Chapter 9 - Not a Family Favor
Dina Park listened without interrupting. She worked at a worker-rights legal clinic in downtown Brooklyn, and her desk held enough folders to convince Lila she had heard worse stories before breakfast.
“We can help you evaluate a wage claim,” Dina said. “We can also document retaliation. But I need you to understand the difference between evidence and a public accusation.”
Lila laid out the register tapes, pay stubs, photographs, and Curtis's messages. Dina noted each date and asked how the records had been obtained.
“Ray let me in,” Lila said. “I photographed the duplicate tapes. I didn't take originals.”
“Good. Keep the originals where they are. We should request records through proper channels.”
“And the fire?”
“That's a different matter. An old fatal incident could be relevant to current threats, but we need to separate what your mother personally witnessed from what she was told. A notebook is not a verdict.”
Dina recommended contacting a criminal attorney before approaching investigators with the tape. She explained that reporting wage deductions to the New York Department of Labor could take time and would not immediately reopen the diner or pay anyone's rent.
Lila felt disappointed, then ashamed of the disappointment. She had spent her life waiting for a competent adult to tell her there was a switch somewhere that made wrong things right.
She went to Tasha's apartment carrying groceries purchased with the last of her own savings. Tasha opened the door a crack.
“I'm not trying to buy you,” Lila said. “I should have asked before involving your name.”
Tasha looked at the bags, then at the exhausted face above them.
“Come in,” she said. “The kids are watching cartoons.”
Over tea they compared weeks of deductions and counted how much each employee might have lost. Lila offered to ask Dina about making an individual claim without publicly exposing Tasha's identity. Tasha said she wanted a day to decide.
On the walk home, Lila saw a message from Sal.
I met with outside accountants. Nico has refused them access to several company accounts. I am giving them what records I control. I will not contact Curtis again.
May you like
Lila read it twice. There was no demand attached, no invitation to dinner, no pressure to answer.
Then a second message arrived, this one from Owen: Nora says you need to hear Mom's tape. Not because it names a killer. Because she speaks to someone she loved.
