Chapter 6 - THOMAS REED HAD BEEN TRYING TO WARN DOMINIC BEFORE HE DIED
The old evidence box was kept in a police archive.
Dominic did not touch it.
His attorney requested lawful review after new information emerged.
Detectives reopened limited parts of the case.
For once, Moretti money did not open the door.
Paperwork did.
Hannah hated every minute.
She still went to Mercy St. Catherine for her second interview.
Good.
Life did not stop because the dead demanded attention.
The hospital offered her a position in cardiac observation first, with option to transition back to emergency after recredentialing.
She said she needed time.
Also good.
Then a detective called.
Thomas Reed’s personal effects included an object never returned to the family.
A pager.
Old.
Damaged.
Held because investigators believed it might relate to the shooting.
A technician recovered partial message history years ago.
Nobody thought it important.
One message had been sent eleven minutes before Dominic arrived at the hospital.
FROM: UNKNOWN NUMBER
PIER 41. MORETTI CONVOY. POSSIBLE SETUP. TELL D.M. INSIDE MAN.
Thomas had received it.
Hannah stared at the printout.
“Dad knew?”
Dominic sat across from her at the detective’s office.
“Maybe.”
“Who sent it?”
“Unknown.”
“Did he go to Pier 41?”
“No evidence.”
“He was working ambulance transport.”
“Yes.”
“Then why send him?”
The detective answered.
“Your father had served as a Chicago firefighter-paramedic before private transport.”
“He knew people on the docks.”
“Possibly someone trusted him.”
Hannah looked at Dominic.
“Did he know you?”
“No.”
Then Dominic remembered something.
His father.
Giovanni Moretti.
Thomas Reed.
A charity boxing event?
No.
A dock fire.
He called Eleanor.
She answered.
“Thomas Reed.”
Silence.
Then Eleanor whispered:
“Oh.”
Dominic’s chest tightened.
“You knew him before the hospital.”
“Yes.”
Hannah went still.
Dominic put speaker on.
“How?”
“Twenty-seven years ago, Warehouse Four caught fire.”
“Your father was trapped.”
“A firefighter pulled him out.”
“Thomas.”
“Yes.”
Hannah covered her mouth.
Her father never told her.
Eleanor continued.
“Giovanni offered him money.”
“Thomas refused.”
“Of course.”
“He said buying dinner would be enough.”
Dominic almost laughed painfully.
Reeds apparently had a family policy.
“Did they stay in contact?”
“Occasionally.”
“Christmas cards.”
“Dock charity drives.”
“Thomas sometimes called your father if he heard about unsafe conditions.”
“So somebody may have sent him the warning because they knew he could reach us.”
“Yes.”
“Did Dad know Luca?”
Hannah asked.
Eleanor became quiet.
“Everyone knew Luca.”
Not enough.
Then another archived record surfaced.
Thomas called Giovanni’s old private line six minutes before Dominic’s shooting.
But Giovanni had died two years earlier.
The number forwarded to family security.
Who controlled it?
Luca.
Hannah stared.
“My father tried to warn your family.”
“Yes.”
“And the call went to Luca.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
The call lasted forty-seven seconds.
No audio.
Then, four minutes later, Mercer Strategic issued the false warning about a gunman disguised as medical personnel.
Thomas arrived at the hospital later with another patient.
Dominic arrived bleeding.
The guard saw Thomas reaching into his jacket.
Shot him.
Was it planned?
The detective said:
“We cannot say.”
Good.
Hannah still cried.
The possibility was enough.
Dominic sat beside her but did not touch.
After a while, she reached for his sleeve.
He offered his hand.
She took it.
“What if Dad was killed because he tried to warn you?”
Dominic’s throat tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“What if Luca did it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if your guard—”
“I don’t know.”
She started crying harder.
“I hate that answer.”
“So do I.”
For the first time, they hated uncertainty together.
Then evidence sharpened.
A retired Mercer field coordinator named Paul Garrison agreed to speak after investigators located him in Arizona.
He remembered Pier 41.
