He asked whether the applicants knew what had happened to their records.
Eleanor shook her head.
“Most people thought they’d simply been rejected.”
Denise suggested contacting them individually before putting names into any public archive.
Eleanor approved.
“Those people came looking for jobs,” she said.
“They didn’t agree to become characters in somebody else’s scandal.”
As they left, Eleanor gave Mason an old photograph of the proposed classroom.
The room held twelve chairs, a chalkboard, and a sign reading New Skills, New Start.
No student had ever occupied those chairs.
Mason carried the picture carefully because empty rooms could tell stories too.
Chapter 26: An Unwanted Visitor
A man in a black pickup came to Denise’s apartment on a Thursday evening and knocked until Mason answered.
He introduced himself as Leon Mercer, a former maintenance worker at the warehouse.
He said he had been following the local news and wanted to correct a story about Elliot.
Mason invited him into the lobby rather than upstairs.
Leon held a plastic folder and kept glancing at the building’s glass entrance.
“Your father didn’t get fired because of one argument,” he said.
“He refused to sign off on an inspection report.”
Mason asked which report.
Leon described a loading platform that had been repaired with temporary braces after a heavy delivery damaged its support.
Management wanted the platform reopened before a scheduled investor visit.
Elliot demanded a full inspection and recorded the hazard in the maintenance log.
The platform remained closed for two days, angering Warren.
Leon believed that event had made Elliot vulnerable before the sale dispute began.
Mason asked why Leon had not come forward earlier.
Leon rubbed his face.
“I had two kids in school and a mortgage,” he said.
“I kept thinking somebody else would speak first.”
He gave Mason a copy of a maintenance work order and asked him not to publish his address.
Mason promised no publicity but refused to guarantee secrecy if Leon eventually became a formal witness.
Leon understood and said he was prepared to speak with the committee’s lawyer.
When Denise joined them downstairs, she recognized him from the old company picnic.
“You brought a homemade pie that nobody could cut,” she said.
Leon laughed.
“That thing was practically concrete.”
The brief warmth disappeared when Denise asked about Elliot’s dismissal.
Leon admitted that he had repeated Warren’s accusation of theft because supervisors pressured the staff to choose sides.
“I told people your husband was taking documents home,” he said.
