Chapter 2 - THE BODY INSIDE WAREHOUSE 17
Roman closed the diner.
Not permanently.
He simply gave Sadi's manager five thousand dollars and told him everyone was going home.
Jim the cook left so quickly he forgot his jacket.
Sadi did not.
“This is insane.”
Roman looked at her.
“You prefer staying alone after Arthur saw your face?”
“I prefer not becoming part of whatever this is.”
“You became part of it when you spoke.”
That irritated her because it was true.
Roman's attorney arrived thirty minutes later.
Elijah Stone.
Sixty.
Silver-haired.
Expensive coat.
He examined the clause and immediately agreed with Sadi.
“It's structured as successor liability.”
Sadi crossed her arms.
“That's what I said.”
Elijah looked at her.
Roman almost smiled.
The missing addendum surfaced through a document repository.
AR-17.
Administrative Record 17.
Exactly as Sadi guessed.
It referred to Warehouse 17, an abandoned property beside Boston Harbor.
Arthur's company had owned it through three shell corporations.
Federal agents entered after receiving an anonymous environmental complaint.
Instead of toxic waste, they found a sealed room behind a false wall.
One body.
Maybe more.
Roman's name appeared nowhere.
Until tonight's contract.
“If I'd signed...” Roman said.
Elijah nodded.
“You would have acquired the property and assumed certain historical operational liabilities. It wouldn't automatically make you guilty of murder, but it would bury you under investigation while Arthur disappeared.”
Sadi stared at Arthur's signature.
“He had a flight at six.”
Roman looked at her.
“Yes.”
“He wasn't planning to survive the week in Boston.”
“No.”
Then Elijah received a secure message.
Federal agents had identified the body.
Dr. Marcus Vale.
Sadi dropped her mug.
It shattered.
Roman stood.
“Sadi?”
She couldn't speak.
Marcus Vale had been a professor at Northeastern Law.
More than professor.
He had supervised Sadi's legal research clinic.
He disappeared two years ago.
Police said he left voluntarily after a breakdown.
Sadi never believed it.
Roman watched her face.
“You knew him.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He was my mentor.”
Then Sadi remembered the final project Marcus gave her.
A corporate-property tracing assignment involving Boston waterfront companies.
She had thought it was academic.
She had found irregular deeds.
One owner name repeated through shell entities.
Arthur Bellini.
Sadi had emailed Marcus her findings.
Three days later, he disappeared.
A week later, Sadi's mother suffered a catastrophic medical emergency.
Bills swallowed everything.
Sadi dropped out.
She had never connected the events.
Until now.
Then her old email account sent a notification.
A scheduled message.
From Marcus Vale.
Timestamp programmed two years earlier.
Subject:
IF WAREHOUSE 17 IS EVER OPENED.
Sadi's hands began shaking.
She opened it.
Only one sentence.
Sadi, Arthur is not the man you should fear.
May you like
Beneath it was a name.
Moretti.
