Chapter 6 - The Marina at Midnight|
The municipal marina at the edge of Lake Michigan was dark, smelled of dead fish and diesel fuel, and was wrapped in a thick autumn fog that rolled off the black water.
Nico parked the sedan two blocks away, stepping out into the freezing lake air.
He pulled his overcoat tight around his shoulders, his thumb automatically reaching for his empty watch pocket. Still gone.
Locker 4082 sat at the end of Pier C, tucked under a rusted corrugated tin roof that rattled against the wind.
Nico slipped the brass key into the padlock. It turned with a dry, metallic click.
He pulled the locker door open.
Inside sat a single black plastic ledger box, sealed with duck tape, and a silver Buick hubcap smeared with dried mud.
Nico’s eyes narrowed.
He picked up the ledger box, sliced the tape with his pocketknife, and flipped the lid open.
Inside were stacks of black-and-white photographs, bank transfer receipts, and a small black hard drive.
He picked up the top photograph.
It showed Paulie Rizzo standing on a private pier in Milwaukee, shaking hands with a tall, silver-haired man in a dark trench coat.
Walter Brandt.
Nico felt a cold weight settle in his stomach.
Paulie hadn't just been stealing from Valenti Freight. He had been selling Valenti's shipping routes to Walter Brandt for two years. Eleanor Brandt hadn't been Walter's partner—she had been tracking her father's illegal payoffs, recording every dollar Paulie stole.
Nico flipped to the next document.
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It was a wire transfer receipt dated two days ago. Fifty thousand dollars sent from Eleanor Brandt's private account to an offshore bank in the Cayman Islands.
The recipient's name listed at the bottom was: Josie Hart.
