Chapter 4 - The Interrogation on the Fourth Floor
By midnight, the executive conference room on the fourth floor of Northside Logistics was locked under federal oversight.
Richard Davies sat in a high-backed leather chair, his suit jacket removed, his shirt stained with sweat and rain.
Across the wide mahogany table sat Assistant United States Attorney Marcus Reed and Detective Raymond Callahan, surrounded by stacks of printed invoices, bank routing statements, and decrypted audio recordings extracted from Richard’s devices.
Leo and I stood near the floor-to-ceiling glass wall overlooking the illuminated city below.
Marcus Reed tapped a red pen against a printed financial spreadsheet.
"Mr. Davies," Reed began, his voice razor-sharp. "We have the wire confirmations from the private banking entity in Zurich showing sixteen separate deposits of fifty thousand dollars each into your offshore account, authorized by Marcus Vance’s corporate secretary."
Richard buried his face in his hands, trembling violently. "I didn't have a choice, Marcus! Vance approached me eighteen months ago! He told me that if I didn't override the customs weighbridge logs, he would have my brother's commercial trucking fleet audited out of business!"
"And what about Clara Lin?" Detective Callahan asked, leaning over the table. "Why did you attempt to physically assault and intimidate her in her cubicle tonight?"
Richard looked up, his bloodshot eyes darting toward me with a mixture of raw fear and bitter despair.
"She... she was running the manual cross-checks," Richard stammered, his voice cracking. "I told Vance that Clara was digging into the Bay 14 manifests. Vance told me that if she logged the discrepancy into the state server, he would have both of us buried under the pier. I was trying to take her phone! I was trying to force her to delete the audit log before Costello arrived!"
Leo took two slow, measured steps toward the table.
The room dropped into absolute, breathless silence.
Leo stopped three feet from Richard, looking down at the broken supervisor with eyes that held the cold, immovable finality of an iron cage closing.
"You didn't just try to delete an audit log, Richard," Leo said, his voice quiet, steady, and terrifyingly clear. "You put your hands on a woman who was under my protection. You threatened her sister's medical care to cover your treason."
Richard collapsed onto the table, weeping openly in pathetic ruin. "Mr. Costello... please... I'll sign the federal confession! I'll testify against Vance in open court! Just don't let Vance's people get to me!"
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"You will testify, Richard," Marcus Reed stated firmly, signaling the two federal marshals standing by the door. "Because you are facing twenty-five years at the United States Penitentiary in Canaan for Federal Arms Trafficking, Corporate Extortion, and Obstruction of Justice."
As the steel handcuffs clicked around Richard’s wrists, he was dragged from the room in heavy chains, leaving the conference suite in profound, unbroken peace.
