Chapter 3 - The Interrogation of Grant Keller
The wine cellar beneath the Ridge Road house was not a dungeon, though it served the same functional purpose when required. It was a cold, vault-like room with stone walls four feet thick, lined with racks of vintage Bordeaux that Dominic had bought at auction in London ten years ago.
In the center of the room, lit by a single overhead bulb, Grant Keller was bound to a thick steel pillar that supported the floor above.
Miles sat on an inverted wooden crate ten feet away, calmly peeling an apple with a small pocket knife.
When the heavy iron door swung open and Dominic stepped inside, Keller flinched so violently the steel chair scraped two inches across the concrete. He had lost his coat; his white shirt was torn and splattered with his own dried blood, his left hand swollen to the size of a grapefruit from where Dominic had crushed it under his heel.
Dominic didn't sit down. He walked to the wooden table near the door, poured two fingers of rye whiskey into a heavy tumbler, and took a slow sip.
"You have five minutes, Grant," Dominic said, his back turned to the prisoner. "After five minutes, I give Miles his knife back."
"You're dead, Vale!" Keller rasped, his teeth red with blood. "Harrow knows I came to the club! If I don't check in by two in the morning, his team goes to the house in Boston! You hear me? Your secretary's little sister—"
Dominic turned around.
He didn't look angry. That was what terrified Keller most. His eyes were completely flat, gray as the sea off the point in November.
"Your phone was crushed when I threw you against the wall," Dominic said smoothly, taking another step closer. "Miles took your watch. It’s currently 1:45 AM. In fifteen minutes, you think Silas Harrow will send a team to Boston?"
Keller sneered. "He promised—"
"Silas Harrow doesn't care about you, Grant," Dominic said. "You're a low-level port clerk who stole a set of ledger keys three months ago to pay off a gambling debt at the Neon Harbor. Silas used you to clear a path to Claire because he knows I don't keep my guards around her."
Keller blinked, his chest heaving. "How... how do you know that?"
"Because I own the bank where your gambling debt is held," Dominic said, resting one hand on the steel pillar above Keller’s head. "I bought your mortgage three days ago, Grant. I know about your sister's house in Providence. I know about the two hundred thousand dollars you transferred to an offshore account in Nassau yesterday afternoon."
Dominic leaned down until his face was six inches from Keller’s nose.
"Silas didn't give you that money," Dominic whispered. "Who gave you the Nassau account number?"
Keller swallowed hard, his throat making a dry, clicking sound. "I... I can't say."
"Miles," Dominic said.
Miles stood up, tossing the half-eaten apple into the corner.
"Wait! Wait!" Keller shrieked, his legs kicking wildly against the chair legs. "It was Price! Evelyn Price!"
The cellar went completely silent.
Even Miles paused, his pocket knife hovering four inches from Keller’s chest.
Dominic didn't move. "Evelyn Price is my chief legal counsel. She’s represented Vale Maritime for eleven years."
"She's working with Harrow!" Keller sobbed, tears cutting white channels through the dirt on his cheeks. "She’s the one who leaked the cargo schedules! She told Silas that if he took your secretary, you’d lose your head and break the peace agreement from 2018! She wanted you to kill Harrow so the federal prosecutors could step in and seize the waterfront under the RICO laws!"
Dominic stood up straight. He looked at the whiskey glass in his hand, then tossed the liquid onto the stone floor.
"She wanted me to act like a mobster," Dominic said softly to himself.
"Yes!" Keller screamed. "She said you were getting too clean! She said you were converting all your shipping assets into legitimate trusts for the girl! If you go clean, Price loses her retaining fee! She loses everything!"
Dominic turned to Miles. "Where is Evelyn now?"
"She's waiting at the office on Fourth Street," Miles said, his face dark as thunder. "She brought three assistants to prepare the injunctions against Harrow."
Dominic looked down at Keller for a long moment.
"Keep him here," Dominic told Miles. "Give him some water. Fix his hand."
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Keller gasped in disbelief. "You're... you're not going to kill me?"
Dominic looked at him from the doorway, his eyes cold and ancient. "You hurt my secretary, Grant. Death would be an easy exit for you. You're going to sit in this room until Evelyn Price joins you."
