Chapter 3 - Frankie’s Version
Dominic summoned Frankie before breakfast. Sadie insisted on being in the room. Frankie objected the moment he saw her. “She’s your wife for one night and now she sits in internal meetings?” Dominic’s expression hardened. “She sits because I said she sits.” Sadie almost corrected him.
Then decided the meeting mattered more. Mara joined by video. Elliot stood near the door. Dominic placed the manifest on the desk. “Explain.” Frankie looked at the signature. Nothing moved in his face. Too controlled. “That was years ago.” “Explain.” Frankie shrugged. “Thomas came back for something.”
“What?” “He didn’t tell me.” “Why did you let him into Warehouse 9?” “He said he left personal tools.” Sadie stared. “My father didn’t keep tools there.” Frankie looked at her. “You knew him eight years ago?” “I knew him my whole life.” His eyes narrowed.
Dominic cut in. “What happened inside?” “Nothing.” “Frankie.” “Nothing happened.” Dominic stood. The room changed. Frankie’s confidence slipped. “He went in. Came out. Left.” “Alive?” Frankie’s face twisted. “What kind of question is that?” “A very specific one.” “Yes. Alive.” Sadie leaned forward. “Did you follow him?”
“No.” “Did anyone?” “I don’t know.” “Did you report that he came back?” Frankie looked at Dominic. “No.” “Why?” “Because by then everyone thought he stole from us.” Dominic said, “I did not.” Frankie looked surprised. That mattered. Dominic continued. “I thought he disappeared because customs was closing in. I never concluded he stole money.”
Frankie shifted. Sadie saw it. “You did.” Frankie looked at her. “What?” “You wanted people to believe he stole.” “That is ridiculous.” “Then why is his payroll marked terminated for theft?” Dominic turned toward Elliot. Elliot was already searching. Seconds later, he found the file.
Termination code: internal theft. Approved by F. Calder. Dominic went completely still. Frankie said, “That was the information I had.” “From whom?” No answer. “Frankie.” “A source.” “Name.” Frankie’s jaw tightened. “I protected him.” “Eight years later?” “Yes.” Sadie laughed without humor. “Then protect him while unemployed.”
Frankie looked at Dominic. “You’re letting her do this?” Dominic’s voice dropped. “You are confusing her anger with my decision.” That was important. He turned to Elliot. “Suspend Frankie from all operations. Access removed immediately.” Frankie stared. “You can’t be serious.” Dominic did not raise his voice.
“Leave.” Frankie left furious. Sadie waited until the door closed. “You believe him?” “No.” “Do you believe he killed my father?” “I don’t know.” Good answer. Mara spoke through the screen. “We follow documents.” They did. The theft allegation originated with an anonymous internal report.
No attached evidence. No bank records. No missing inventory. Just an accusation. Frankie approved the termination. Dominic’s office received the summary. He signed the monthly personnel packet without reviewing individual names. Sadie found his signature. Her throat tightened. “You signed it.” Dominic looked at the page.
“Yes.” “You fired my father for theft.” “I signed a packet.” “You still signed.” “Yes.” No excuse. That made the anger harder. Dominic rubbed one hand over his face. “I should have reviewed it.” “Yes.” “I didn’t.” “Yes.” They kept going. Warehouse 9 had been used for cash storage, betting proceeds, and high-value shipments.
Thomas had supervised loading operations there before disappearing. A customs raid occurred three days after his last documented entry. Investigators seized counterfeit pharmaceuticals, undeclared firearms components, and cash. The Russo organization denied ownership of the illegal goods. Dominic had always believed someone used his warehouse without authorization.
Now Sadie saw why Thomas might have come back. “He found something.” Dominic nodded. “And someone needed him blamed before customs arrived.” “Yes.” The question was who. The source report came from an internal terminal that no longer existed. Elliot found archived login assignments. Three people had access.
Frankie. A dispatcher named Owen Pike. And Dominic’s uncle, Vincent Russo. Sadie looked at Dominic. “Vincent?” Dominic’s face hardened. “My father’s younger brother.” “Where is he now?” “Dead.” “When?” “Five years ago.” “How?” “Stroke.” Sadie stared. “That is inconvenient.” “Believe me, I know.” Vincent had managed warehouse security and off-book logistics before Dominic took full control.
He had also been one of the loudest voices insisting Thomas Bennett was a traitor. Dominic had trusted him. Sadie closed the file. “We need Owen Pike.” Elliot searched. “Moved to Arizona seven years ago.” “Alive?” “Yes.” “Good.” They contacted Mara. She arranged an investigator.
By evening, they had an address. Owen lived outside Tucson. He refused the first call. Then the second. On the third, Sadie spoke. “My name is Sadie Bennett.” Silence. “Thomas Bennett’s daughter.” Longer silence. Then Owen said, “I wondered when someone would find me.” Sadie gripped the phone.
“Did Frankie kill my father?” “No.” “Did Vincent?” Owen breathed out. “Not directly.” Dominic leaned closer. Sadie put the phone on speaker. “What does that mean?” Owen said, “Your father found a side operation inside Warehouse 9. Vincent was using Russo routes to move counterfeit medical shipments without Dominic’s knowledge. Thomas confronted him. Frankie helped cover it up.”
Sadie’s pulse hammered. “Then what happened?” “Thomas threatened to go to customs.” “Did Vincent kill him?” “No.” “Who?” Owen’s voice dropped. “Thomas made it out of Chicago.” Sadie’s eyes filled. “I know.” “He was supposed to disappear.” “Supposed to?” “Vincent paid someone to scare him into staying quiet.”
Sadie closed her eyes. Not again. A warning. An intimidation. A plan that became death. Owen continued. “The man went too far.” “Who?” “I don’t know his real name.” Frankie did. That was the next truth. And Frankie had just disappeared.
Owen also remembered one detail he had never written down. Thomas had carried a red ledger the night he returned to Warehouse 9. “Not a company book,” Owen said. “His own notes.” Sadie immediately thought of her mother’s boxes, all the papers they had searched after Thomas disappeared. No red ledger had ever surfaced.
“Did Frankie take it?” she asked. “I saw Vincent holding it the next morning.” Dominic’s face hardened. That gave them a second objective. Vincent was dead, but his estate records still existed. Elliot located storage inventories from the old Russo family house. Most had been sold, but several sealed boxes from Vincent’s office had been moved to a private archive.
Dominic authorized access. Sadie asked Mara to document the chain of custody. Inside the third box, beneath old tax folders, they found Thomas’s red ledger. Sadie’s hands shook before she touched it. The first pages contained ordinary loading notes. The final section documented shipment numbers, dates, and unusual substitutions. One line was underlined twice: Pediatric antibiotics replaced after inspection seal. Ask Vincent.
Dominic read it over her shoulder. “That shipment was never ours.” Sadie looked at him. “Meaning?” “Meaning someone used our routes and our protection without telling us.” “Your uncle.” “Probably.” The ledger also contained a name Sadie did not recognize: Calder—worried. Says V. is getting reckless.
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Frankie had known Vincent was running something dangerous before Thomas vanished. Not enough to prove murder. Enough to prove the lie began earlier than he claimed. Sadie closed the book carefully. “My father trusted Frankie.” Dominic’s mouth tightened. “So did I.” For once, neither of them needed to say what that meant.
The red ledger also contained Thomas’s handwriting beside one final warehouse number that no longer existed in current records. Elliot traced it to a storage annex demolished after the customs raid. Insurance photographs showed a locked office inside. Vincent had controlled the key. The physical evidence was gone, but the pattern became clearer: Thomas had been documenting a private operation hidden inside Russo infrastructure, not stealing from it.
