Chapter 3 - The Missing Forty-Seven Seconds
By the time Lorenzo’s men reached the lobby, Harrison was gone.
So was the security chief.
The envelope remained.
Lorenzo refused to let Sienna touch it until it had been checked.
When it finally reached the office, she opened it herself.
Inside was a flash drive.
Nothing else.
Mateo stared at it.
“Forty-seven seconds?”
“Probably,” Sienna said.
Lorenzo brought in an isolated laptop.
No network.
No external connection.
Sienna inserted the drive.
One video file appeared.
CAM_04_ORIGINAL.
Mateo stopped breathing.
Sienna clicked.
The yacht deck appeared.
Camille stood near the railing.
Mateo was nowhere visible.
Harrison entered frame.
He and Camille argued.
There was no audio.
Camille held up a folder.
Harrison tried to take it.
She pulled away.
Then another person entered frame.
A man.
His face remained outside the camera angle.
He grabbed Camille’s arm.
She fought him.
Harrison backed away.
Then Camille went over the railing.
Mateo whispered, “Jesus.”
The video continued.
Harrison ran toward the edge.
The unidentified man stopped him.
Then Mateo appeared.
He shoved past both men and jumped into the water.
Sienna looked at him.
Mateo stared at the screen as if he were reliving every second.
The clip ended.
Forty-seven seconds.
Sienna’s father had not pushed Camille.
But he had lied about being there.
“Who was the other man?” she asked.
Lorenzo replayed the footage.
The man’s face never appeared.
But something flashed on his wrist.
A watch.
Sienna leaned closer.
“Stop.”
Lorenzo froze the image.
A silver crest was engraved on the watch.
Sienna knew it.
Mercer Shipping gave those watches to senior executives after twenty years.
Only six had ever been made.
One belonged to Harrison.
One had belonged to Sienna’s grandfather.
Four others remained.
Sienna knew every recipient.
Her blood chilled.
“Give me the employee records.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“You recognize it?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I need confirmation.”
Within an hour, Mercer personnel records were on the screen.
One recipient was dead.
Two lived outside Massachusetts and had documented travel records from the night Camille disappeared.
That left one.
Charles Vale.
Mercer Shipping’s chief financial officer.
Sienna stared at his photograph.
Charles had attended her high-school graduation.
He had taught her how to read a balance sheet.
He had hugged her at her mother’s funeral.
“He controls our internal accounts,” she whispered.
Lorenzo understood immediately.
“And therefore could move money through Mercer without Harrison knowing every transaction.”
“Or with Harrison’s cooperation.”
Mateo stood.
“We find Vale.”
Sienna called him.
Voicemail.
She called his assistant.
No answer.
Then she opened Mercer’s internal system.
Charles’s credentials had been used eleven minutes earlier.
“Someone is logged in.”
“From where?” Lorenzo asked.
Sienna traced the session.
Her stomach dropped.
“Pier Nine.”
Mateo grabbed his jacket.
Lorenzo blocked him.
“You’re staying.”
“No.”
“Someone tried to frame you for murder.”
“Exactly.”
Sienna closed the laptop.
“I’m going.”
Both men turned toward her.
She raised an eyebrow.
“Pier Nine is my facility.”
Lorenzo swore under his breath.
Thirty minutes later, three black SUVs entered the Mercer terminal.
Sienna rode with Lorenzo.
Mateo followed despite Lorenzo’s orders.
The terminal seemed deserted.
Sienna led them toward the administrative warehouse.
A light burned upstairs.
Charles Vale’s office.
They climbed.
The door was open.
No Charles.
His computer was running.
On the desk lay stacks of shipping manifests.
Sienna examined them.
Container numbers.
Insurance policies.
False cargo declarations.
Fourteen million dollars suddenly made sense.
Her father had not merely borrowed money.
Someone had been plugging holes.
Lorenzo picked up a ledger.
“Your company has been used to launder hundreds of millions.”
Sienna felt sick.
Then Mateo called from the adjacent room.
“You need to see this.”
They entered.
Photographs covered the wall.
Lorenzo.
Mateo.
Sienna.
Harrison.
Port officials.
Judges.
Police.
Someone had been building a network.
At the center was a photograph of Camille.
A red line connected her to Charles Vale.
Another connected Charles to Harrison.
Sienna moved closer.
A final photograph was pinned upside down.
She turned it over.
Adrian.
The quiet man from Lorenzo’s office.
Lorenzo’s face hardened.
Mateo whispered, “Your man.”
“He was never my man.”
“Then who is he?”
A noise came from the hallway.
Lorenzo drew a gun.
Sienna froze.
Footsteps approached.
One.
Two.
Then stopped outside.
The door opened.
Harrison Mercer stumbled inside.
Blood covered his shirt.
“Sienna.”
She rushed toward him.
“Dad.”
He caught her wrist.
“Don’t trust Lorenzo.”
Lorenzo’s expression turned lethal.
Harrison pushed a brass key into Sienna’s palm.
“Locker 218. South Station.”
“What’s inside?”
Harrison looked past her.
Straight at Mateo.
“Proof your brother knew Camille was alive.”
Silence.
Sienna slowly turned toward Lorenzo.
But before anyone could speak, every light in the warehouse went out.
A phone vibrated somewhere in the darkness.
It was Harrison’s.
Sienna picked it up.
One message glowed on the screen.
BRING THE GIRL TO LOCKER 218.
May you like
Then another appeared.
OR LORENZO LEARNS WHAT HIS BROTHER REALLY DID.
