his financial arrangements. Naomi explained that even if the disputed power of attorney was ruled invalid, some transactions made under its authority might require separate civil actions to reverse. Victims would not receive compensation simply because Gideon won a hearing.
"We need independent trustees," Gideon said. "People with no stake in the Croft organization."
Naomi proposed a panel drawn from labor advocates, an accountant nominated by the workers, and a judge-approved administrator. Gideon agreed to fund its initial work from lawfully accessible assets. He also agreed that the panel could examine his own transactions.
"You might not like their conclusions," Naomi said.
"I haven't liked most conclusions lately."
She placed a document before him. It described a voluntary suspension of his voting rights in the benevolent fund during the independent review. He read every line, asked for two changes, then signed. This time he insisted that Naomi explain exactly what each provision meant.
That afternoon, Marina gave a second statement. With a victims' advocate present, she described the days after Arthur's death. A man had come to her apartment claiming to be an investigator. He knew the contents of the statement she'd given police. He warned her that Arthur's family would lose the remaining compensation from an unrelated injury claim unless she withdrew her allegations.
"I asked why a police investigation had anything to do with a worker's benefits," Marina told Flores. "He said all systems are connected when the right people run them."
She had fled to a cousin's apartment, then moved between temporary rooms, using the green scarf as a way for Arthur's contacts to recognize her without calling her name. The ring with the blue stone contained copied records Arthur had prepared. Marina had not expected to survive long enough to see them examined.
Flores explained witness protection options, including what each would require and what could not be guaranteed. Marina refused one proposed arrangement because it would separate her from her elderly mother. The detective did not call the refusal irrational. She worked with Marina's attorney on a different safety plan.
Meanwhile, a forensic examination identified the second DNA sample from the camera housing. It matched Daniel Fiske, a former security contractor who had worked for both Declan's company and the Croft estate. Fiske had recently been arrested on an unrelated weapons violation. Investigators requested an interview through his lawyer.
Fiske initially claimed he had never met Arthur. When presented with the records placing him at the industrial yard, he asked for counsel and ended the interview. Flores did not interpret his silence as proof. The physical evidence, dispatch records, and financial transfers would need to speak for themselves.
The financial review uncovered a payment to Fiske's consulting account the morning after Arthur's death. It had been labeled emergency site remediation. The company paying it was Walsh Strategic Services. The amount was exactly $38,400.
Gideon had once considered sums like that too small to require his attention. Arthur had insisted small amounts were often where the truth hid, because an organization accustomed to looking only at millions would overlook a carefully worded invoice.
That evening Thomas brought Gideon a package. Inside were three photographs of the old mechanic's apartment where Gideon and Arthur once lived, and a short handwritten note from Arthur's sister, Miriam Quinn.
I wanted you to have these before I heard whether you'd do the right thing, the note said. He loved you like a brother. That didn't mean he approved of everything you did. Please don't confuse the two.
Gideon sat alone for a long time. He looked at the photographs: Arthur leaning over a broken lamp, Gideon standing beside a battered car, the two of them grinning with the exhausted confidence of young men who believed the world could be beaten into submission.
Arthur had not loved him because he was powerful. Arthur had loved him before he possessed anything worth taking. Gideon had allowed years of achievement to obscure that distinction.
He called Miriam and asked if she would permit him to attend a memorial service planned for the following week. He did not assume he was welcome.
"You can come," she said. "But not with a parade of men. I want my brother remembered, not your reputation."
"I'll come as myself."
"That's all he ever asked."
At Sugar and Spice, Neta was rearranging the display when Flores arrived with an update about the lease. The offer to terminate Neta's tenancy had come through an intermediary tied to Declan, and the landlord had withdrawn the proposal after learning that it was being investigated. Her lease remained valid. Flores warned that the pressure might continue through other means.
"It's not a perfect resolution," the detective said.
"A roof over my ovens is a decent start."
Neta placed a box of day-old pastries on the counter. Flores declined payment but accepted a bag for the station's night shift after Neta insisted on keeping the transaction aboveboard. They both laughed at the absurdity of treating a pastry bag as potential evidence.
Laith came out of the kitchen holding a folded sheet of paper. "This is for Mr. Croft."
It was a picture of the birthday table, only every chair had a person in it. Some people were little stick figures. Others were animals. One was a dinosaur wearing a necktie. Beside Gideon's chair, Laith had drawn a bakery box.
"Who are all these people?" Neta asked.
"New guests," he said. "You can invite better ones."
Neta felt tears approach and looked away before they frightened him. She asked if she could photograph the drawing and send it to Gideon. Laith agreed on condition that the dinosaur's name, Professor Chomp, be included in the message.
Gideon received the photograph while Naomi was briefing him on the coming hearing. He studied the crowded table, then asked Naomi to continue. She noticed that he had placed his phone faceup beside Arthur's note.
"A new witness?" she asked.
"A new standard," he said.
The next morning, news broke that the Harbor Workers Benevolent Fund had suspended Declan from its board pending an independent audit. The announcement included a list of affected families and a secure claims process. It made no reference to Gideon as a hero. He had insisted on that wording.
Declan responded by releasing a statement accusing Gideon of manipulation and claiming the fund had been stable until outside agitators interfered. Within hours, a second statement appeared from Fiske's attorney, announcing that his client would cooperate with investigators under a negotiated agreement.
Gideon read the news in silence. He wanted the truth badly. But an agreement did not make testimony reliable, and cooperation did not erase the choices Fiske had made.
Then Flores called Naomi. Fiske had identified the gray jacket with orange lining as belonging to Declan. More importantly, he claimed Arthur had been alive after his car was damaged at the loading yard. According to Fiske, someone ordered the injured accountant moved to a second vehicle rather than calling an ambulance.
"Who gave the order?" Naomi asked.
Flores paused. "Fiske says it was Declan. We're checking everything he says."
May you like
Gideon looked out at the rain and thought of Arthur's last message. The man had spent his final minutes trying to reach a police station, not trying to escape accountability. Gideon pressed his palm against the desk until it stopped shaking.
"Tell them I'll testify to what I know," he said. "And nothing I don't."
