Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO LOOSENED THE RAILING
Martin Sloane cooperated before Richard Hart did.
Predictable.
He admitted the Hart waterfront scheme.
The undervalued sale.
Kickbacks.
Shell companies.
The proxy.
The plan to position Julian as permanent head of Falcone Logistics.
Then investigators asked about the staircase.
Sloane denied everything.
Until they showed him the photograph.
Then bank transfers.
Then security footage from a gas station near Warehouse Twelve.
A maintenance subcontractor named Dennis Pike met Sloane the night before Gabriel fell.
Pike had already left New York.
He was found in Pennsylvania.
He talked.
Richard Hart had not ordered Gabriel killed.
At least not in words.
He wanted the warehouse inspection “interrupted.”
Wanted Gabriel “off his feet for the board meeting.”
Sloane hired Pike to loosen the rail enough that it would fail when someone put full weight against it.
Nobody planned the forty-foot tumble Gabriel actually took after the first landing collapsed beneath him.
That distinction mattered legally.
It mattered less emotionally.
Richard had wanted Gabriel injured.
He simply underestimated gravity.
When Gabriel heard the confession, he remained quiet.
Clara sat beside him.
His cane leaned against the sofa.
Eventually:
“I spent six months believing I fell because I was old.”
Clara frowned.
“Sixty-two is not old.”
“Thank you.”
“You behave eighty sometimes.”
“There it is.”
He looked at his leg.
“I blamed myself.”
“For falling?”
“For not recovering faster.”
Clara's expression softened.
Gabriel continued:
“I hated that cane.”
“I noticed.”
“I thought every person looking at it saw less of me.”
“Some did.”
Julian.
Gabriel nodded.
Then Clara said:
“But perhaps the problem wasn't the cane.”
He looked at her.
“Perhaps it was spending sixty years teaching everyone around you to confuse strength with never needing one.”
That hurt.
He smiled faintly.
“You really have become unbearable.”
“You pay poorly for emotional wisdom.”
He laughed.
The next morning, Gabriel went to rehabilitation.
He had missed three sessions since the wedding.
This time he brought the cane.
Did not leave it in the car.
Did not apologize for it.
He walked twenty-seven feet between parallel bars.
Then sat before his leg buckled.
His therapist smiled.
“Good.”
Gabriel frowned.
“I used to walk miles.”
“And today you walked twenty-seven feet.”
“Yes.”
“So today twenty-seven is the number that matters.”
Gabriel looked toward Clara.
She raised an eyebrow.
He sighed.
May you like
“Apparently everybody has joined forces against me.”
For the first time, he sounded grateful.
