Chapter 5 - The Ledger of Blood
Tommy was sobbing, his fingers slick with his own blood as he pressed them against his knee.
"I don't know shit, man! I swear to God! We just do pickups for Henderson!"
I pressed the warm muzzle of the suppressor against his forehead. The metal hissed faintly against his skin. "Wrong answer. Try again."
"Henderson works for Vance!" Tommy blurted out, his teeth chattering uncontrollably from shock. "Marcus Vance! Carter sold him the waterfront district, but the title deed was dirty! Carter’s daughter found the offshore escrow accounts! She was going to the federal prosecutor!"
The puzzle pieces snapped together with terrifying clarity.
Sophia was an auditor for the state commerce commission. She had spent the last two years reviewing commercial rezoning permits. She wasn't just a victim of circumstance; she had discovered that her own father was laundering hundreds of millions in dirty cartel money through Marcus Vance’s shell corporations.
"And Richard?" I asked, leaning in closer. "What was his role three nights ago?"
"Carter brought Brock to the house to scare her!" Tommy wept. "Brock is Vance’s head of security. An ex-mercenary psycho. Carter thought Brock was just going to force her to sign the non-disclosure agreements and hand over the encryption key! But Sophia... she fought back! She threw hot tea in Brock's face and ran for the kitchen!"
Tommy swallowed hard, his eyes darting to his unconscious partner behind the island.
"Brock lost his mind," Tommy whispered. "He slammed her into the counter. Broke her ribs. When she wouldn't stay down, he used an iron fireplace poker. Carter was screaming at him to stop, but it was too late. She was bleeding out on the floor. Carter panicked. He said if she died in the house, you’d come home and tear the city apart until you found out why."
A red haze threatened to overtake my vision. My knuckles turned bone-white on the grip of the pistol.
"So they staged the alley," I said.
"Carter’s idea!" Tommy gasped. "He begged Brock not to finish her off! He said if they dumped her in the gang district and reported it as a random assault, the police would write it off, Vance wouldn't get exposed, and Carter wouldn't go to prison for murder! Henderson handled the dispatch logs! They delayed the ambulance by forty minutes hoping she'd die on the way to the hospital without them having to put a bullet in her!"
"Where did they take Samuel?"
"The old cold storage plant on Dock Street," Tommy choked out. "Brock took him there. He’s going to interrogate him to see who else he talked to... then put him in the river."
I looked down at Tommy.
I didn't kill him. Death was too quick, and I needed him alive to talk to the feds when this was over.
I used the zip-ties from his own tactical bag to bind his wrists and ankles behind his back, shoved a kitchen rag into his mouth, and did the same to his partner. I hauled them both into the dark basement pantry, locked the heavy timber door from the outside, and wedged a steel crowbar beneath the handle.
I checked my watch.
02:45 AM.
Sophia was unguarded at St. Matthew's. Richard was with her. And Henderson had access to her room.
May you like
I ran out the back door into the freezing night, cut through the neighbor's overgrown yard, and sprinted toward the main boulevard where Frank Ramos was waiting in a darkened commercial surveillance van.
***
