Chapter 10 - A Traitor’s Desperate Collusion
Desperation makes dangerous men reckless.
Marcus Vale sat in a private booth at the back of an underground gambling club beneath Ravenport’s Chinatown, his clothes still damp, his eyes manic and bloodshot.
Sitting across from him was Detective Raymond Vance, the lead investigator on Adrian Moretti’s fatal crash and the nephew of Judge Vance.
“You’re telling me Adrian Moretti is walking the streets?” Vance whispered, leaning over his bourbon with a look of pure dread. “If the State Police catch wind that I signed off on that staged accident report, I’m looking at twenty-five years in maximum security!”
“Nobody is going to prison!” Marcus hissed, grabbing Vance’s wrist. “Adrian doesn't have the official backing of the board yet. He’s operating as a rogue. He’s using an unregistered nurse from Harbor Mercy—Claire Donovan—to coordinate his moves.”
Marcus pulled out a surveillance photo of Claire leaving her rowhouse apartment that morning.
“We take the nurse,” Marcus said, a vicious gleam in his eyes. “Adrian has always had a savior complex. It’s his fatal flaw. He couldn't leave his loyal dockworkers behind, and he won't leave the woman who pulled him out of the casket behind either.”
“And what happens when we get him?” Vance asked nervously.
“We don't use poison this time,” Marcus sneered, pulling a silenced Glock from his shoulder holster and racking the slide. “We take them both to the old incinerator at Pier Nine. Two rounds to the back of the skull, straight into the industrial furnace. No caskets. No viewings. No resurrections.”
Vance swallowed hard, looked at the photo of Claire, and nodded slowly.
May you like
“I have two squad cars on my payroll,” Vance said. “We pick her up under the guise of an official witness interrogation.”
“Do it now,” Marcus ordered. “The shareholder meeting is at two o'clock. By noon, I want Adrian Moretti dead for the second and final time.”
