Chapter 4 - WHAT HAPPENED AT PIER NINE
Daniel stared at Jason’s note for so long that I almost repeated the question.
Almost.
Then he said, “My brother’s name was Nicholas.”
Thomas looked away.
That told me more than Daniel’s voice did.
Nicholas Brooks.
I knew the name vaguely.
Not from crime pages.
A business article, maybe.
“He worked with you?”
“Yes.”
“How old?”
“Thirty-two when he died.”
Daniel’s answer was too practiced.
“How?”
“Pier Nine.”
I waited.
He did not continue.
“The powerful-man silence thing.”
His eyes lifted.
I should not have made a joke.
Not then.
But something in his face softened.
“Right.”
He looked at Jason’s note.
“Three years ago, Nicholas found irregularities in Atlantic Harbor manifests.”
“The eight million?”
“Yes.”
“He suspected Marcus Vale?”
“At first.”
“Then?”
Daniel walked toward the bookstore window.
Outside, Boston was nearly empty.
Rain shone beneath streetlights.
“Nicholas believed the thefts were being authorized through a Brooks internal code.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
I stopped.
“You?”
“Forged.”
“You are sure?”
His face hardened.
“Yes.”
“Evidence?”
“Eventually.”
“Eventually?”
Daniel turned.
“I was not sure at first.”
That sentence mattered.
Because if Nicholas accused someone using Daniel’s credentials, Daniel might have doubted him.
“What did you do?”
Daniel looked toward the floor.
“I told him to stop investigating until I knew who inside the company was compromised.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
That sounded like a brother.
“What happened?”
“He went to Pier Nine alone.”
“Why?”
“He thought Marcus was meeting someone there.”
“Was he?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Elliot Crane.”
The name Olivia had given us.
The client who paid her to set up the blind date.
I stared.
“So Crane was there three years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
“We never knew.”
“That seems impossible.”
“He used shell companies, false identities, intermediaries.”
“And now he is paying Olivia.”
“Yes.”
My skin chilled.
“What happened to Nicholas?”
Daniel looked at the flash drive.
“Warehouse camera showed him entering at 11:41 p.m.”
“And leaving?”
“No footage.”
My throat tightened.
“Body?”
“Found in the harbor the next morning.”
I closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel nodded once.
No performance.
“What did police say?”
“Accidental fall after confrontation.”
“You believed that?”
“No.”
“Who was blamed?”
“Marcus.”
“Did Marcus kill him?”
“I believed so for two years.”
“But?”
“Marcus died before trial.”
“Boating accident.”
“Yes.”
“Also not an accident?”
Daniel’s expression tightened.
“Probably not.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“So Nicholas investigates forged credentials, meets Marcus and Crane, dies. Marcus later dies. Jason works under Marcus, then disappears from your company. Now my friends lure me to you because Crane pays them.”
“Yes.”
“That is too connected.”
“Yes.”
“Why me?”
Daniel looked toward Jason’s note.
“That is what this drive may answer.”
Thomas set up an isolated laptop.
No internet.
No connection to the store network.
He inserted the flash drive.
Password.
Of course.
“What would Jason use?” Daniel asked.
I stared.
“You are asking the ex-girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
“Cheating liar.”
“Try.”
I thought.
Jason hated complicated passwords.
He used baseball teams.
Birthdays.
Names.
I typed EMILY.
Denied.
That hurt my pride more than it should.
Daniel noticed.
“Good.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“If it opened with your name, I would dislike him more.”
“You already dislike him?”
“He used your bookstore for secret freight mail.”
“Fair.”
I tried REDSOX.
Denied.
WHITMORE.
Denied.
Then one possibility.
The woman he cheated with.
Her name was Vanessa.
I typed VANESSA.
Access granted.
I stared at the screen.
Daniel looked at me.
“That is brutal.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want me to insult him?”
“Later.”
Folders appeared.
PIER9.
CRANE.
MORETTI.
BROOKS.
OLIVIA.
EMILY.
My name.
My stomach turned.
“Open Emily.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Your choice.”
That mattered.
I nodded.
Thomas opened it.
Photographs.
Me leaving work.
Me at the grocery store.
Me outside my apartment.
Me with Olivia.
Me with Jason years earlier.
Some old.
Some recent.
“Recent?”
Daniel leaned closer.
One was dated two weeks ago.
I had been watched.
“What the hell?”
A document.
SUBJECT: EMILY CARTER.
STATUS: UNAWARE.
CONTACT: AVOID.
USE ONLY IF BROOKS CONTACT REQUIRED.
I stared.
“Use?”
Daniel’s face went cold.
Another note.
WHITMORE OBJECTS TO USING E.C.
CRANE OVERRULES.
MORETTI APPROVES SOCIAL APPROACH.
“Jason objected.”
“Yes.”
That surprised me.
Not enough to forgive anything.
But enough to complicate hate.
Thomas opened OLIVIA.
Debt records for Kyle Grant.
Moretti gambling ledger.
Payments.
Threat timeline.
A note:
FRIEND ACCESS CONFIRMED.
OLIVIA GRANT WILL COMPLY UNDER DEBT PRESSURE.
KEEP OTHER WOMEN UNAWARE.
I stopped.
“Megan and Claire did not know.”
