"But no one was actually punished."
She lifted her gaze to his. "No, they weren't punished. And the city Building Department was named in the civil suit as well."
"Let me guess, the inspector was James Cooper."
"Yes, but according to the city's defensive statement, the building was up to code, and they had no way of knowing that the smart system would fail, as it was a new technology and had met all the requirements." She thought for a moment, seeing the wheels turning in Max's gaze as well. "Samantha let the case drop. James Cooper might have approved something that wasn't quite right."
"And someone has been looking for justice for a long time."
"Not justice anymore—revenge. That's what this is about. That's why the strikes are targeted, with minimal collateral damage."
"But an explosion," he continued. "Just like the one that killed those people. Who were the deceased?"
She turned back to her computer and pulled up the list of names. "Lauren Canejo, age sixty-one, homemaker, Ron Canejo, age sixty-three, software engineer, Angie Palmeri, age forty-three, tax accountant, Harry Faulkner, age thirty-nine, manager of the Franklin Art Gallery, and…" Her voice caught in her throat. "Tori Hartford, age thirty-six, a homemaker, and her six-year-old daughter, Ariel. They were survived by David Hartford, age thirty-seven, a venture capitalist."
"Hartford?" Max questioned as she met his gaze. "As in Dominic's friend?"
She nodded. "I had no idea he was a widower, that he'd lost his wife and child, but it makes sense. He had a sadness about him. But he couldn't be behind this. He seemed like such a meek and mild-mannered man."
"One who has money to buy whatever he wants. What about the other surviving family members?"
She glanced back at the page. "The Canejos had an adult daughter, Alexa, twenty-three. Both Palmeri and Faulkner were single but had parents and siblings."
"Here's some more detail," Max said, interrupting her. "This is from a follow-up article on the lawsuit, which was brought by the named survivors: Alexa Canejo, Palmeri's father, Joseph Palmeri, and Faulkner's father, Wilson Faulkner, also David Hartford." He paused. "I know Wilson Faulkner, too. He plays golf with Dominic. He's an investment banker."
"Any of them could want revenge. Maybe all of them."
"I'm betting the settlement was extremely substantial. This wasn't about money."
"No, I don't think it was. And the fact that two of the survivors have plenty of cash doesn't mean they don't want revenge. They also have the money to finance it. What's Faulkner like?"
"Loud, likes to name-drop and brag about his bank account."
"And Hartford is the opposite." She frowned. "I hope it's not him, because he seemed nice when I met him." She held up a hand. "And you don't need to remind me that a lot of killers seem nice, which is how they disarm you."
"Exactly."
She thought for a moment. "Okay, we've narrowed things down to the tower explosion, to the victims and their survivors. Let's focus on the targets."
"Samantha dropped the ball, let the defendant plead out," he said. "Cooper signed off on the project."
"Redstone Technologies," she muttered, glancing back at the file. "The owner is Mason Redstone. At the time of the explosion, he was forty-four years old and living in Tribeca."
"He's fifty-one now, still in Tribeca," Max said, keeping up with her search on the Internet. "His company changed its name to RK Sensor Solutions several months after the settlement."
"And then there's Stan Wexler, the owner of Wexler Properties. We haven't been able to talk to him yet. But since one of his buildings was blown up, he is probably no longer a target. Who else?" An odd expression moved through his gaze. "What are you thinking?"
"There's a conference at the Nexus Forum in Hudson Yards on Tuesday. It's called The Future of World Cities. The focus is infrastructure, capital, and politics all in one place, and Dominic is one of the featured speakers. Wexler Properties and some of the other targets might also be involved."
She opened a new window to search for the conference, and it popped up immediately, the list of speakers and attendees ranging from local to state and world leaders, as well as private equity firms, builders, and technology companies. "This will be a target-rich environment."
"With a great deal of security," he reminded her. "And so far, the strikes have been surgical in nature. An attack on the summit would be completely different."
"Wexler is attending. Redstone is as well. I'm betting Hartford and Faulkner will be there, too. This sounds like the climax."
He nodded, his expression serious. "It could be. At least it's a few days away. We have a little time."
"Three days. That's not much. And what if we haven't reached the climax yet? What if someone else, some lower-level participant needs to go down first, someone who won't be at the summit?"
