The name hung in the air between them…a familiar one to Miles and Vic.He had been next on the list until their trails had been turned in the direction of Brennan.
"Hartley left Ashford five years ago, just before things went belly-up," Brennan said slowly, as if he were assembling the pieces even as he spoke."He went to work at a medical device laboratory.He specialized in platinum coatings for implants.I remember because we all thought it was a strange career move, but he said the money was better and the work was more stable."Brennan looked at the photographs again."He would know how to do this.He would have the equipment, the training, everything."
Miles gathered the photographs and stood up."Thank you, Mr.Brennan."
"I didn't do this," Brennan said again, quieter now.“I swear to God.This is, is…this is just sick.”
"I believe you," Miles said, not sure if it was proper protocol to admit such a thing in front of a witness or not.
Miles turned to leave the room and found Vic standing by the door.She nodded to him, a slightly impressed look on her face.Together, they walked back out into the corridor, Miles still holding the crime scene photos.
"Hartley," Vic said.“Do you think Brennan is telling the truth or just trying to get the attention off of him?”
“I think he’s innocent.I don’t think you can fake that sort of reaction…no matter how good of an actor you might be.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”
"So…Hartley," Miles confirmed.He pulled out his phone and dialed Sarah Kim's number.They walked away from the interrogation room, further down the corridor, as the phone began to ring in his ear.
Kim answered on the second ring.“This is Agent Sarah Kim.”
"Hey, it's Miles.Did you run background checks on the other names from the Ashford employee list?The ones besides Brennan?"
"I did," Kim said."Pulled everything I could find on all eight names you flagged.I thought I’d sent them over in that data dump."
"What did you get on Daniel Hartley?"
"One second…" He heard her typing on the other end and, and less than ten seconds later, her voice was back on the line."Hartley, Daniel.Age forty-seven.Worked at Ashford Fine Jewelers for fifteen years, but he left five years ago.It looks like he went to work at a medical device company called BioMed Solutions in Lower Manhattan, where he specialized in platinum applications for surgical equipment."She paused."He was let go from BioMed two years ago.And after that, there's no employment records that I can find."
"What happened two years ago?"
“Well, let’s see,” she said over the sounds of even more typing.In a strange way, it warmed his heart to think of her hard at work, always ready to answer their questions.She really was the backbone of this whole operation sometimes."His wife died,” she said.“Cancer...I've got the death certificate here.She passed away after a fourteen-month illness."Kim's voice softened slightly."The medical bills were significant.According to public records, Hartley filed for bankruptcy eighteen months ago.He lost his apartment, had to relocate to somewhere cheaper in the Lower East Side."
"Anything else?"Miles asked.They’d come to the break room and walk inside.He habitually grabbed a donut from a box that was sitting on the counter, not even thinking about it.As he absorbed all of this information on Hartley, he felt like he was moving on autopilot.
"That's all I've got so far.You want me to dig deeper?"
"Yes.Everything you can find.Social media, known associates, anything that might evenslightlyconnect him to Gabriel Kane or his network."
"I'm on it."
“Thanks, Sarah.”
Miles ended the call and looked at Vic."Hartley's wife died of cancer two years ago.The medical debt destroyed him financially.He filed for bankruptcy and lost his home."
Vic was already putting it together."The wealthy elite are wearing platinum jewelry while he's drowning in medical bills, trying to save his wife.He lost his wife and his home in such a short amount of time.Sure, as hell seems like enough to push someone to take extreme measure to find some sort of justice, don't you think?"
"It broke him," Miles said."The grief, the debt, the unfairness of it all.And somewhere in that, Kane's philosophy gave him a framework—a way to make sense of the anger and redirect it into something that felt like justice."
"That's a lot of assumptions," Vic said.
"It is," Miles admitted."But it fits.The technical skill, the timeline, the motive.And Claudia Ashford said Hartley was a good man who deserved success.People don't just become killers overnight.Something has to break them first."
Vic pulled out her phone and opened the file they'd compiled on the Ashford employees.She scrolled through until she found Hartley's information."Last known address is in the Lower East Side.Apartment 3C on Rivington Street."
Miles checked his watch.It was coming up on 4:30 in the afternoon.If they left now, they could probably beat the surge of five o’clock traffic as everyone was going home from work."Let's go.No point in waiting, right?”
"What about Brennan?"
