He shook his head. “Not if it was strong enough to kill someone like it did in your case. A minor leak where there’s good ventilation might not have any effect on you at all. More serious leaks and you’d have headaches or feel nauseous or dizzy. Might affect your breathing. To kill you? We’re talking about a flood of natural gas sucking up oxygen and causing carbon monoxide poisoning.”

“So, the leak had to have happened that night?”

“Or gotten much worse for some reason.”

“Let me ask you this. If someone wanted to kill himself with gas, what would be the most efficient way?”

He thought about it. “Close all the windows, blow out the pilot lights on your stove and oven and turn up the burners. That would do it.”

“But not a minor leak from a corroded gas line?”

“No, like I said, if it happened the way the report says, there would have been a flood of gas.”

Salvador Trejo glared at me from across the table in the conference room at the gas company office. He wore a gray shirt with his name stitched in red over the right pocket. The second Trejo brother was stocky but solid, round-faced and handsome. Frank Fernandez, a company lawyer, sat at the head of the table between us.

“I have a few questions about your report,” I said, after introductions had been made.

“Why are you still asking?” Salvador asked, sullenly. “Nick don’t want the money.”

“Bill Ryan’s estate does. That means I still have to complete my investigation before the claim can be paid. I understand from the company you’re assigned to the Oakland office, not San Francisco. How did you come to be the investigator on this case?”

“It was my brother, man. I wanted to know what happened. I asked the company to let me take the case.”

I glanced at Fernandez. “Wouldn’t there have been a conflict of interest if a family member was involved?”

“A gas leak is a gas leak, Henry,” Fernandez replied. “What happened is a mechanical issue and the analysis would be the same whoever was involved.”

“You wouldn’t be concerned that if Nick had decided to sue the company Sal might have to be a witness?”

“Nick’s not gonna sue anyone,” Sal interjected. “All you lawyers think about is money.”

Fernandez shrugged. “I guess that’s a possibility but like Sal said, he wanted to see what had happened to his brother. I suppose his supervisor decided that outweighed any potential conflict.”

“Did you know that Nick called Sal and it was Sal who called nine one one?” I asked Fernandez. “Isn’t that right, Sal?”

“So what?” Sal said curtly.

Fernandez shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I was not aware of that.”