Chapter 4 - Pier 19
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Lorenzo wanted Elara to remain at the residence.
Elara wanted to find her brother.
Neither of them was willing to compromise.
“You are not walking into an ambush,” Lorenzo said.
“And you're not leaving me here while Toby is somewhere terrified and alone.”
“Your presence won't help him.”
“You don't know that.”
“I know the people who took him are trying to use you.”
“Then stop giving them what they want by making me sit quietly in your house!”
Matteo stood near the conference room door, studying the ceiling as if the plaster had suddenly become fascinating.
Lorenzo's expression grew colder.
“You think this is a disagreement between coworkers?”
“No. I think you're used to people obeying you because they're afraid of what happens if they don't.”
“Usually, they have good reason.”
“I'm not one of them.”
Silence settled over the room.
Then Lorenzo looked at the photograph of Toby.
“Pier 19 is an abandoned loading terminal on the East River. The city condemned the structure six years ago. My family used to lease the adjoining warehouse.”
“Used to?”
“My father sold the lease after a cargo discrepancy that nearly destroyed the company.”
“What kind of discrepancy?”
“An entire shipment disappeared from the official records.”
Elara frowned.
“Was it stolen?”
“That's what the report said.”
“And you don't believe it?”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“I believe reports are written by people who want the truth to remain useful to them.”
He ordered Matteo to assemble a team.
The plan was simple: security personnel would establish a perimeter, monitor the approaches, and locate Toby before anyone approached the building.
Elara insisted on going.
Lorenzo finally agreed, but only after she promised to remain inside the vehicle until he gave permission.
She agreed because she had no intention of keeping that promise if Toby needed her.
At 4:17 a.m., their convoy reached the waterfront.
The rain had weakened to a cold mist. Shipping cranes stood against the dark sky, and the river moved beneath the docks like black glass.
Pier 19 was a long, deteriorating structure with boarded windows and rusted loading doors. A single security light burned above the entrance.
Elara stared through the windshield.
“I've never been here.”
Lorenzo adjusted his cuff.
“Did you recognize the name before tonight?”
“No.”
“Then why did someone write it on the foundation card?”
“I don't know.”
“That's the answer I dislike most.”
“I'm beginning to notice.”
He almost smiled.
Then his phone vibrated.
Matteo spoke into his earpiece, listened, and turned toward Lorenzo.
“We have movement on the eastern side. Two men inside. One vehicle behind the building.”
“Any sign of the boy?”
“Not yet.”
Lorenzo looked at Elara.
“Stay here.”
She caught his sleeve.
“Bring him back.”
His gaze dropped to her hand.
For the first time, she realized how close they were standing.
“I will,” he said.
Then he disappeared into the rain.
Elara waited for six minutes.
She counted every second.
At seven minutes, she heard a muffled crash from inside the building.
At eight, a man ran out through the side door.
At nine, a second vehicle started its engine behind the warehouse.
Elara saw a figure stumble from the loading entrance.
Toby.
He was alive.
She threw open the car door.
“Stay in the vehicle!” the driver shouted.
She ran anyway.
“Toby!”
Her brother turned toward her voice.
His face crumpled with relief.
“Ellie!”
She reached him just as another man emerged from behind a stack of shipping pallets.
He grabbed Toby by the collar.
Elara froze.
The man held a small pistol against Toby's ribs.
“Stop right there.”
Her brother went pale.
“Let him go,” Elara said.
The man laughed.
“You should have stayed home.”
Lorenzo appeared in the loading doorway, weapon raised.
“Take your hand off him.”
The man tightened his grip.
“Drop it, Moretti.”
Lorenzo didn't move.
“Your employer already lost this operation. Don't make his failure your funeral.”
The gunman glanced toward the road.
It was the smallest distraction.
Toby stamped hard on his foot and twisted away. Elara caught her brother as Lorenzo's security team rushed forward.
The gunman dropped his weapon.
Matteo tackled him against the pallets.
Elara held Toby so tightly that he winced.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered. “I'm so sorry.”
“It's okay.”
“No, it isn't.”
He buried his face against her shoulder.
For several seconds, the entire waterfront disappeared.
Then Lorenzo approached.
“Is he hurt?”
Toby shook his head.
“I don't think so.”
A medic checked him while Matteo searched the warehouse.
Lorenzo turned to the captured man.
“Who hired you?”
The man spat onto the ground.
“You think you're still in charge?”
Lorenzo crouched in front of him.
“No. I think you're scared enough to tell me why.”
The man laughed.
“You don't understand what you walked into.”
“Then explain it.”
The man looked past Lorenzo toward Elara.
His smile changed.
“Ask your waitress what her brother found.”
Elara's arms tightened around Toby.
“What are you talking about?”
The man said nothing more.
But when Matteo searched his pockets, he found a small plastic key card stamped with the same compass logo as the foundation card.
On the back, someone had written a number.
19-04-88.
Lorenzo stared at it.
“That date,” he murmured. “My father's first shipping contract.”
Elara looked toward the warehouse.
“Why would they use your father's date?”
Lorenzo's face darkened.
“Because whatever they're hiding began before I took over.”
Matteo returned from the building carrying a battered laptop.
“We found something in the office,” he said.
“What?”
“A camera. It was recording when the men brought Toby in.”
He opened the file.
The footage showed Toby sitting in a chair, frightened but unharmed. The man with the anchor ring paced behind him.
Then another person entered the room.
A woman in a dark coat.
She removed her gloves.
Elara stopped breathing.
She knew that face.
She had seen it every morning on the local news.
May you like
The woman was Senator Evelyn Shaw, the public official who had spent years praising the Moretti family's charitable work.
And she was holding a photograph of Elara's mother.
