Chapter 4 - DOCK 19
The door did not open.
A second later, the building alarm began to ring.
Matteo appeared from the adjoining room with a compact flashlight in one hand. “Service stairwell. Two men.”
Dominic looked at Chloe. “Go with him.”
“No.”
“This isn't a discussion.”
“I'm not leaving you.”
For half a second, his expression softened. Then he turned toward the hallway.
Matteo guided Chloe through a rear exit and down two flights of stairs. They reached a garage where a driver waited beside a dark SUV. Chloe was pushed into the back seat, and the vehicle pulled away.
She watched the building disappear behind them.
“Where is Dominic?”
“Handling it,” Matteo said.
“That isn't an answer.”
“It's the only one I can give you.”
They drove to Dock 19, a warehouse on the edge of the river. It had been closed for months, but a light glowed inside.
Dominic was waiting near the loading bay. His jacket was torn at the shoulder, and a thin cut marked his cheek.
Chloe hurried toward him. “Are you hurt?”
“Nothing serious.”
“You keep saying that as if it makes it true.”
He almost smiled. “You sound like my sister.”
Inside, the warehouse smelled of dust and wet concrete. Matteo found a locked cabinet behind a row of shipping crates. The key was taped beneath an old desk.
Inside were delivery manifests, medical invoices, and a small notebook wrapped in plastic.
Chloe recognized her mother's handwriting immediately.
She opened it with trembling hands.
Margaret had recorded dates, supplier numbers, and names. The entries described diverted medication, payments to private clinics, and a list of patients whose files had been altered.
At the bottom of one page was a name: Victor Sloane.
Another name appeared beneath it.
Paul Pritchard.
Chloe stared. “My restaurant manager.”
Dominic frowned. “The man who fired you?”
“He worked at the restaurant, but he also used to manage the catering contracts for Northstar. I saw his name on a delivery receipt once. I thought it was a coincidence.”
“It wasn't.”
The notebook contained one final note:
V.S. says the boss knows nothing. If he is telling the truth, he is being used. If he is lying, I am already in danger.
Chloe looked at Dominic.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Can I believe that?”
He didn't demand that she trust him. He only answered.
“I can't change what my family built or what people have done under my name. But I can show you what I do next.”
A phone rang in the warehouse office. Matteo answered, listened, then looked toward Dominic.
“It's Sloane. He wants a meeting tonight. Says he can explain the poison attempt.”
Dominic took the phone.
“Tell him I'll be there.”
Chloe shook her head. “That's a trap.”
“Probably.”
“Then don't go.”
“He'll move the records if he knows we've found them.”
Dominic studied her for a long moment. “You should stay here.”
“No. My mother's name is in that notebook. I am not going to sit in a safe apartment while everyone else decides what happened to her.”
He considered arguing, then stopped.
“Then you stay with Matteo. You do not approach Sloane.”
Chloe agreed.
But when the meeting began at midnight in a private dining room downtown, she heard a familiar voice through the half-open service door.
Paul Pritchard.
May you like
He was speaking to Victor Sloane.
And he was saying Chloe's name.
