Now he heard it as many people speaking from different rooms.
The challenge was not to silence the voices that disagreed.
It was to understand where each voice stood.
Chapter 37: The Man Who Built the Wall
A contractor named Harold Price was eighty-one when Priya contacted him about the 1981 partition.
He remembered supervising the work but had not seen the station in decades.
His records included invoices for plaster, timber, and a metal access panel.
Harold explained that Raymond’s office requested a wall that could be opened for future inspections.
The request was unusual because the room had no plumbing or equipment requiring regular access.
He asked why the foundation was interested after so many years.
Priya described the recovered cabinet without accusing anybody of wrongdoing.
Harold said he had never opened the cabinet and had not known about the registry.
He remembered a clerk from Raymond’s office observing the work during the first afternoon.
The clerk carried a leather document case and asked the crew to leave the west room during lunch.
Harold found the request irritating but not remarkable at the time.
Workers were often told to clear spaces while clients reviewed plans.
Emily asked whether he could remember the clerk’s name.
He could not.
He did remember that the clerk wore a distinctive silver watch engraved with a sailing ship.
That detail meant nothing to Emily until Arthur heard it.
He said Raymond had given such watches to senior employees during the company’s anniversary year.
Several people could have owned one.
Simon recorded the detail but refused to treat it as identification.
Harold looked relieved.
He said he had spent his career making buildings safe and did not want to invent certainty about something he barely understood.
Priya thanked him for his careful account.
The visit gave the investigators a narrower sequence for the wall’s construction.
It also reminded Emily that witnesses could help most when they were allowed to say what they did not remember.
Chapter 38: The Winter Auction
The city announced that several unused waterfront parcels would be offered for redevelopment proposals.
One parcel sat beside the ferry station and had been used as an informal public walkway for decades.
The Bell Foundation had supported a plan to incorporate the walkway into a private event plaza.
Arthur had approved preliminary discussions before the registry was found.
Benjamin objected because the path connected several older neighborhoods to the river.
He argued that people should not lose access to a place where their families had lived and worked.
