Chapter 16 - The Boxes in the Dark
Detective Brooks did not ask me to play hero. She asked me one question.
"Have you seen the archive labels Northline uses?"
"Gray sticker. Blue number. Why?"
"Pike's moving boxes from a storage annex on Hudson Street. We want to know which ones matter."
I sent her a photograph I'd taken in Basement Two. One of the carts carried a box marked AH-31: ASHBURY RELOCATION. Under the tape was a red pencil mark Iris had pointed out earlier.
Brooks called back. "That gives us something to identify. Stay where you are."
At one in the morning, officers stopped Pike beside a loading truck. He'd brought a contractor and a rented shredder. The truck held payroll records, relocation receipts, and boxes of signed tenant acknowledgments.
Except the signatures weren't from tenants.
June's name appeared on three separate forms, each in different handwriting. A dead resident was listed as having accepted a housing voucher five days after her funeral. Several files contained photocopies of blank ID cards from the charity's intake office.
Brooks told me this only after investigators had secured the boxes and photographed their seals. "But we have enough to keep asking questions," she said. "And Pike won't be checking into his suite tonight."
Iris wanted to know whether the contractor had been arrested too. I put her on the call. Brooks answered directly, without talking down to her.
Later, Adrian called from the hotel. "The board wants me to release a statement saying this was the work of outside vendors."
"Was it?"
"No. Our people let it happen."
"Then tell them that."
There was silence. Then he said, "Vanessa's contacted me. She says she'll bring back the red case if I make sure she isn't charged."
"You can't promise that."
"I know."
May you like
He hesitated.
"She's downstairs right now, Lena. And she's asking for me by name."
