Chapter 3 - The Enemy Behind the Locked Door
Jonah Pierce had survived long enough in his world because he distrusted coincidences.
A woman carrying incomplete payment collapsed at his feet.
Her phone contained evidence of a planned theft.
Someone accessed that evidence while she was unconscious.
And the access originated inside L’Aurora.
Coincidence ended somewhere around the second event.
By the third, Jonah considered it strategy.
“Lucas.”
“I already shut down the restaurant Wi-Fi.”
“Doesn't matter if they're using cellular.”
“I know.”
“Camera room.”
Lucas nodded.
Jonah looked toward Elena.
“Stay with Stella.”
Elena folded her arms.
“I'm an attorney, not armed security.”
“You have six armed security officers outside that hallway.”
“Then why do I need to stay?”
“Because she'll trust you before she trusts them.”
Elena's irritation disappeared.
“Fair.”
Jonah and Lucas entered the camera room.
The restaurant had twenty-eight interior cameras.
Two exterior.
Lucas pulled access logs from the network.
Jonah stared at the timestamps.
The file had been opened at 10:47 p.m.
Dean had been outside then.
“Who was near Stella's phone?”
“Her phone was in your office.”
Jonah looked at him.
“Then nobody.”
“Physically.”
Lucas enlarged the device records.
“One login through a remote account.”
“Location?”
“Triangulation isn't exact indoors.”
“How close?”
Lucas pointed at the map.
“About forty meters.”
That covered almost the entire restaurant.
Jonah leaned back.
“Guest list.”
Lucas smiled without humor.
“I knew you'd say that.”
They began eliminating people.
Regular customers.
Families.
A judge having dinner with his wife.
Two surgeons.
A real-estate developer.
Three couples celebrating an engagement.
Jonah's staff.
Kitchen personnel.
Security.
Matteo Russo.
Lucas paused on that name.
Jonah noticed.
“You thinking something?”
“No.”
“Then don't pause.”
Lucas scrolled.
“Matteo has been with you twelve years.”
“I know how long he's been with me.”
“He negotiated the Calloway Freight contract.”
“I know.”
Lucas looked at Jonah.
“You want me to check him?”
“I want you to check everybody.”
Even loyalty.
Especially loyalty.
In the private office, Stella sat wrapped in a fresh black cardigan Elena had brought.
Her phone lay on the table.
She stared at it as if it were dangerous.
Elena returned.
“Jonah found something.”
Stella's stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Those recordings.”
Stella looked confused.
“What recordings?”
“The ones on your phone.”
“I don't record Dean.”
“Apparently your phone does.”
Elena sat opposite her.
“Do you use an automatic voice memo app?”
Stella thought.
Months ago, after Dean denied screaming at her during an argument, Stella had downloaded an app.
She wanted proof.
Not for police.
Not even for anybody else.
For herself.
Because Dean had become skilled at convincing her that things had never happened.
That she remembered wrong.
That his words were different.
That he had only grabbed her because she tried to walk away.
The application automatically activated when voices rose above a certain level.
Stella had forgotten it existed.
“I downloaded something a long time ago.”
“Did Dean know?”
“No.”
“Those recordings may matter.”
“To Jonah?”
“To you.”
Stella laughed bitterly.
“How?”
“Because documentation matters if you eventually decide to seek a protective order.”
Stella's face closed.
“I said I'm not going to the police.”
“I know.”
“Then stop trying to push me.”
“I'm not.”
Elena leaned back.
“You've spent years with somebody deciding everything for you. I'm not going to become another person who does that.”
Stella looked at her.
Elena continued.
“You can leave tonight.”
Stella's pulse quickened.
“You can stay temporarily somewhere secure.”
“Jonah's house?”
“No.”
That answer surprised her.
“He offered?”
“He specifically said his house would make you feel like you traded one dangerous man's control for another.”
Stella stared.
“He said that?”
“Yes.”
A strange feeling moved through her.
Relief, perhaps.
Elena picked up a folder.
“Jonah owns apartments used for visiting employees. One is vacant. Different building. Private security downstairs. You'd have your own key. Nobody enters without permission.”
“And Dean?”
“Would not receive the address.”
Stella looked toward the rain-dark windows.
“What happens tomorrow?”
“Whatever you choose.”
That sounded impossible.
Choice had become unfamiliar.
Elena slid a business card onto the table.
“No decision tonight has to become permanent.”
Stella touched the card.
The office door opened.
Jonah entered alone.
Elena stood.
“I'll check the apartment.”
When she left, Jonah stayed near the doorway.
“You found something on my phone,” Stella said.
“Yes.”
“Did you listen?”
“Yes.”
Her expression changed.
“You had no right.”
“Elena authorized a security scan with your permission.”
“I gave permission for tracking.”
“You're right.”
