Silas explained that Victor had supervised a loading crew at Northline Foods before taking the diner job. During a winter shift, a poorly secured freight lift collapsed and injured Silas, who was working as a contract inspector that day. The company blamed him for entering a restricted area. Silas disputed that account but lacked money to pursue the case once his contract ended. He had kept copies of work orders and maintenance warnings because a former coworker thought the company had misrepresented the inspection history. Nathan was wary of treating a manila folder as proof of a vast scheme. He told Silas he would not promise that the papers could be used in court. Silas agreed.
At the clinic Nathan and Silas met an attorney named Priya Shah, who specialized in workplace claims and helped clients navigate benefits systems. She asked them to begin with dates rather than feelings. Silas produced his old identification badge, the contract termination letter and a copy of a maintenance request. Priya looked at each document and asked where it had been stored. Some pages had been copied at the warehouse on the day of the accident; others had come through public-records requests years later. They spent nearly an hour distinguishing firsthand knowledge from conclusions. Silas knew he was assigned to inspect the freight lift. He knew it had fallen. He knew the company had claimed he entered without authorization. But he had not personally seen the person who altered the later incident summary. He had assumed Victor was responsible because Victor signed the work release. Priya cautioned that one signature did not tell them who had reviewed the warnings or who had given the final order. Nathan found the uncertainty maddening. He had imagined that helping Silas would mean finding a clear wrongdoer and an equally clear remedy. Instead, he faced filing deadlines, missing records and several agencies with different responsibilities. Priya suggested they request archived inspection material and look for former employees who had kept legitimate copies of documents. She also warned that recovering money might be impossible even if the historical record could be corrected. After the meeting, Nathan and Silas ate sandwiches on a bench overlooking the library courtyard. Silas apologized again for getting him involved. Nathan told him the assault had happened in front of strangers and would have consequences regardless of the warehouse photographs. He was helping with the old case because he wanted the facts known. He did not want to inherit anyone's certainty without examining its foundation. That distinction gradually shaped their friendship. Silas began keeping his appointments. They checked the record carefully.
He wanted someone to listen and to know which records could still be checked.