Chapter 9 - The Broken Heiress
The basement interrogation cells of the federal building were sterile, gray, and devoid of daylight.
Celeste Laurent sat at a small stainless steel table, shivering beneath an oversized green government-issued fleece jacket.
Her emerald choker was gone.
Her diamond earrings had been logged into an evidence bag three hours earlier.
Her makeup was smeared down her cheeks in dark, greasy streaks from hours of crying.
The heavy steel door buzzed and swung open.
Dante Moretti entered the room, accompanied by Sophia.
Inspector Chen followed them in, carrying an electronic recording device, and took a seat against the back wall.
Celeste looked up with bloodshot eyes, her hands trembling as she pulled the fleece tighter around her neck.
"Dante..." Celeste sobbed.
"Please."
"I didn't know they were going to try to kill you at the club."
"I swear to God, I had no idea Julian hired those men."
Dante pulled out the steel chair across from her and sat down.
Sophia remained standing beside him, her arms folded across her chest.
"You knew enough to drop the sapphire into Sophia’s apron," Dante said, his voice flat and unforgiving.
"Julian told me my family was broke!" Celeste cried, wiping her nose with the sleeve of the jacket.
"He said my father owed forty million dollars to an offshore syndicate in Panama."
"He said if I didn't stage the theft to trigger the insurance clause and help freeze your assets, they would take our estate."
"He said the maid would just get fired and given a quiet severance settlement!"
"You watched Victoria slap me across the face," Sophia said, stepping closer to the metal table.
"You watched me bleed on the floor while you pretended to cry over a stone that was made in a laboratory six weeks ago."
Celeste looked at Sophia, her face crumpled with shame.
"I was scared."
"Being scared doesn't excuse cruelty, Celeste," Sophia said coldly.
"Where is the real stone?" Dante asked, cutting through the tears.
Celeste swallowed hard, her throat bobbing.
"Julian took it."
"He took the real Romanov sapphire two weeks ago."
"He said he needed it as collateral for a private shipping container leaving tonight."
Sophia’s eyes snapped to Dante.
"The Ghost Vessel."
"What vessel, Celeste?" Dante demanded, his tone sharpening like a blade.
"The Northern Star," Celeste whispered.
"It’s registered under a Panamanian flag."
"It’s docked at the abandoned slip near the old sugar refinery in South Boston."
"It's scheduled to clear the harbor at midnight tonight."
"What is on that ship?" Dante asked.
"The entire final reserve," Celeste answered, her voice barely audible.
"Over eighty million dollars in rough conflict diamonds."
"And... and your father’s original archives."
"Julian kept the real documents in a fireproof safe inside the ship’s master cabin."
"He was going to take them to Europe to liquidate everything once the Moretti charter was suspended."
Dante stood up, checking his watch.
"Eleven hours until midnight."
Inspector Chen tapped her pen on the table.
"I will notify the Coast Guard and prepare a boarding team."
"No," Dante said, stopping Chen with a sharp look.
"Julian’s network has informants inside the port authority."
"If the Coast Guard moves prematurely, the captain will scuttle the cargo in deep water before you cross the outer harbor."
"We take the ship at the dock."
Sophia’s phone suddenly buzzed violently in her jacket pocket.
She pulled it out and saw an unknown number with a Massachusetts area code.
She answered it immediately.
"Sophia?"
A trembling, terrified voice came through the receiver.
It wasn't her mother.
It was Dr. Evans, the private physician Dante had assigned to the Berkshire medical estate.
"Doctor, what's wrong?" Sophia asked, her heart freezing in her chest.
"They breached the southern gate," Dr. Evans stammered, gunfire and breaking glass audible in the background.
"A private security convoy."
"They have tactical gear."
"They cut the landlines and blew the generator."
"They're inside the main clinic!"
A sudden loud crash sounded over the line, followed by the sound of a struggle and a man’s gruff voice.
"Bennett's daughter," the unfamiliar voice barked into the phone.
"Listen to me very carefully."
Sophia gripped the phone with white knuckles.
"Who is this?"
"My name is Victor Cross," the voice replied, cold and methodical.
"I work for Julian Hale’s offshore partners."
"Julian is in federal custody, which means my employers are taking over his assets."
"And right now, your mother is sitting in the back of my armored van with an oxygen tank that has forty minutes of air left."
"If you want her to see tomorrow morning, you are going to bring the Leviathan microfilms to the sugar refinery at Pier Nine."
"Alone."
"No Moretti."
"No federal agents."
"If I see a single flashing light within two miles of the docks, I will turn off the valve on your mother's tank and push her into the harbor."
The line went dead.
Sophia stared at the black screen of her phone, the world collapsing into a terrifying, suffocating void.
Dante was at her side in an instant, his hands gripping her shoulders firmly.
"Sophia, look at me."
"What did he say?"
"They have my mother," Sophia whispered, her eyes wide with sheer terror.
"They're taking her to the sugar refinery."
"They want the microfilm."
Dante’s eyes burned with an icy, lethal fire that Sophia had never seen before.
"Vance," Dante shouted through the open door.
May you like
"Mobilize the entire private strike team."
"We are going to war."
