Chapter 5 - The Man from the RoofThe man’s name was Victor Sloan.
He had worked beside Aaron for eight years.
At the funeral, Victor stood near the rear of the chapel and left without speaking to Peter. Reena claimed he felt responsible because he had been working on another section of the roof when Aaron fell.
Police questioned Victor after the accident.
He said the safety line had failed.
The equipment was inspected and classified as damaged during the fall.
No criminal charges were filed.
Now airport footage showed Reena giving Victor one suitcase before entering a restroom and disappearing through another exit.
Victor drove away.
Police found him twelve hours later at a warehouse outside Dayton.
Inside his vehicle were cash, Reena’s suitcase, and copies of Aaron’s insurance documents.
Victor denied knowing where Reena was.
He claimed she asked him to store belongings because she feared Peter would steal from her after taking the children.
Detective Cole did not believe him.
Neither did Peter.
A forensic review of Reena’s finances showed repeated payments to Victor beginning one month before Aaron’s death. The amounts were small enough to look unimportant. After the insurance payout, Victor received eighty thousand dollars through a home-repair company that never performed work at Reena’s house.
Peter sat beside Drew’s bed when Cole explained it.
Drew was awake, his injured leg elevated inside a temporary cast. Lily slept curled beneath a blanket in the next bed.
“Do the children know Victor?” Peter asked.
Cole looked toward Drew.
“We haven’t asked yet.”
Drew heard the name.
His fingers tightened around the blanket.
“He came downstairs.”
Peter leaned closer.
“When?”
“After Daddy died.”
“How many times?”
Drew stared at the wall.
“Lots.”
Victor brought boxes into the basement. Sometimes he argued with Reena. Once, Drew heard him say that “the roof problem” was supposed to solve everything.
Reena told the children Victor was helping renovate.
But Drew remembered something else.
One evening, he slipped out of his bedroom and saw Reena give Victor a metal clip inside a plastic bag.
The boy described it as red, scratched, and shaped like part of a hook.
Aaron’s safety line used a red locking carabiner.
Peter felt his jaw tighten.
Detective Cole stopped the interview before Drew became overwhelmed.
The old accident investigation was reopened.
Photographs of Aaron’s equipment were retrieved. One locking mechanism showed scrape marks inconsistent with impact damage. A specialist believed the safety clip may have been filed or deliberately weakened.
The evidence did not yet prove murder.
But it proved Aaron’s death deserved another examination.
Reena’s motive had changed too.
If Aaron lived and divorced her, she could lose the house, the children, and the money.
If he died, she received temporary control over everything.
Unless the children were removed.
That was why Drew and Lily had to remain hidden, silent, and officially safe.
Peter looked toward his sleeping niece.
Drew had carried her with a broken leg because every adult system around them had failed.
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Now the boy’s memory might expose what happened to his father.
👉 Victor knew how Aaron’s safety equipment failed—but Reena possessed the one piece investigators needed to prove it was sabotage.
