Chapter 4 - The Ledger and the Blueprint
Tommy was gone before he could draw another ragged breath, dragged around the corner into the alley by Bruno with the effortless efficiency of a dock worker tossing a sack of grain.
Mara stood in the doorway for a long moment, the cold rain misting against her face, before she backed into the shop and kicked the door shut with her heel. She threw the deadbolt, sliding the brass latch home with a heavy, final sound.
She walked back to the cutting table where the cream-colored envelope still lay beside the ledger.
Fifty thousand dollars. The building deed, bought out from under the commercial real estate firm that had been threatening to evict her since November. And an enforcer standing guard in the rain like a dark guardian angel appointed by the devil himself.
Mara picked up the cashier’s check, her hands no longer shaking. Instead, a cold, sharp anger began to build in her chest.
She wasn't a charity case. She wasn't a pet project for a West Side syndicate boss who liked playing feudal lord over the garment district. If Adrian Vale thought he could buy her shop, her debts, and her life with a flick of his fountain pen, he had miscalculated the woman wearing the measuring tape.
She pulled her phone from her apron pocket, opened her contacts, and scrolled down to a number she hadn't dialed in six months—the private office of the city zoning commissioner, a man her father used to do favors for back when the neighborhood still had rules.
“This is Mara Whitcomb,” she said when the line picked up on the third ring. “I need to pull the property title history for West Randolph Street. Specifically, block four hundred. I want to know exactly who signed the deed transfer this morning, and whether my signature was forged on any preliminary release forms.”
May you like
The voice on the other end hesitated. “Miss Whitcomb, that’s commercial property tied up in federal logistics corridors. You sure you want to dig into that?”
“I’m sure,” Mara said, her voice dropping into a register that brook no argument. “Find out if Adrian Vale owns the building, or if he just thinks he does.”
