Chapter 4 - BAY FOURTEEN
“Sealed from what?” Vincent asked.
Sebastian closed the library door.
The old man did not sit.
Neither did Vincent.
Mara remained beside the sofa, arms folded tightly across her chest.
“Answer him,” she said.
Sebastian looked at her.
“I am sorry you were dragged back into this.”
“You dragged me into it when you came to my house the morning my husband died.”
Vincent’s eyes sharpened.
Sebastian sighed.
“I know.”
“Did you tell Mara I wanted Daniel’s death buried?”
“I told her questions would bring danger.”
“That isn’t what she said.”
Sebastian looked at Vincent.
“No. I did not use your name carefully enough.”
“Carefully?”
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“You told a widow the head of this family wanted silence.”
“I was trying to make her listen.”
“You borrowed my authority.”
“To keep her alive.”
Mara interrupted.
“From whom?”
Sebastian’s hand tightened around the cane.
“The Morettis.”
Vincent’s jaw hardened.
“Angelo?”
“No.”
That answer mattered.
“Then who?”
“Men beneath him.”
Sebastian finally sat.
“Twenty years ago, when your father left, Rowan trucking was nearly finished.”
Vincent hated when people began explanations with his father.
It usually meant they wanted forgiveness for something ugly.
“We owed drivers. Vendors. Union health contributions. Moretti controlled two docks we depended on.”
“What does that have to do with Bay Fourteen?”
“I made an arrangement.”
“With Angelo’s father.”
“Yes.”
“Behind my mother’s back?”
“Your mother was working sixteen-hour days trying to keep two boys fed.”
That landed.
Sebastian continued.
“Moretti freight could move through Bay Fourteen after regular hours. In exchange, Rowan trucks kept dock access.”
“Illegal freight?”
“Sometimes.”
Vincent stared.
Sebastian did not hide from the word.
“I did what I believed would keep this family standing.”
“And Charlie found out.”
“Yes.”
Mara looked toward the photograph.
“That’s why he knew Daniel.”
Sebastian nodded.
“Charlie hated the arrangement. He said you couldn’t build anything good on secrets.”
Vincent almost smiled despite himself.
That was exactly how Charlie spoke.
“What happened?”
“I promised to end it.”
“Did you?”
“For a while.”
The qualification hit like a slap.
Vincent walked away from the desk.
“How long?”
“Until the recession.”
“What year?”
“Two years before Daniel died.”
Mara stared at him.
“You reopened Bay Fourteen.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Vincent’s voice became cold.
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Angelo Moretti offered something we needed.”
“What?”
“One hundred and twenty Rowan drivers were about to lose work after the warehouse contracts collapsed.”
Vincent remembered.
He had believed Sebastian found new freight through independent brokers.
“You lied about where the contracts came from.”
“Yes.”
Mara looked disgusted.
“Daniel died so you could keep a secret deal.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“No.”
Her eyes filled.
“He died at your bay.”
“Yes.”
“You told him to stay quiet.”
“Yes.”
“You came to my house before I had even explained to Sophie that her father was never coming home.”
Sebastian’s face broke slightly.
“I know what I did.”
“Then don’t tell me it wasn’t because of your deal.”
Vincent raised a hand.
Not to silence her.
To slow the room.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Sebastian nodded.
“Moretti trucks came through Bay Fourteen twice a week. No narcotics. No weapons.”
Vincent believed that mattered to Sebastian.
“High-value imports. Electronics. Specialty goods. Things their dock agreements made difficult to move quickly.”
“Who supervised?”
“Ray Mercer.”
Vincent’s trucking capo.
One of the most loyal men in the Rowan family.
Or so Vincent had believed.
“Did Ray know I wasn’t informed?”
“Yes.”
Vincent shut his eyes briefly.
Another betrayal.
“What did Daniel discover?”
“The night crews had removed part of an upper loading rail so oversized cargo could clear the platform.”
Mara’s face went white.
Vincent understood.
Daniel’s death had been called an accidental fall.
No one needed to describe more.
“The rail,” Mara whispered.
Sebastian nodded.
“Daniel ordered it restored.”
“Did Ray refuse?”
“Ray said the shipment had to clear first.”
Mara covered her mouth.
Vincent’s anger became something cold and precise.
“And Daniel?”
“He went up to inspect the platform himself.”
Mara turned away.
Vincent did not ask for details.
They would not help.
“Was his death intentional?”
“No.”
Sebastian answered instantly.
“I swear to you, no.”
Mara turned back.
“You expect me to be grateful?”
“No.”
Sebastian’s voice broke.
“I expect you to hate me accurately.”
The room went quiet.
That sentence stopped her.
Because villainy would have been easier.
A man arranging Daniel’s death could be hated cleanly.
A frightened old man making compromises to save jobs, then allowing those compromises to create a preventable tragedy, was harder.
Still guilty.
Just human enough to make the guilt hurt more.
Vincent walked to the window.
“Why was the Bay Fourteen token in Daniel’s coat?”
Sebastian shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“He had access.”
“Safety coordinators did.”
“No. These tokens were discontinued.”
Sebastian looked at it again.
“That one is older.”
Vincent frowned.
“How old?”
“Charlie’s time.”
Mara stepped closer.
Sebastian picked up the token.
“Look at the edge.”
A tiny notch had been cut into the brass.
Vincent remembered.
Charlie had done that to all his keys and tokens because he was forever dropping them into donation boxes, jacket pockets and truck consoles.
Vincent’s chest tightened.
“That belonged to Charlie.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Daniel have it?”
Sebastian stared at the green coat.
“Because Charlie gave Daniel more than the coat.”
Mara’s voice sharpened.
“What?”
“A warning.”
Vincent turned.
Sebastian looked older than he had an hour earlier.
“Charlie discovered Bay Fourteen nineteen years ago.”
“You said you ended the arrangement.”
“I did.”
“Then what did he discover?”
“That somebody else had started using it without me.”
Vincent stared.
“Who?”
“I never found out.”
“Charlie died six days later.”
Mara inhaled.
Sebastian’s eyes flashed.
“No.”
The word came hard.
“Do not do that to him.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“What?”
“Do not turn Charlie’s death into a conspiracy because the truth hurts less when somebody planned it.”
Vincent said nothing.
Sebastian continued.
“Charlie died because he stepped into a robbery to protect a stranger. It was senseless. It had nothing to do with Bay Fourteen.”
Vincent looked away.
It hurt.
But it also sounded like Charlie.
Sebastian touched the token.
“Daniel knew that too.”
“Then why keep investigating?”
“Because eighteen years later, he saw the same mark on a modern freight seal that Charlie had drawn for him.”
Vincent frowned.
“What mark?”
Sebastian opened his wallet.
From behind an old photograph, he removed a small piece of cardboard.
Two crossed lines inside a circle.
“The mark of a private freight broker Charlie believed was using Rowan property.”
Vincent recognized it.
He had seen it recently.
Stamped on warehouse invoices.
“Mercer Consolidated.”
Sebastian nodded.
Ray Mercer’s private trucking company.
And suddenly Ray was no longer just the man who had supervised the night Daniel died.
May you like
He was connected to the same secret Charlie had discovered nineteen years earlier.
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