Chapter 5 - The Boy Who Followed the Wrong Man
Mateo’s suspension changed everything.
Without overtime, he could barely cover rent.
Without marina access, he could not defend himself against reports created using his name.
And without work, he had too much time to think about Leo.
“You don’t go anywhere alone,” he said the next morning.
Leo pushed cereal around his bowl.
“I go to school.”
“You come straight home.”
“I always do.”
“No marina.”
Leo looked up.
“That’s where you work.”
“Not anymore.”
“Because of me.”
Mateo’s expression softened.
“Because of Bradley.”
“If I hadn’t jumped—”
“Stop.”
“But—”
“Leo.”
Mateo leaned across the table.
“If you see someone drowning and you help them, and afterward they hurt you, the mistake is theirs. Not yours.”
Leo thought of the briefcase.
“Even if it’s property?”
“Especially then.”
That afternoon, Leo broke his promise.
Emma had texted Mateo asking him to pick up suspension paperwork at the marina office.
Mateo refused to take Leo.
Leo waited until his father left.
Then he rode his bicycle to Harbor Point.
He told himself he was only going to watch from outside.
Then he saw Jonah Vale.
Jonah was thirty-four, broad, tattooed, and worked as captain of Bradley’s yacht, the Aurelia.
Leo recognized him from the night of the briefcase.
Jonah emerged from the staff entrance carrying a black plastic bag.
He looked around.
Then headed toward a dumpster behind the chandlery.
Leo followed.
Jonah dumped the bag.
Waited.
Walked away.
Leo counted to twenty.
He opened it.
Inside were shredded pieces of heavy black paper.
One fragment carried part of a silver embossed circle.
The same seal he had seen on Charles’s folder.
Leo pulled out his phone and photographed it.
“You really don’t listen.”
Jonah’s voice came from behind him.
Leo froze.
Jonah took the bag from his hands.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re digging through trash.”
“You threw away part of that folder.”
Jonah smiled.
“Did I?”
Leo backed up.
Jonah stepped closer.
“Bradley says you’re a smart kid.”
“That doesn’t sound like him.”
“He also says smart kids sometimes ruin their fathers’ lives.”
Leo tried to move around him.
Jonah blocked the path.
“Delete the photo.”
“No.”
Jonah’s smile vanished.
“Your dad is suspended. You think that was difficult?”
Leo’s pulse hammered.
Then Emma’s voice cut across the service lane.
“Step away from him.”
Jonah turned.
Emma stood twenty feet away with two dock-security officers.
Jonah raised his hands.
“We were talking.”
“You were cornering a minor beside a dumpster.”
“He was trespassing.”
“He’s standing in a public-access service lane.”
Jonah looked at Leo.
“Delete it.”
Emma said, “Leave.”
Jonah walked away.
Only when he disappeared did Leo breathe normally.
Emma stared at him.
“Your father is going to kill you.”
“He doesn’t need to know.”
“He absolutely needs to know.”
Leo groaned.
Emma held out her hand.
“Show me.”
He displayed the photograph.
Emma’s face changed when she saw the silver seal.
“That folder shouldn’t be here.”
“You recognize it.”
She didn’t answer.
Leo remembered Jonah’s final comment before walking away.
He almost kept it to himself.
Then he asked.
“Why did he tell me to ask you why you already knew the seal?”
Emma’s face went still.
Leo stared at her.
“You knew what was inside the briefcase before Charles opened it.”
“No.”
“But you knew the folder.”
Emma looked toward the marina.
At Charles’s yacht.
At the executive offices.
At all the expensive glass and polished steel.
“Yes,” she finally said.
“Why?”
May you like
Her answer surprised him.
“Because eight years ago, that seal cost me my career.”
