Chapter 10 - THE HOTEL LOBBY
Declan went to the window. Nora’s car was parked across the street. She stood beside it with her phone in her hand. A man in a dark jacket waited near the rear bumper.
Camille moved close enough to see. “Sean’s bluffing.”
“Maybe,” Declan said. “Nora doesn’t know that.”
He called the front desk and asked the clerk to contact the police. Then he sent Nora a message: GO BACK INSIDE. She glanced up at the hotel. The man by her car saw it and reached for her arm.
Nora swung her canvas bag into his face and ran.
Declan took the stairs with Camille and Tessa behind him. They met Nora in the lobby as she came through the revolving door. The man followed. Declan stepped in front of him.
“Outside,” Declan said.
The man looked past him at Camille. “Mr. Walsh wants to talk.”
“He has my number.”
Police sirens rose in the distance. The man backed toward the door and left.
The four of them waited in the lobby under the clerk’s watchful eye. When officers arrived, Declan handed over the recorder, the garage photograph, and Camille’s transfer order. He told them about the shooting at his house and the men who had taken control of his security system.
He did not ask them to trust his account. He asked them to speak separately to Tessa, Camille, and Nora.
Hours passed. Tessa gave her statement first, then Camille. Declan sat across from Nora beside a vending machine.
“You should have told me about that picture,” he said.
“I thought you would call Sean before you called anyone else.”
He had to look away.
Nora lowered her voice. “The original port books aren’t in your safe. Sean had them moved.”
“Where?”
“He asked me last week how long a sealed container could sit at Terminal Five without an inspection.”
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Declan’s phone buzzed again. Sean had sent him a live video from a warehouse. In it, Sean opened a metal case filled with ledgers and drives.
“You want proof?” Sean said to the camera. “Come get it before I put it on a ship.”
