Chapter 3 - THE FILE LEO TRIED TO DELIVER
Gabriel locked the office door.
Samuel Pierce went pale.
Norah remained standing beside the desk.
“You have one chance,” Gabriel said.
Pierce swallowed.
“It was your father’s business.”
“My father was dead.”
“Not his business empire.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Explain.”
Pierce looked at Norah.
“I don’t think she should hear this.”
“She absolutely should.”
Pierce exhaled.
“Leo Hayes worked evenings at a diner near Pier 46.”
Norah frowned.
“I know.”
“What you don’t know is that half the port authority staff ate there after late shifts.”
Leo had overheard conversations.
Names.
Container numbers.
Payoffs.
At first, meaningless.
Then one night a port accountant left a flash drive behind.
Leo found it.
He opened it.
What he discovered was not smuggling manifests.
It was payroll.
Hundreds of illegal payments routed through Costa Enterprises.
Judges.
Inspectors.
Union officials.
Police officers.
But Gabriel’s name was not on any authorization.
Neither was his father’s.
Matteo Costa’s was.
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“My uncle was stealing from the organization.”
“More than stealing.”
Pierce looked sick.
“He was building his own.”
Norah whispered:
“And Leo found proof.”
Pierce nodded.
“Leo called the number printed on the company website.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“My office?”
“Your old executive line.”
But Matteo intercepted the message.
He arranged to meet Leo.
The photograph showed that meeting.
Leo handed over a copy.
But not the original.
“How do you know?”
“Because he told Matteo he had another copy somewhere safe.”
Norah stared at Pierce.
“So Matteo had him hit with a car.”
Pierce closed his eyes.
“I never knew that part until afterward.”
Gabriel’s voice became colder.
“You helped bury it.”
“I protected the family.”
“No.”
Gabriel moved so close Pierce backed against the wall.
“You protected Matteo.”
Norah stepped between them.
“Gabriel.”
He stopped.
Her use of his first name surprised them both.
Pierce wiped sweat from his forehead.
“There was something else on that drive.”
“What?”
“A private ledger.”
“Whose?”
“Your father’s.”
Gabriel froze.
His father had died eight years earlier.
“What was in it?”
Pierce looked at Norah.
“Names of people he believed were secretly working against Gabriel.”
Norah’s stomach dropped.
“Was Matteo one?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel asked the next question slowly.
“Who else?”
Pierce hesitated.
Then answered.
“Norah Hayes.”
The room went completely silent.
Norah stared at him.
“I didn’t even work here eight years ago.”
Pierce nodded.
“That’s what makes it impossible.”
Then Gabriel understood.
The ledger had not been written eight years ago.
Someone had altered it recently.
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Someone wanted Gabriel to believe Norah was his enemy.
And whoever did it already knew he had discovered her sleeping in the garage.
