Chapter Nine: The Identity
Malik found Lena in the shed that evening, checking the old hinges on a storage cabinet.
“You could end this by telling them who you are,” he said.
Lena continued tightening a screw.
“My name is already on the mailbox.”
“You know what I mean.”
Lena had spent eleven years investigating preventable injuries for an independent product safety board.
She had examined collapsed platforms, faulty barriers, and accidents caused by people who altered equipment to create convincing demonstrations.
Her testimony had helped establish safety rules used by several states.
After a difficult public case, she had resigned and moved closer to her brother.
She had wanted a life where people asked about her garden instead of her credentials.
“If I announce my old job, Celia will say I’m using influence to bully her,” Lena said.
“Then what will you do?”
“Exactly what I would advise anybody else to do.”
She set the screwdriver down.
“Protect the people who might get hurt and let the facts stand on their own.”
Malik watched her for a moment.
“You sound like your father.”
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me all week.”
He smiled, but the smile vanished when they heard a metal object strike the fence outside.
Chapter Ten: The Trap Springs Early
The sound came again, followed by a muffled curse.
Lena and Malik went to the shed door and looked into the narrow side yard.
A man in a gray sweatshirt was standing beside the fence with one foot tangled in nylon cord.
He was trying to free himself without dropping a metal stake.
Lena told him not to move.
The man froze when he saw them.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” he said.
“Then tell me what it is,” Lena replied.
He said Celia had paid him to set up a temporary boundary demonstration.
He claimed he believed the property owner had agreed to the work.
Malik pointed to the stake.
“You were driving that beside a public footpath.”
The man looked toward the street.
“She said nobody used the path after dark.”
“Children use it before school,” Lena said.
The man swallowed.
“I didn’t know.”
Lena called Dana Webb while Malik kept his distance from the loose cord.
Dana arrived with another officer and asked the man to explain the arrangement.
His story changed twice before he admitted Celia had asked him to make the side entrance look hazardous during a planned inspection.
He said she promised to remove everything afterward.
Lena listened without interrupting.
The trap had not been designed to catch Lena alone.
It had been designed to produce an accident or a frightening near miss that could be blamed on her.
