Chapter 12 - THE REST OF THE SENTENCE
Dominic listened once.
Then again.
The recording was real.
So was the sentence.
He remembered the call now. Julian had refused to sign a terminal expansion agreement. Dominic had been furious.
Celia had asked what she should do.
“If Julian won’t cooperate, cut him loose.”
What she had removed came next.
“Buy out his shares. He can keep the apartment. I’m not taking his home because we’re fighting.”
Dominic sent the email to Brooks.
His new attorney stared at him.
“We should review everything before—”
“They’re using it to threaten a witness.”
“They’re threatening you.”
“Same answer.”
The full call might still exist on the company’s archived system.
Celia had controlled that system.
By the time investigators served the records demand, the file was missing.
But Hannah remembered something Julian had said.
“Celia always sends the bill twice. Once for the work, once to prove she did it.”
She asked to see the old legal invoices.
There it was.
A conference-call service charge.
A provider outside Caruso’s network.
Brooks obtained the archived recording.
The complete sentence was there.
So was something more.
After Dominic disconnected, the line remained open.
Celia had assumed everyone was gone.
Vincent spoke first.
“He won’t sign off on his brother.”
“He doesn’t have to,” Celia replied. “I already have the authorization.”
A chair scraped.
“What about the girl?”
“She works in his house. That makes her easy to find.”
Hannah sat very still while Brooks played it.
They had known.
While she folded towels. While she hid morning sickness. While Julian promised he would come back.
They had known exactly where she was.
The recording did not contain a murder confession. Brooks warned them about that.
But it tied Celia to the authorization, the surveillance, and the false story she had tried to build.
Combined with the financial records and Marco’s statement, it was enough to push the case forward.
Then Brooks’s phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“What transfer?”
Dominic leaned forward.
Brooks covered the phone.
“Your terminal sale. It closes tomorrow.”
“That was postponed.”
“According to your attorney, you approved an accelerated closing last week.”
Dominic stood.
Celia had been urging him to sell Dock Nine for months.
The buyer was one of her shell companies.
Brooks looked at the message arriving on her screen.
“Once it closes, they’re demolishing the records building.”
Hannah thought of the fire.
Of the empty shelves.
Of everything they had nearly lost.
Dominic said, “There’s another archive.”
May you like
Brooks waited.
“Under the building.”