Jonah didn't defend himself.
“I should have asked before listening.”
Stella had expected excuses.
The absence of them disarmed her.
“What did Dean say?”
“He discussed stealing containers from me.”
Her eyebrows drew together.
“Containers?”
“Freight.”
“I don't know anything about that.”
“I believe you.”
“He uses my laptop sometimes.”
“What for?”
“Invoices. Email.”
“Do you handle his books?”
“Sometimes.”
Jonah became more attentive.
“What does sometimes mean?”
“When his accountant is gone, I enter expenses.”
“Did you ever see a company called Northline Holdings?”
Stella frowned.
“Yes.”
Jonah went still.
“What?”
“Dean told me Northline was a fuel vendor.”
“It isn't.”
“What is it?”
“A shell corporation.”
Stella's face paled.
“I entered payments.”
“How many?”
“I don't know. Dozens.”
“How much?”
“I don't know.”
“Think.”
His intensity frightened her.
Jonah noticed and immediately softened his tone.
“Sorry.”
He moved backward.
“Take your time.”
Stella closed her eyes.
Numbers.
Invoices.
Dean shouting from the kitchen.
A spreadsheet.
Transfers.
“Maybe two hundred thousand over several months.”
Jonah exhaled slowly.
Northline had appeared in his own investigation into missing inventory.
If Dean had routed funds through the company, the problem was larger than unpaid debt.
“Stella.”
She opened her eyes.
“Is your laptop at Dean's apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Does it contain those records?”
“Probably.”
Jonah's jaw tightened.
“Then don't go back there.”
“You just said this was my choice.”
“It is.”
“But you're telling me what to do.”
“I'm telling you Dean may realize your computer contains evidence that could hurt him.”
Silence.
“And if he realizes you know that…”
Jonah didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
Stella looked down.
“My things are there.”
“They're replaceable.”
“My mother's necklace isn't.”
Jonah watched her.
“And my passport. Birth certificate.”
“Those can be retrieved.”
“How?”
“Legally.”
She raised an eyebrow.
That almost made him smile.
“Yes,” Jonah said. “I understand how surprising that sounds coming from me.”
A small laugh escaped Stella.
Then she covered her ribs.
Pain flashed across her face.
Jonah moved instinctively and stopped before touching her.
“Doctor said laughing is temporarily prohibited.”
“That's convenient.”
“I'm known for strict policies.”
The brief warmth vanished when Lucas appeared.
“Boss.”
Jonah stepped into the hallway.
“What?”
“We found the remote login device.”
“And?”
Lucas's expression was grim.
“It belongs to Matteo.”
Jonah's face didn't change.
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“He left through the kitchen six minutes ago.”
“The doors were locked.”
“He knows the employee exit code.”
Jonah stared toward the dining room.
“Call him.”
“No answer.”
“Track his car.”
“Already trying.”
Lucas held up another phone.
“There's something else.”
Of course there was.
“What?”
“Matteo sent Dean a message at 10:51.”
Jonah read it.
SHE HAS THE RECORDING.
Below that:
PIERCE KNOWS.
Jonah's expression hardened.
Twelve years.
Matteo had stood beside him at funerals.
Weddings.
Business negotiations.
He knew where Jonah lived.
He knew his routines.
He knew his people.
And apparently he had been feeding information to Dean.
Jonah returned to Stella.
“Plans changed.”
Fear returned instantly to her face.
“What happened?”
“One of my people is working with Dean.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“He knows you have evidence.”
“I don't.”
“Dean won't necessarily believe that.”
Her face drained.
Jonah lowered himself again so he wasn't towering over her.
“Elena is taking you somewhere safe.”
“What about you?”
“I'll deal with Matteo.”
“Deal with him how?”
Jonah recognized the fear behind the question.
She thought his kind of protection would simply replace Dean's violence with his own.
“By finding out what he did.”
“And then?”
“Then I decide based on facts.”
She looked unconvinced.
Jonah added quietly, “Nobody is going to get hurt because you fell into my restaurant tonight.”
Stella held his gaze.
She wanted to believe him.
That frightened her.
Twenty minutes later, she was escorted through the underground garage.
Elena walked beside her.
Lucas drove.
Jonah remained at L’Aurora.
As Stella climbed into the black sedan, her phone vibrated inside the evidence bag.
One new message appeared.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
She opened it before Elena could stop her.
The message contained a photograph.
Stella's apartment door.
Taken minutes ago.
Below it were six words.
COME HOME OR SOMEONE ELSE PAYS.
Stella stopped breathing.
Then another photograph arrived.
Her younger sister, Lily, walking out of her evening nursing class.
Stella whispered one word.
“No.”
And suddenly the fight was no longer only about whether Stella could escape Dean Calloway.
May you like
It was about whether she could keep the people she loved alive long enough to try.
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