The Silence Clause

The dead do not leave testimony. They leave records.

Celeste Drum has built her career reading what other people miss: the altered phrase, the missing signature, the silence where evidence should be. When a family connected to the 1988 Reliance Industrial Processing explosion is found dead in what authorities call an accident, Celeste knows the old case is no longer buried. It is awake.

Thirty-five years ago, nineteen workers died in a chemical plant disaster in Baton Rouge. The official ruli...