Too well.
He had received a call from Luca’s assistant warning:
“Moretti has an internal leak. Someone may approach medical personnel after the hit.”
Garrison exaggerated it when broadcasting to guards.
Why?
Fear.
Bad information.
Poor discipline.
He did not know Thomas.
Did Luca intend Thomas to be shot?
Garrison said no evidence.
But Luca had called the old Giovanni line moments after Thomas did.
He knew Thomas was trying to reach the family.
Instead of warning Dominic’s team that Thomas was friendly, Luca pushed a general infiltrator warning.
Why?
Investigators found another clue.
Thomas’s message.
Before the shooting, he had been transporting a dockworker named Samuel Ortiz after a workplace injury.
Ortiz told Thomas he had overheard Luca’s men discussing a shipment route being sold to the Caruso crew.
The Pier 41 attack was not Luca ordering Dominic killed.
It was Luca profiting from a side deal and failing to warn Dominic that the Carusos had obtained his route.
Thomas learned.
Tried to alert Moretti.
Luca understood the warning could expose him.
He created confusion around medical personnel.
Did he expect Thomas to die?
Maybe not.
Did he knowingly increase danger to silence him?
Evidence suggested yes.
The distinction mattered legally.
Emotionally, less.
Hannah sat in Dominic’s library when the detectives finished the summary.
Eleanor beside her.
Walter near the window.
Dominic stood.
No one spoke.
Finally Hannah said:
“He got my father killed because he was afraid of being exposed.”
Dominic answered carefully.
“He created conditions that contributed to Thomas being mistaken for a threat.”
She looked at him.
“You sound like a lawyer.”
“I’m trying not to say more than we know.”
She stared.
Then nodded.
“Good.”
Growth hurt.
Then Eleanor said:
“There is one thing you don’t know.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
“After Thomas died, your father’s old attorney found a voicemail.”
“From Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It was incomplete.”
“Play it.”
Eleanor hesitated.
“I kept a copy.”
Of course she did.
Walter retrieved an old encrypted family archive.
The audio was damaged.
Thomas’s voice.
Older.
Breathing hard.
“Mr. Moretti—if this still reaches the family—Pier Forty-One is compromised.”
Static.
“Dominic’s route was sold.”
More static.
Then:
“Tell the boy not to come in angry.”
Dominic froze.
Hannah looked at him.
Thomas continued.
“If he’s alive, tell him this isn’t on him.”
Static.
“I made the call because I chose to.”
Then the recording cut.
Dominic could not breathe.
Hannah covered her mouth.
Thomas had not known he would die.
But somehow he knew Dominic might blame himself.
Tell the boy this isn’t on him.
Dominic sat down.
For six years, guilt had lived inside him like a private debt.
Money rejected.
Apologies impossible.
A dead man’s daughter now standing in his life.
Hannah cried.
Then laughed painfully.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“What?”
“Always trying to make people feel better while everything was on fire.”
Dominic looked at her.
“I still owe him.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Dominic.”
“Not money.”
She stopped.
He continued.
“I owe him the truth about what happened.”
“And I owe everyone who works for me a system where one man’s fear cannot turn a medic into a target.”
Hannah stared.
That was different.
Not debt as ownership.
Responsibility as change.
“Okay.”
One word.
Enough.
Then Marcus entered.
“Luca’s been found.”
Dominic stood.
“Where?”
“Indiana.”
“Police have him?”
“No.”
“State patrol located his vehicle.”
“Empty.”
“Blood in the driver’s seat.”
Hannah went pale.
“Vanessa?”
“Unknown.”
Then Marcus held up another item.
A burner phone recovered from the car.
One draft message unsent.
To Dominic.
SHE’S CRAZIER THAN I THOUGHT.
SHE WANTS ELEANOR DEAD.
I ONLY WANTED THE VOTE.
May you like
Vanessa had apparently turned on Luca too.
And if the blood belonged to him, the woman who had beaten Hannah in a hallway was now much more dangerous than anyone at the gala understood.
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