Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Didn't Want Him
Celeste stayed for dinner.
She and Adrian had known each other since childhood.
"Then why attend the gala?" I asked.
Celeste cut her chicken.
"Because my father owns ships. Salvatore owns docks. Families like ours call blackmail tradition when enough money is involved."
Adrian frowned.
"Your father knows about Meridian?"
Celeste's fork stopped.
"What about it?"
He told her.
Not everything.
Enough.
She lost color when he mentioned Eleanor.
"Meridian leases cold-storage space from Russo Maritime."
Within an hour, Marco had pulled shipping logs.
Meridian shipments moved through Russo warehouses before reaching hospitals.
Most were legitimate.
A few containers carried inconsistent tracking numbers.
Celeste called her operations chief.
He refused to discuss them over the phone.
Then he sent one sentence.
Ms. Russo, your father told me never to open Container 7716.
We drove to Baltimore before dawn.
Celeste insisted on coming.
Her father had never told her about restricted medical cargo.
Container 7716 had already been moved.
"By who?" Celeste asked.
He handed her a transfer order.
Signed by her father.
Destination: an abandoned Moretti-owned warehouse near the harbor.
Adrian looked at Marco.
"Too obvious."
Celeste folded her arms.
"He's going. He has a disease called male certainty."
I looked at Adrian.
"Is it terminal?"
"Apparently."
We did not all go.
Marco's team went first.
Police liaison followed.
Adrian stayed in the command vehicle with us until the warehouse was cleared.
Inside Container 7716, investigators found medical packaging, shipping records, and boxes of substituted inventory labels.
Then Marco found a locked steel case.
Inside was a photograph of Carlo Moretti's wrecked car.
May you like
On the back someone had written:
HE FOUND THE CONTAINERS TOO.
