Chapter 2 - The Order With His Name
Alessio Franks had never invited a cleaning employee into his car before. Nari made sure that did not happen now without an explanation.
"Why am I going with you?" she asked as the elevator fell toward the street.
"You know the building."
"Then say that. And don't make me disappear after I've helped."
The security chief glanced at her, offended by the nerve of a woman with a garbage stain on her sleeve. Alessio didn't look away. "You know the building," he repeated. "I need your help getting those people out. I won't pretend otherwise."
"And the police?"
"They're already on their way."
She watched his phone until he showed her the emergency call on the screen. He understood why she asked, even if the question angered him. Twenty minutes earlier, he had been threatening a dock operator across a table decorated with guns. A woman who trusted him simply because he had spoken softly would be a fool.
Three vehicles pulled away from the Manhattan tower. Alessio rode in the front with his driver. Nari sat in back beside his security chief, Dominic Reyes, who had a broken nose and the expression of a man who suspected every stranger of concealing a weapon. Nari's phone buzzed with a message from her landlord: PAYMENT BY MORNING OR WE CHANGE THE LOCKS. She turned the screen facedown. It was an absurd moment to worry about eighty dollars, but poverty did not wait politely for emergencies to end.
Alessio called the warehouse again. No answer. He called operations director Victor Hale. The call went to voicemail.
"Who's Victor?" Nari asked.
"The man who runs our freight scheduling."
"Who can issue an order in your name?"
"Victor can route a shipment. He cannot order people locked inside a building."
"Somebody thinks he can."
Their vehicles crossed toward New Jersey beneath a low ceiling of clouds. Blue and red lights were already flashing when they reached the industrial park. Firefighters had forced the west entrance, but smoke drifted from an annex beside the loading bay. A woman in a reflective vest stood behind the police line, coughing into her sleeve. Nari recognized Hana Cho, who inventoried shipments on the night crew.
"Malik's still inside!" Hana cried when she saw her. "He went back for the others."
A firefighter asked Nari whether she knew the building layout. She explained that the temporary cleaner's corridor connected the break room to a rear service door, but that the service door often jammed because a pallet had been stored against it. She did not rush into the burning building. She gave the responders the information they needed, pointed to the service access on a printed site map, and watched them move with purpose. Alessio stepped forward to follow them and was stopped by a firefighter.
"You will help more by staying out of our way," the firefighter said.
For once, Alessio obeyed without argument.
They waited twenty-three minutes. Nari counted each one against the pulse pounding in her throat. Workers emerged in clusters, some coughing, some crying, all escorted by firefighters. Hana identified faces as they came through. Eighteen people stood behind the ambulance. Malik made nineteen, stumbling out last with a firefighter supporting his arm.
Nari caught his good hand. "You're late for your coffee," she told him.
"Put it on my tab." He tried to smile, then bent over coughing.
Alessio had been offering money and instructions to anyone who approached. Malik looked past him. "They chained us in," he said. "Not the French guy. A man from our own company. He wore a Franks maintenance jacket. He knew the security code."
"Did you see his face?" Alessio asked.
"No. But before the cameras went off, the office printer spit out a work order. I put it in my pocket because it looked wrong." Malik reached under his vest, pulled out a folded sheet, and handed it to a police officer rather than to Alessio. "That's evidence. Let them have it."
Nari felt a sudden, fierce affection for him. Malik had been rescued from a warehouse set on fire, and he still knew better than to hand potential evidence to the owner.
Victor Hale arrived as the flames were being brought under control. He emerged from a black sedan wearing an immaculate coat and a practiced expression of distress. His hair was silver at the temples, his shoes untouched by soot. He came straight toward Alessio.
"I just heard. Thank God everyone survived."
"Where were you?" Alessio asked.
"Asleep. My phone died."
Nari remembered the unanswered calls and watched Victor's eyes move to her blue uniform. He recognized her. She could tell by the brief tightening at the corners of his mouth.
"Why is a cleaner here?" Victor asked.
"She warned us," Alessio said.
"About what?"
"A threat made in French."
Victor's face recovered so quickly Nari almost doubted what she had seen. "Remarkable. I'll make sure her supervisor thanks her."
"She's standing right here," Nari said.
A police detective, Nadia Bell, approached and introduced herself as part of the investigative team. Her partner was collecting statements from the workers. She asked Nari what she had heard in the meeting. Nari repeated Navarro's words, then carefully distinguished between the actual order and her interpretation of his tone. She refused to embellish. When Nadia asked whether she had seen Navarro contact anyone, she said no.
"That's important," Nadia told her. "Tell us what you know, not what you suspect."
"I can do that."
As the detective walked away, Victor stepped close enough that his coat brushed Nari's sleeve. "You should go home," he said pleasantly. "Our contractor will pay you for the night. There's no reason to involve yourself further."
"Nineteen reasons," she answered.
He smiled without warmth. "You're making a complicated situation worse."
Across the yard, a firefighter emerged carrying a damaged blue temperature recorder. It had been attached to a shipment scheduled for a clinic network. The device's casing had melted around an intact removable data card. Hana recognized it immediately.
"That shouldn't be in the annex," she said. "The medical equipment was transferred Tuesday."
Victor turned sharply. "Hana, you've had a shock. Don't start guessing."
"I scanned the shipment myself."
Nadia took the recorder into evidence. Alessio stared at Victor for a long moment.
Then the detective unfolded Malik's rescued work order. The page bore an electronic authorization and a printed signature. She showed the name to Alessio.
ALESSIO FRANKS.
May you like
Under it, in smaller type, was the person who had transmitted the order: VICTOR HALE.
"Tell me," Nadia asked Alessio, "which part of this did you authorize?"
