Sera laid the two lower-rating copies beside the photograph of the notice posted at the warehouse.
The pages were similar, but not identical. Garin’s copy had a torn lower corner. The duplicate from the surviving hunter was clean and complete to the edge of the paper. Both listed the lower rating and the assignment date. Both had an empty approval line.
“The higher notice has a posting date,” Sera said. “It doesn’t show when the change was approved.”
Kellan drew a line across a sheet of paper. He marked the assignment date, the time the team entered according to the site officer’s log, and the time Sera photographed the higher notice. Between the entry and the photograph he left a gap.
“We don’t know where the revision falls in here,” he said.
Eli pointed to the blank line. “Someone sent them in without approval.”
“Maybe,” Sera said. “Or the copy was made before the signature was added. Or the approval is on another page.”
“Both copies are blank.”
Sera folded the photograph along the white margin, then stopped herself and flattened it again. She had taken the picture from across a busy street while a delivery van blocked half her view. She remembered the driver waving her back from the curb; she had been so intent on the notice that she had almost stepped into the road.
Nora held the duplicate by its edges. Nora placed the insurer’s request beside the copies. The staple had come loose from the envelope, and she searched for it before Rowan could brush the papers into her lap. Rowan found it under the chair and set it on the table. Neither of them wanted Ivo stepping on it when he came home.
Rowan sat at the end of the table. She had received confirmation that the insurer had opened a file, along with a request for proof of Garin’s assignment and a certified death record when available. The funeral provider had agreed to hold the deposit until the community fund made its decision.
“Can I send these copies now?” she asked.
“You can send them with an explanation of where they came from. I would not describe the blank line as proof of falsification.”
“I wasn’t planning to.” Rowan looked at Eli. “I want the claim paid. I also want to know what happened, but I don’t want to give them a reason to say I invented part of it.”
Eli sat back. He had seen Calder reach for the assignment copy while Garin was dying. That action made him suspicious of the manager’s intentions. It did not fill the blank line on the document.
Sera turned to Kellan. “The station worker may know how these papers move between contractors. He mentioned seeing records at the shared warehouse.”
“Jalen,” Kellan said. “He was worried about keeping his job.”
Eli remembered the man beneath the masonry, the ledger warning, and Rell’s refusal to admit he had known about the cracks. Jalen had chosen to keep the photograph and seek advice before filing a complaint. Bringing another family’s claim to him could expose both families through the contractor network.
“Does he know anything about this rating?” Rowan asked.
“We don’t know,” Kellan said. “He worked at the pumping station. He may have seen the documents handled nearby.”
“Then ask whether he wants to speak to Nora,” Rowan said. “Don’t give him my address or Ivo’s name.”
Nora drafted a short message: a family was seeking information about a warehouse assignment; Jalen might have relevant knowledge; he could speak privately with an advocate before deciding whether to provide a statement. It did not identify Rowan or describe the insurance amount.
Kellan sent it because Jalen had given him permission to contact him. The reply came twenty minutes later: I can talk after work. What happens if my employer finds out?
Nora answered that she could explain possible options and limits but could not promise secrecy in every formal process. Jalen asked for an evening meeting away from the clinic and the station. He chose the public library’s small meeting room. Kellan called to reserve it and learned that the entrance ramp was closed for repairs. He found a second entrance with a working lift and sent Jalen the directions. Jalen replied that he could manage the short walk from the bus stop if he had time to rest before the meeting. Nora asked the librarian to leave a chair beside the lift, and the librarian confirmed the room would be quiet enough for a private conversation. Kellan offered a ride, but Jalen preferred to arrive on his own. He sent Kellan a message when he reached the library so no one would wait anxiously at the entrance.
Eli reached for his coat.
“Not the first meeting,” Kellan said.
“I was there when he was trapped.”
“And he may feel he owes you an answer. Let him ask Nora what the risks are without you at the table.”
Eli looked at Rowan. She was reading the insurer’s request again, tracing a line with her finger. The decision about Jalen was connected to her claim, but the risks belonged partly to the worker. She had agreed to the invitation, not ordered him to testify.
“Tell him he doesn’t owe me anything,” Eli said.
“I will.”
While Kellan and Nora went to the library, Sera returned to the warehouse’s public entrance. She did not approach the closed upper floor. She photographed the current notice board and compared the posted revision with the image from the rescue day. The notice was still there, but a new sheet had been placed beside it: a general statement that an investigation was underway.
A worker carrying a lunch tin stopped near her. “You’re the scout from the rescue.”
“Yes.”
“Calder’s asking who copied the assignment papers.”
“Did he ask you?”
“He asked everyone on our shift.” The worker looked toward the gate. “I told him I hadn’t copied anything.”
Sera did not ask for the names of the people questioned. She asked whether Calder had given a reason. The worker said the manager wanted a complete incident file. He did not know whether anyone had been threatened or whether the questions were routine.
The worker stopped at the corner and called her back. “There’s a copy machine in the shared office. Anyone with the desk key can use it. That doesn’t mean the copies go through the same person.”
