Rowan opened the door before Eli could knock a second time.
She wore a dark sweater and had a set of keys in one hand. Behind her, a child’s shoes stood beside the wall, one upright and one on its side. She looked at Tessa first, then at the bag Eli carried.
“Ivo is with my sister,” she said. “Come in.”
The apartment was small and warm. A blue kite leaned in the corner beside a folded table. Eli recognized it only because Garin had mentioned one at the warehouse. He kept his eyes on Rowan as she led them to the kitchen.
“Tell me what happened,” she said. “Start at the beginning.”
Tessa asked whether she wanted to sit. Rowan remained standing, so Eli placed the bag on the table without opening it.
“We were at the warehouse to collect supplies,” he said. “A hunter signaled from an upper window. We learned there were injured people inside and used a crane to reach them.”
“Garin was upstairs?”
“Yes. I reached him before Tessa came up.”
“What was wrong?”
Tessa answered. She described the injury she had found and the treatment she had attempted, using plain words and pausing when Rowan asked her to repeat something. She did not describe the wound in more detail than Rowan requested.
“Was he conscious?” Rowan asked.
“For part of the time. He spoke to us.”
“Was he in pain?”
“Yes,” Tessa said. “We did what we could for him. I can’t tell you he felt none.”
Rowan gripped the back of a chair. “Was he alone when he died?”
“No. I was with him, and a responder was there after we reached the ground.”
Rowan sat. Her keys fell onto the table with a small clatter. She looked at Garin’s bag for several seconds before touching it.
“He hated those straps,” she said. “One buckle always sticks. He said he’d replace it after the next job.”
Eli remembered the buckle catching when he closed the bag upstairs. He had forced it without thinking. Now he placed the bag closer to her and showed her where he had put the identification and assignment copy.
“I didn’t open the rest,” he said.
Rowan unfastened the buckle. Inside were gloves, a folded jacket, a small packet of food, and a pencil worn almost to the metal. She took out the jacket and held it against her lap.
“What did he say?”
Eli thought of the request and the blue kite. “He asked me to make sure you and Ivo receive the insurance payment under his contract. He said there was a copy at home in a blue folder. He also said Ivo likes the blue kite.”
Rowan’s face changed when he mentioned the kite. She looked toward the corner but did not get up.
“He made that with Ivo last spring. It never flew straight.”
“He asked us to speak to you before telling Ivo.”
“My sister will bring him back this evening. I need to decide what to say.” She pressed the jacket between her hands. “Did he know he was dying?”
Tessa answered carefully. “He understood he was badly hurt. I can’t know everything he believed.”
Rowan nodded once. She opened the assignment copy. Dust marked the bottom edge, and one corner had torn where it caught beneath the cabinet. The page listed the warehouse, the team’s task, and a threat rating. Garin’s name appeared with the other assigned hunters.
“He told me it was a low-risk inventory job,” she said. “He said he’d be home for dinner.”
“Nessa told us the team received a lower rating,” Eli said. “There was a higher notice posted when we arrived. We don’t know when it changed or who approved the change.”
“Did Garin see the higher notice?”
“We don’t know.”
“Did his supervisor know?”
“We don’t know that either.”
Rowan placed the page beside the bag. “The manager called before you did. He said there had been an incident and someone would contact me with instructions.”
“Did he say what instructions?” Tessa asked.
“He said the company would handle the documents.” Rowan looked at Eli. “Is that why you brought this?”
“Calder asked for the assignment copy. He wouldn’t sign for it, so we kept it with the bag. It belongs to your family to decide what to do with.”
Rowan stood and went to a cupboard above the sink. She brought down a blue folder, its spine reinforced with tape. Inside were the policy, a copy of Garin’s work agreement, and several envelopes. She did not hand them to Eli. She spread them in front of herself and read the first page.
“I haven’t looked at this since he signed,” she said. “He told me the coverage named both of us and Ivo.”
Tessa asked whether she wanted a glass of water. Rowan pointed to the cupboard without looking up. Tessa filled three glasses and left them on the table.
The policy used terms Eli did not understand. Rowan turned pages slowly, stopping at a section about payment after a work-related death. Another section listed documents the insurer might require. She wrote the page numbers on an envelope.
“There’s a deadline,” she said. “I can’t tell whether it applies to the notice or the full claim.”
“Nora Singh is an advocate,” Tessa said. “She can read it with you if you want. You don’t have to decide today.”
“I have to decide some things today.” Rowan opened another envelope. “The funeral home wants a deposit. Ivo’s school has a payment due next week. Garin’s last wages may not arrive until the company closes the job.”
She placed the bills beside the policy. The numbers were not enormous in isolation. Together they represented more money than the clinic could provide immediately, and the dates did not wait for an investigation.
Eli thought of Calder reaching for the bag. “We should confront him before he changes the record.”
Rowan looked up. “Who is we?”
