Chapter 5 - When the City Stopped Answering Dean Calloway
At 6:03 the next morning, the first call went unanswered.
Dean Calloway didn't think much of it.
He called another driver.
Voicemail.
Then the fuel depot.
No answer.
Then Mitchell Distribution.
The owner answered but spoke for less than twenty seconds.
“Can't help you today.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means exactly what I said.”
“You have a contract.”
“Contract was terminated under the late-payment provision.”
Dean sat up.
“Since when?”
“Since five minutes ago.”
The line went dead.
By seven, three Calloway trucks were parked because the fuel supplier refused delivery.
By seven-thirty, the Port Workers Cooperative announced a “safety review” on all Calloway Freight containers.
At eight, two restaurants canceled delivery agreements.
At eight-fifteen, a construction company suspended a logistics contract.
At eight-thirty, Dean's bank called requesting documentation relating to Northline Holdings.
He threw his phone across the office.
It struck the wall.
Matteo Russo watched from the doorway.
“You said Pierce wouldn't move this fast.”
Dean rounded on him.
“You said Stella didn't know anything.”
“She didn't.”
“She knew enough.”
“No. Her phone knew enough.”
Dean paced.
“We need to leave.”
Matteo laughed.
“You think running fixes this?”
“I think staying where Pierce can find us doesn't.”
“You're overestimating him.”
“Are you insane?”
Dean stepped closer.
“Twenty years in this city and you still think Jonah Pierce's power comes from men with guns.”
Matteo's smile faded.
Dean gestured toward the silent phones.
“This is his power.”
Across town, Stella woke inside a quiet furnished apartment with sunlight spilling across hardwood floors.
For several seconds she didn't know where she was.
Then she remembered.
The restaurant.
Falling.
Jonah.
Lily.
The warehouse.
Dean's call.
Her entire body tightened.
She sat up too quickly.
Pain punished her.
“Damn it.”
A knock sounded.
Stella froze.
“Stella?”
Lily.
Relief flooded her.
She opened the door.
Her sister carried two coffees and a paper bag.
“You look terrible.”
“You've always been comforting.”
“I went to nursing school for honesty.”
Lily stepped inside.
“Elena's downstairs talking with security.”
“Security.”
“Yes.”
Stella looked toward the hall.
“Jonah's people?”
“Building security plus two guys Lucas assigned.”
“I didn't ask for guards.”
“I did.”
Stella stared.
Lily set down the coffee.
“You're allowed to be angry.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
Lily folded her arms.
“Be angry while protected.”
Stella almost laughed and immediately regretted it.
Lily's expression softened.
“You scared me.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Her sister sat beside her.
“You don't.”
Stella looked down.
“For three years I've watched pieces of you disappear.”
“Lily—”
“I kept thinking if I pushed too hard, you'd stop talking to me. So I became careful. Then careful became quiet.”
Tears filled Stella's eyes.
“I thought I was helping.”
“You were surviving.”
“I should've left.”
“Yes.”
Lily's answer startled her.
Then Lily took her hand.
“But I'm not going to punish you because leaving was hard.”
Stella cried silently.
Across the city, Jonah sat in a conference room with Mara Bennett.
Mara had brought two federal financial investigators.
Jonah disliked federal investigators.
They generally disliked him more.
Agent Thomas Reed placed Northline documents on the table.
“Your companies transferred $1.8 million through Northline over fourteen months.”
“Without authorization.”
“That's your claim.”
“That's reality.”
Reed leaned back.
“You expect me to believe Jonah Pierce got robbed for nearly two million dollars and didn't notice?”
Jonah remained calm.
“I noticed discrepancies.”
“When?”
“Nine months ago.”
“And instead of reporting them?”
“I investigated internally.”
Mara interrupted.
“Which is why we're here now.”
Reed looked at her.
“You defending him?”
“Don't insult me.”
Jonah almost smiled.
Reed opened another folder.
“Dean Calloway couldn't authorize these transactions alone.”
“I know.”
“You had an internal signature.”
“Matteo Russo.”
“Your partner.”
“Former partner.”
“Convenient.”
Jonah's eyes cooled.
“Agent Reed, if I wanted to hide this, you wouldn't be sitting inside my office holding my records.”
Reed stared.
Mara said, “We need Stella's laptop.”
Jonah's jaw tightened.
“It's at Dean's apartment.”
“We'll get a warrant.”
“How long?”
“Hours.”
“Too long.”
“That's how law works.”
Jonah looked at Mara.
“And if Dean destroys it?”
“Then destruction becomes evidence.”
“Evidence is useful after something happens. I prefer preventing it.”
Mara leaned forward.
