Chapter 6
The key opened a locker beneath the old Rinaldi training hall.
Erin remembered the building.
Her father used to bring her there on Sundays.
The locker had no name.
Only a scratched number.
The brass key turned.
Inside was a metal box.
Daniel’s watch.
Two photographs.
A small voice recorder.
And one black ledger.
I did not touch anything first.
I looked at Erin.
“Your father left this to you.”
She stared.
“I didn’t know.”
“You open it.”
Her hands trembled.
She took the ledger.
First page.
Names.
Routes.
Payments.
Not charity.
Internal crew money.
She looked at me.
“I don’t understand.”
I did.
Rocco had been running a private side structure beneath my father.
Old captains.
Cash movements.
Unauthorized deals.
Daniel had discovered it.
The voice recorder confirmed the rest.
Rocco’s voice.
Then Charles Vaughn.
You cannot keep routing money through dead-family accounts.
Charles answered:
Nobody checks those.
My jaw tightened.
Rocco laughed.
Exactly.
Erin covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
Daniel’s voice entered.
Clear.
Angry.
I know what you’re doing.
Silence.
Then Rocco.
You know enough to become dangerous.
The recording ended.
Erin sat down hard.
Her father had recorded the confrontation.
Not betrayal.
Discovery.
Daniel was not feeding information to rivals.
He had uncovered Rocco siphoning money through the same relief system meant to support dead members’ families.
I looked at Charles.
He had been part of it from the beginning.
Then I turned another page in the ledger.
One name appeared beside several transfers.
CELESTE V.
Erin saw it.
“So she knew?”
I looked at the dates.
Recent.
Very recent.
“No.”
My voice went cold.
May you like
“She didn’t just know what her father did eight years ago.”
Celeste had been using the same system now.