“I can go with Nora. We can ask for the briefing and the notice history.”
“And what does he do while you’re asking?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can he delay the insurance payment?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can he tell the insurer Garin wasn’t working under the contract?”
“The assignment copy shows he was assigned.”
“Is it enough?”
Eli looked at the unsigned section near the bottom of the page. He had not noticed it in the warehouse. “I don’t know.”
Rowan drew the policy toward herself. “Then I want to read this before you confront anyone in my name.”
“He asked me to make sure you received the payment.”
“And I’m telling you I don’t know what a fight with his employer will cost us.” Her voice rose on the last word, then she stopped and took a breath. “You can keep the information you already have. You cannot file a claim for me or accuse someone for me.”
Eli felt the urge to explain that time mattered, that records could vanish, that he had watched Garin struggle to breathe while Calder reached for the bag. All of it was true. None of it gave him a right to decide what Rowan should risk.
Tessa placed her glass down. “We can ask Nora what the policy requires without naming you to the company. We can also help with practical things while you decide.”
“What practical things?”
“Food, a ride to an appointment, help finding a funeral service, someone to sit with Ivo if you need it. Only what you want.”
Rowan looked at the bills. “A ride tomorrow would help. I need to collect Garin’s things from the hospital office, and my sister can’t take another day off.”
“I can arrange that,” Tessa said.
“Not Eli.”
The words landed harder than he expected. Rowan saw his expression and looked away.
“I don’t know you,” she said. “You were with him. I’m grateful. I can’t look at you tomorrow and do that errand at the same time.”
“You don’t need to explain,” Eli said. “Kellan drove us. He can help arrange someone else if he’s available.”
Rowan accepted Tessa’s number and wrote it on the envelope. She did not give them the policy. She allowed Tessa to photograph the page that described the deadline, covering the policy number and the names, so Nora could explain the wording generally.
“What about the assignment copy?” Eli asked.
“It stays here. You can photograph the rating and the date, but not the family details.”
He did as she asked, showing her the image before saving it. The approval line was blank. He marked that fact in his notes without saying it meant the assignment was invalid or fraudulent.
Rowan folded Garin’s jacket and put it back in the bag. She kept the pencil on the table.
“He was going to fix the kite this weekend,” she said. “Ivo wanted a longer tail.”
Tessa did not answer immediately. “Would you like us to take it out of sight before he comes home?”
Rowan considered. “No. He’ll notice it’s gone. My sister can stay while I talk to him.”
Eli stood when Rowan did. At the door she asked him whether Garin had said anything else. He told her about the blue kite and the request that she not have to face the claim alone. He did not add the fears he had seen in Garin’s face or make a promise about what Garin would have wanted for the rest of her life.
Outside, Kellan waited in the vehicle. He had parked where the apartment entrance remained visible without blocking the ramp. Tessa asked if he could arrange a ride for Rowan the next day. He checked his schedule and said he could drive, provided she was comfortable with him.
“I’ll ask her,” Tessa said.
Eli looked back at the window. The curtain moved, then settled. “I pushed her.”
“You did.”
“She might lose the payment if we wait.”
“She might lose something if she acts before she understands the release or the policy. She has to live with that risk.”
“I promised Garin.”
“You promised to help Rowan and Ivo receive what they’re owed. Helping her read the policy is part of that. Taking the choice away from her isn’t.”
He leaned against the vehicle. The bag was no longer beside him. That should have made his hands feel lighter. Instead he felt the absence of the one thing he could carry for Garin.
Kellan handed Tessa a paper with his number written clearly. “Give her this if she wants the ride. She can call me directly.”
Tessa went back to the door. Rowan accepted the number and asked Kellan to come at nine. She thanked him without inviting another conversation about the claim.
Before pulling away, Kellan checked that the ramp and the crossing were clear. Rowan had asked for a ride, not an escort to the claim; he would call her directly in the morning and follow her lead at the hospital office. Eli wrote the appointment time on the back of the redacted policy note so he would remember not to call her during it. He added Kellan’s number, in case the time changed before morning.
As they drove away, Eli opened his notebook. He listed what he had witnessed: the lower assignment copy in the room, Garin’s request, Calder’s demand, and the time the bag reached Rowan. In a separate section he wrote what Nessa and Tomas had reported about their briefing. He left a blank line for the date the rating changed.
Tessa called Nora and asked whether she could answer a general question about the policy deadline. Nora agreed to look at the redacted page that evening. She would not contact the insurer or employer without Rowan’s authorization.
The vehicle stopped at a light. A child on the opposite pavement ran after a paper kite that had caught in a fence. Kellan waited while the child freed it and stepped back from the road. Eli watched the kite fold against the wind, then looked down at the blank line in his notebook.
He had expected the promise to give him a direction. It had. The direction was slower than he wanted, and it began with a family reading a policy at its own kitchen table.