“Jonah.”
He knew that tone.
“No private retrieval team.”
“I didn't say anything.”
“Your face did.”
At 10:20, Elena arrived at Stella's apartment.
“Police can escort you to collect essential property.”
Stella looked up.
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“I want my laptop.”
Elena paused.
“They specifically want that untouched.”
“It's mine.”
“It may contain evidence.”
Stella stood.
“Then I'll give it to them.”
“You cannot interfere with—”
“I'm not.”
Stella took a slow breath.
“I want to go home.”
Lily frowned.
“That isn't home.”
“You know what I mean.”
Stella looked around the temporary apartment.
“My mother gave me a jewelry box. My documents are there. Clothes.”
Elena watched her.
“You understand Dean may be there?”
“Police are escorting me.”
“Yes.”
Stella straightened.
“Then I go.”
At 2:00 p.m., two patrol cars stopped outside the apartment Stella had shared with Dean.
Jonah wasn't supposed to be there.
He came anyway.
Mara saw his car and immediately walked over.
“I told you not to interfere.”
“I'm on a public street.”
“You own half the block.”
“Thirty-eight percent.”
“Jonah.”
He lifted both hands.
“I stay outside.”
Stella saw him from the police vehicle.
Something inside her loosened.
She hated that.
Dependence frightened her almost as much as Dean.
She entered with Lily and officers.
The apartment looked exactly as she had left it.
Broken coffee mug near the sink.
Dean's jacket hanging over a chair.
A dent in the radiator.
Stella stopped.
Lily followed her gaze.
“Is that where—”
“Yes.”
Her voice disappeared.
Lily took her hand.
They moved toward the bedroom.
Stella found her mother's jewelry box.
Documents.
Passport.
A photograph of herself and Lily as children.
Then she went to the small desk near the window.
The laptop was gone.
Her stomach dropped.
“It's not here.”
An officer checked the closet.
“Could he have taken it?”
“Yes.”
Stella opened the desk drawer.
Empty.
Something else was missing.
“What?”
Lily asked.
“There was a flash drive.”
“What flash drive?”
“I backed up Dean's accounting spreadsheets.”
“Why?”
“Because he blamed me once when files disappeared.”
She looked at Lily.
“I started making backups.”
“Where?”
“I hid it beneath the drawer.”
Gone.
Dean knew.
Stella backed away.
The bedroom door slammed.
Everybody turned.
One of the officers drew his weapon.
“Police!”
Nothing.
Then the smell hit them.
Smoke.
“Out!”
Black smoke rolled from the kitchen.
Someone had ignited something inside the pantry.
The fire moved unnaturally fast.
Accelerant.
Stella coughed as Lily pulled her toward the hall.
Alarms screamed.
Officers shouted.
They reached the stairwell.
Outside, Jonah saw smoke rise from a window.
His face changed.
“Mara.”
“I see it.”
He started forward.
She grabbed his arm.
“Fire department is coming.”
“Stella's inside.”
“So are officers.”
Jonah stared toward the entrance.
Then Stella emerged.
Lily beside her.
Jonah exhaled.
Stella looked back at the burning apartment.
Everything she had spent three years afraid to leave was disappearing behind flames.
Clothes.
Furniture.
Memories.
The bed where she had cried silently while Dean slept.
The kitchen where she learned to apologize before knowing what she'd done.
The radiator.
Gone.
She should have felt devastated.
Instead, something strangely weightless passed through her.
Then an officer ran outside holding a small metal box.
“Found this taped beneath the lobby mailboxes.”
Mara opened it.
Inside was Stella's missing flash drive.
A note lay beneath it.
YOU WERE ALWAYS BETTER AT HIDING THINGS THAN DEAN THOUGHT.
Stella stared.
“This isn't Dean's handwriting.”
Jonah looked at the note.
“Matteo.”
Lucas arrived behind him.
“Why would Matteo return evidence?”
No one answered.
Stella looked toward the flames.
Maybe Matteo wasn't simply Dean's partner.
Maybe he was afraid of Dean too.
Or maybe he wanted them to think that.
Mara placed the flash drive in an evidence bag.
“We'll find out.”
Her phone rang.
She listened.
Then looked directly at Jonah.
“What?”
he asked.
“Dean Calloway just reported Matteo Russo missing.”
Jonah's expression hardened.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Why would Dean report him missing?”
Mara ended the call.
“Because according to Dean, Matteo stole two million dollars from both of you.”
Stella stared at Jonah.
The war between Dean and Matteo had begun.
And somewhere between them was evidence powerful enough to destroy one man, the other man—
May you like
or Jonah Pierce himself.
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