“Do you have the key?”
“No. Our foreman does.”
“Did you see the assignment sheets copied?”
“No. I saw a folder on the desk the morning of the job. I didn’t look inside.”
Sera thanked him. The copy machine offered a possible route for the papers, but it did not establish who had printed Garin’s sheet. She photographed the public sign naming the companies that shared the entrance, keeping the worker out of the frame. The building served more people than Calder’s operation.
On her way back she noticed a delivery cart at the rear gate. The driver checked a numbered seal against a form before the guard admitted him. Sera wrote down the time and the visible seal number, then stopped. The cart could be carrying any company’s goods. Following it through the gate would not answer the question Rowan had authorized her to ask.
Sera recorded the conversation after the worker left, noting that it was his account and that he had not agreed to be identified. She sent Nora a message about the inquiry without attaching the worker’s name.
Back at the library, Jalen arrived with his crutches and a folder. He had returned to light work at the checkpoint, but his leg still swelled at the end of the day. Nora asked whether he wanted Kellan to remain. Jalen said yes.
“I saw papers at the warehouse office,” he said. “Not all of them. Rell sent me to collect a pump part earlier that week.”
“What papers?” Nora asked.
“A rating sheet. I recognized the stamp because the lower rating was the same as the one on our station route. A clerk put it in a folder for the hunters.”
“Did you see a signature?”
“I saw the lower half of the page. There was a blank line, but I can’t swear it was the approval line on the copy you have.”
“Did you hear anyone give an instruction about it?”
Jalen shifted in his chair. “I heard Rell tell the clerk to use the lower sheet. I don’t know whether he was speaking for Calder or for someone else.”
Kellan wrote the date Jalen gave, then asked him to check it against the station log. Jalen had a photograph of his shift schedule. The date was one day later than he first recalled. He corrected himself before Nora completed her notes.
“Does that make me unreliable?” he asked.
“It means you checked a date and corrected it,” Nora said. “We’ll record both the original recollection and the document you used to verify it. You shouldn’t guess about anything you didn’t see.”
Jalen looked at the folder. “If I say this formally, Rell will know it was me.”
“He may. There may be protections against retaliation, but I can’t promise that a dispute won’t affect your work or income. I can help you understand the process before you choose.”
Jalen unfolded his contract. The page describing accommodation had a handwritten start date and a printed clause allowing the employer to end the arrangement when the assignment ended. Nora read it without making a quick promise.
“Does your rent come out of wages?” she asked.
“Part of it. The rest is deducted from the completion payment.”
“Do you have a receipt for the deductions?”
“I have two. One month is missing.”
“Keep what you have. I’ll ask the housing adviser what the agreement means, and whether you can request the missing record without filing a complaint.”
Jalen rubbed his leg through his trousers. “Rell offered me the checkpoint because I can’t lift. If I lose it, I can’t take a heavy job until this heals.”
Kellan leaned forward. “You can ask the clinic about follow-up care. You don’t have to give a statement to get it.”
“I know Tessa said that. I keep expecting someone to add a condition.”
Nora turned the contract toward him. “You can stop this conversation too. Nothing we’ve discussed requires you to sign.”
He shook his head. “I want to know what I saw matters. I also need a place to sleep.”
“It may matter,” she said. “We need to check it against the other records. Your housing question matters at the same time.”
“My housing is tied to the job for another month. I need to know what happens if they remove me from the schedule.”
Nora wrote the question down. She offered to review his contract and connect him with a housing adviser. She did not ask him to sign a statement that evening.
Tessa called while they were still at the library. She told Jalen that the clinic could continue his follow-up checks within its scope regardless of whether he spoke about the rating. He thanked her and asked whether she could send his medical note to Nora. Tessa said she would send only the portion he authorized and would show him the wording first.
Before leaving the library, Jalen authorized Kellan to tell Eli the limited summary of the instruction and the corrected date, while withholding the rest of his account until he decided whether to testify. Kellan returned to the clinic alone. Eli stood when he came through the door.
“What did he say?”
“He may have seen a lower sheet and heard an instruction from Rell. He corrected the date after checking his schedule. He wants advice about his job and housing before deciding whether to testify.”
“Did he say who told Rell?”
“No.”
Eli looked at the timeline. The corrected date fell before the warehouse assignment, but it did not show when the higher notice was approved. He added the date with a note that it came from Jalen’s schedule and that Jalen’s account concerned a sheet he had seen in a folder.
“Can we tell Rowan?” he asked.
“Nora will tell her what Jalen has agreed to share. He hasn’t authorized his full account yet.”
Rowan had gone home to Ivo. She had left a message asking that no one contact the employer in her name until she had reviewed Nora’s advice. Eli put the timeline in an envelope and wrote the date on it.
The unsigned page had led them to a witness. It had also led that witness back to a question he had faced after the tunnel rescue: whether speaking would cost him the job that paid for his home. Eli could not answer that question for him. He could keep the timeline accurate and be ready if Jalen chose to speak.