Chapter 6 - SHUT HER DOWN
The inspector didn’t smile.
“Shiomara Reyes?”
“Yes.”
“I need you to step away from the cart.”
The crowd immediately started protesting.
“What now?”
“She’s been serving here for years!”
Daniel moved forward.
The inspector raised a hand.
“This is city business.”
Daniel’s attorney stepped beside him.
“So are we.”
The inspector looked irritated.
“We received an anonymous complaint alleging food safety violations.”
Shiomara laughed bitterly.
“Anonymous?”
Everyone knew who had sent it.
The inspector began checking temperatures, storage bins, permits, propane connections.
Shiomara stood with her arms crossed.
He found nothing.
Then he crouched behind the cart.
His hand emerged holding a small plastic bag.
Inside were dead insects.
Shiomara’s face drained.
“That is not mine.”
The inspector frowned.
“It was under your prep shelf.”
“I clean this cart every night.”
“You’ll have to close pending review.”
“No.”
“Ma’am—”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“This cart feeds me. It feeds half the block.”
Daniel’s attorney photographed the bag.
Marcus was already reviewing security cameras from a nearby pharmacy.
“Give me ten minutes.”
The inspector placed an orange closure notice on the cart.
Shiomara ripped it off.
“Don’t do that,” Maya warned softly.
“I am not letting someone frame me.”
The inspector sighed.
“If you keep interfering, I’ll have to call police.”
“Call them.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Shiomara.”
She turned.
For the first time that day, anger overwhelmed her.
“I worked thirty years for this.”
Her voice shook.
“I scrubbed floors. I cleaned bathrooms. I worked Christmas. I worked sick. I worked when my back hurt so bad I cried in the subway.”
She pointed at the cart.
“Nobody gave me that.”
Maya stepped closer.
“We know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Then Shiomara regretted it instantly.
Maya’s expression softened rather than hardened.
“You’re right. We don’t know your struggle.”
She squeezed Shiomara’s shoulder.
“But we remember hunger.”
That quieted her.
Marcus suddenly shouted from across the sidewalk.
“Got him.”
Everyone turned.
He held up his tablet.
Security footage showed a man in a maintenance uniform walking behind Shiomara’s cart at 5:12 that morning.
He crouched.
Reached beneath the prep shelf.
Left.
Daniel zoomed in on the man’s face.
The inspector stared.
“Send me that.”
Marcus did.
Daniel asked, “Recognize him?”
The inspector didn’t answer.
But his face did.
One of Daniel’s attorneys searched quickly.
“His name is Colin Price.”
“Who does he work for?” Shiomara asked.
The attorney’s expression darkened.
“Kane Development.”
The crowd exploded.
The inspector pulled out his phone.
“This changes things.”
Shiomara looked at Daniel.
“So Victor Kane planted something on my cart?”
Daniel nodded.
“Which means he’s nervous.”
Marcus looked at the footage again.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
“What?”
Marcus zoomed farther back.
A second figure appeared near the alley.
Watching Colin Price.
Marcus went still.
“I know that man.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Who?”
Marcus looked toward Shiomara.
“Our adoptive father’s former attorney.”
May you like
And according to Marcus…
that man had been dead for six years.