“Looks that way,” Daniel said.
“They thought it was a joke.”
“Yes.”
I felt a strange relief.
Small.
Painful.
Olivia had still known more.
But not everyone had sold me.
Thomas opened PIER9.
Scanned manifests.
A security still.
Nicholas.
Marcus Vale.
Jason.
Elliot Crane.
All four in one warehouse.
Daniel gripped the back of a chair.
“Jason was there.”
I looked at him.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
“What does that mean?”
Thomas opened an audio file.
Static.
Then Nicholas Brooks.
“If Daniel hears this, I was right about the internal leak.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Nicholas continued.
“Marcus is not stealing from us.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“He is helping me.”
There it was.
Marcus had been framed too.
The recording continued.
“Jason Whitmore discovered Crane altered route permissions through my brother’s code.”
I looked at Daniel.
Jason.
He had discovered the forgery.
“Crane is working with someone in Moretti,” Nicholas said. “Maybe higher.”
A second voice.
Jason.
“We should leave.”
I froze hearing him.
Familiar.
Too familiar.
The man who had shared my bed.
Forgot anniversaries.
Cheated.
Lied.
Now inside a warehouse recording a crime network.
Nicholas answered, “We need the account master.”
Then a third voice.
Marcus.
“Vehicle outside.”
Footsteps.
The recording cut.
No murder.
No confrontation.
But proof Jason had been there.
Thomas opened CRANE.
A contact network.
One phone number appeared repeatedly.
No name.
Just initials:
D.B.
Daniel went still.
I stared.
“Daniel Brooks?”
“No.”
“You said your credentials were forged.”
“Yes.”
“Could be your phone.”
“It is not.”
Thomas checked.
“Number is registered through a shell.”
Another file.
D.B. PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION.
My stomach tightened.
Daniel’s face became dangerous.
Then Thomas opened the signature block.
Not Daniel.
DAVID BROOKS.
I looked at him.
“Who is David?”
Daniel did not move.
“My father.”
I stopped.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised me.
“Where?”
“Florida.”
“Retired?”
“So I believed.”
Thomas looked pale.
Daniel stared at the screen.
His father’s name tied to Crane.
Moretti.
Pier Nine.
Nicholas’s death.
I asked carefully, “Did Nicholas trust your father?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Yes.”
The past tense mattered.
Thomas found another recording.
Jason’s voice.
“If Crane learns I copied this, I’m dead.”
A pause.
Then:
“Emily cannot know.”
My throat tightened.
“She thinks I left Atlantic Harbor because I hated the job.”
Another pause.
“She already thinks the worst thing I did was Vanessa.”
I almost laughed.
Even now, his cheating insulted me.
Jason continued.
“That was real. I’m not rewriting myself into a hero.”
I stared.
Good.
At least he knew.
“But if I disappear, she needs to stay away from Brooks.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Then Jason said:
“Unless Nicholas is dead.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“If Nicholas dies, Brooks may be the only man Crane is afraid of.”
The recording ended.
I looked at Daniel.
Jason had feared him.
Trusted him.
Both.
Then Thomas’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
“Boss.”
Daniel turned.
“We found the van.”
“Where?”
“Charlestown warehouse district.”
“Olivia?”
“Three women located.”
I stood.
“Alive?”
Thomas nodded.
“All alive.”
Relief hit so hard I grabbed the desk.
Then:
“But Olivia is asking for Emily.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Take me.”
“No.”
I stared.
He closed his eyes.
“Sorry.”
Then corrected himself.
“Do you want to go?”
“Yes.”
“Then we go.”
That mattered more than he knew.
We reached the warehouse twenty minutes later.
Federal? No. Daniel's people only for now. Need consistency. Daniel’s men had found the van abandoned beside a storage building.
Olivia, Megan, and Claire were inside an unlocked office.
No injuries.
No restraints.
No guards.
A staged disappearance.
Olivia stood when I entered.
“Emily.”
I slapped her.
The sound cracked through the room.
I had never hit anyone in my life.
My hand hurt instantly.
Olivia stared.
I stared back.
Then I said, “I’m sorry.”
She touched her cheek.
“No.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I deserved that.”
“Probably. I still should not have hit you.”
Daniel stood in the doorway.
He said nothing.
Good.
Megan ran toward me and hugged me.
Claire did too.
Both were crying.
“We didn’t know,” Megan said.
“Liv told us it was a prank.”
Claire looked furious.
“She said you would hate us for one day.”
I looked at Olivia.
“Tell me everything.”
She sat.
Hands shaking.
“Crane contacted me through a client. He knew Kyle owed Moretti.”
“Why me?”
“He said you were connected to Jason.”
“I was his girlfriend.”
“He said Jason stole something.”
“The flash drive?”
Her eyes widened.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
Olivia covered her face.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
“They said if you found anything, Jason would die.”
The room went still.
I stared.
“What did you say?”
Olivia looked up.
“Jason is alive.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Her face crumpled.
“They have him.”
My heart stopped.
“Who?”
“Moretti.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
Olivia whispered:
“They told me if you didn’t sit with Daniel Brooks tonight, they would kill him before sunrise.”
I looked at the clock.
May you like
2:48 a.m.
Sunrise was less than four hours away.
