Chapter 4
Dominic denied any connection to Harbor Bridge Capital.
He did it through an attorney.
The letter was polished.
The explanation was plausible.
Harbor Bridge specialized in small-business distress lending. It purchased marketing data, monitored commercial filings, and routinely approached businesses experiencing cash-flow problems.
Coincidence was possible.
Rocco did not believe in coincidence after the third vendor.
But belief was not evidence.
Samuel began tracing the lender through public records.
Harbor Bridge itself appeared legitimate.
Licensed.
Registered.
Funded through a regional commercial bank.
Its officers had no obvious Castellano connections.
Rocco disliked clean paperwork.
Clean paperwork usually meant either innocence or somebody who understood where investigators looked first.
Meanwhile, Daniel called.
The bakery had received a Harbor Bridge offer too.
Not recently.
Six weeks earlier.
He had hidden it from Rocco during their first meeting because he was ashamed.
Rocco met him again.
Daniel placed the loan packet on the table.
The terms were punishing but legal on their face.
The important section involved collateral.
Bakery equipment.
Accounts receivable.
And Daniel’s interest in the building.
Rocco looked up.
“You own this property?”
“Half.”
“Who owns the other half?”
“My sister.”
“If you default?”
“They can pursue the collateral.”
Daniel rubbed his eyes.
“I almost signed.”
“What stopped you?”
“Maeve.”
Rocco frowned.
“She heard me talking to my sister about losing the bakery.”
Daniel looked toward the kitchen.
“She asked where birthday cakes would come from if the ovens belonged to somebody else.”
He smiled weakly.
“It sounded stupid, but I couldn’t sign after that.”
Rocco did not find it stupid.
He returned to the club and ordered every vendor to send him any financing solicitation they received during Dominic’s management period.
Four more Harbor Bridge packets arrived.
The timing was almost mechanical.
Club invoice placed on hold.
Vendor calls management.
Dominic refuses release.
Harbor Bridge contacts vendor.
Samuel put the dates on a wall.
“It’s too consistent.”
Rocco nodded.
“Information is leaking.”
“To Harbor Bridge?”
“Or somebody who feeds them.”
Another detail bothered him.
Each loan packet used slightly different language.
But all contained a clause allowing the lender to sell distressed debt to a third party without borrower approval.
Normal enough in finance.
Still, Rocco circled it.
“What happens after default?”
Samuel shrugged.
“The debt gets sold, collected, renegotiated, or foreclosed.”
“To whom?”
“That depends.”
May you like
Rocco looked at the six loan packets.
“That’s what I want to know.”
