The Accomplice in the Shadows
Chapter 03 - The Accomplice in the Shadows
Sarah Whitcombe's initial investigation, conducted over the following days, uncovered a detail that troubled Nathan considerably more than the sabotage itself.
"The scaffold's original shift assignment had you on that lower platform," Sarah told him, reviewing the site's work logs during his formal statement. "Frank swapped shifts with you two days ago, something about a family appointment. Did you know that before this morning."
Nathan felt something cold settle into his stomach. "I forgot about that entirely. Frank asked me last week if I'd trade Thursday for his usual Tuesday slot. I said yes without thinking twice about it."
"So the scaffold that collapsed," Sarah said carefully, "was rigged for whoever was scheduled to be standing on it originally. Which, according to these logs, was you."
Nathan sat with that, the specific, sickening realization that the sabotage he'd witnessed hadn't been aimed at Frank at all. It had been aimed at him, and only a last-minute schedule swap had put someone else in the path of what Victor had apparently planned.
"Why would he want to hurt me specifically," Nathan said slowly. "I've worked for his company eight months. I've barely spoken to him more than a handful of times."
"That's precisely what I intend to find out," Sarah said. "I want you to think carefully about anything unusual in your interactions with Victor Cole over these past eight months. Anything that felt out of proportion, or oddly personal, even if it seemed minor at the time."
Nathan considered the question seriously, memory turning over small, previously forgettable moments. Victor's occasional visits to the site, considerably more frequent than typical for an owner of his considerable holdings. The way Victor sometimes watched him work, longer than seemed necessary, an attention Nathan had once dismissed as simple managerial oversight.
"He's looked at me strangely a few times," Nathan admitted. "I always assumed I was imagining it, or that he was simply evaluating my work."
Sarah made careful notes, her expression sharpening with something that looked like a theory forming.
"I want to pull his company's ownership records," she said. "And I'd like your permission to look into your own background as well. Sometimes these things connect in ways that aren't immediately obvious."
"My background," Nathan repeated. "I don't understand what that has to do with a construction accident."
"Neither do I, yet," Sarah admitted. "But a man doesn't typically sabotage equipment aimed at a specific, low-level employee without some considerable, personal reason. I'd like to understand what that reason might be, before we assume this was simply random cruelty."
May you like
Nathan agreed, though the specific unease building in his chest only deepened, a growing sense that whatever connected him to Victor Cole ran considerably deeper than eight months of ordinary employment.
He thought, unbidden, of his own adoption, the vague, incomplete details his parents had always offered whenever he'd asked, and wondered, for the first time in his adult life, whether that story held pieces he'd never actually been given.
