Chapter 2 - The Ledger Beneath the Scale
Dominic reached Riley before she could move.
His hand closed around her forearm.
“Don’t.”
She looked down at it.
He remembered what had happened the last time he grabbed her.
He immediately let go.
“Someone’s in there,” she whispered.
“I know.”
Marco and Luis moved toward the kitchen.
Dominic shook his head.
The office door stopped halfway.
No one appeared.
Riley knew every sound in Hayes Prime Cuts. She knew the compressor’s click, the groan of the freezer door, the rattle in the ventilation duct that appeared every winter.
This sound was unfamiliar.
Paper sliding across wood.
Dominic approached the office from the side.
Riley followed.
“You stay behind me.”
“It’s my shop.”
“And apparently everybody wants to die in it tonight.”
She almost laughed.
Almost.
Dominic pushed the door open.
Empty.
The office window above the alley was raised three inches.
On Ethan Hayes’s old desk lay an envelope.
RILEY.
Her name was written across it.
She stepped forward.
Dominic blocked her.
“Gloves.”
“You carry gloves?”
Marco handed him a pair.
Riley stared.
“What kind of life do you people live?”
“One where envelopes are rarely good news.”
Dominic opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Riley’s father.
Daniel Castelli stood beside him.
Both were much younger.
Between them was a third man.
Riley didn’t recognize him.
Dominic did.
“Victor.”
“Your uncle?”
Dominic nodded.
On the back someone had written:
THREE MEN STARTED IT.
ONLY TWO TRIED TO STOP IT.
Riley read it twice.
“What did they start?”
Dominic turned the photograph over.
“Nothing I knew about.”
A crash sounded from the storefront.
Glass shattered.
“Down!”
Dominic pulled Riley behind the desk as something struck the wall.
Not a bullet.
A metal canister.
Smoke poured out.
Marco shouted.
Dominic covered Riley’s mouth with his sleeve.
“Rear window.”
They climbed through Ethan’s office into the alley.
Luis came after them.
Marco fired twice inside the shop before following.
Riley hit the pavement and spun around.
“My shop!”
Dominic caught her shoulders.
“Your shop can be rebuilt.”
“My father built that place.”
“And he apparently died protecting something hidden inside it.”
That stopped her.
Dominic held up the key.
“Saint Agnes.”
Riley stared at the burning smoke leaking from her broken window.
Then at him.
“Fine.”
They left in Marco’s car.
Saint Agnes had been abandoned for nearly two decades.
Room 214 was not a hospital room.
It was an old records office.
The key opened a steel cabinet.
Inside sat a leather ledger.
Dominic opened it.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Judges.
Police officers.
Union officials.
Businesses.
Then Riley saw one entry.
ETHAN HAYES — CUSTODIAN.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic turned pages.
His father’s name appeared repeatedly.
DANIEL CASTELLI — ACCOUNT HOLDER.
Then Victor.
VICTOR CASTELLI — DISTRIBUTION.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“This predates my organization.”
Riley leaned over him.
“How far?”
“Twenty-two years.”
Another entry appeared.
PROJECT HARBOR.
Riley pointed.
“What is that?”
Dominic turned the page.
It had been removed.
Cleanly.
Someone had cut it out.
A sound came from the corridor.
Marco raised his gun.
Footsteps.
Slow.
One person.
Dominic shut the ledger.
A shadow appeared beneath the door.
Then a voice spoke from the other side.
“Riley?”
Her blood went cold.
She knew that voice.
May you like
It belonged to Tony Valente.
The man who was supposed to be unconscious in a hospital bed...
