Pipe Burst Guest novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Warehouse

I studied the photograph until I knew where it was.

Behind Aurelio's chair there was a stack of wooden crates, and on the nearest one was a stencil in blue paint.

Harbor Linen.

"Pier forty," I said. "The old cold-storage warehouse. It's on the second ledger."

Nico had already opened the car door.

"How many men?"

"I don't know."

"Then we go with more."

I made two calls from the back seat.

The first was to the old captain, who said, "Where?" and nothing else.

The second was to the nervous one, who was silent so long that I thought he'd hung up.

"Donna," he said at last. "I'll bring my sons."

We reached the pier at dusk.

The old captain was waiting at the gate with four men, and the nervous one came a minute later with his two sons and a van.

Nico stepped out of the car, opened the trunk and took out a canvas bag.

He held up a pistol and looked at me.

"Rule one," he said.

"Rule one is dead," I said.

"You wrote it."

"I'm amending it."

He put the gun in my hand, and then he took his own and checked it, and neither of us said anything else.

We went in through the loading door.

The warehouse was cold and huge, and the only light came from a bank of work lamps at the far end.

Aurelio sat in the circle of light, tied to a chair with his glasses cracked.

Tullio stood behind him with a pistol, and six men in dark coats stood in a loose ring around the chair.

"Donna," Tullio said, with the old smile. "You came. I told them you would."

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