Chapter 7 - THE SECRET IN THE SHIPPING RECORDS
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The next morning, Narelli found the connection everyone else had missed.
It wasn't in the medical records.
It wasn't in Julian's photographs.
It was in a shipping manifest from eleven years earlier.
A vehicle transporter had crossed into Pennsylvania three hours after Julian's supposed crash.
The transporter belonged to a subcontractor connected to Eastbridge Medical Transport.
The same company that had received secret payments for years.
Narelli placed the records in front of Roman.
“Someone moved him.”
Roman studied the documents.
“From the crash?”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“That's the question.”
The forensic accountants uncovered a second layer of transactions.
Money had moved from Kinsley Harbor Logistics through inactive vendor accounts into a private investment partnership.
The partnership was controlled by Elliot Vane and Graham Pike.
The total exceeded forty million dollars.
Roman stared at the figures.
“Forty million.”
Narelli nodded.
“Over eleven years.”
He looked up.
“Why keep Julian alive?”
She hesitated.
“Maybe because he knew something.”
They returned to Julian's old room.
Roman searched the desk.
The drawers contained school papers, photographs, and letters.
Then Narelli noticed a small wooden box beneath the bed.
Inside was a miniature brass compass.
Roman smiled sadly.
“Our father gave him that.”
Narelli lifted it.
Something rattled inside.
She turned it over.
The base was loose.
Roman watched as she carefully opened it.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
A series of numbers.
And three words.
THE SECOND MANIFEST.
Roman stared.
Julian had left a clue.
Not recently.
Eleven years earlier.
The numbers corresponded to an archived shipment.
The shipment involved refrigerated containers moving through a private terminal.
Its declared cargo was medical equipment.
But the weight records didn't match the paperwork.
Roman remembered the shipment.
It had been one of the last transactions his father approved.
He looked at Narelli.
“My father knew.”
She frowned.
“Knew what?”
Roman's voice was barely audible.
“That someone was using our company to move something they didn't want inspected.”
The following day, investigators recovered the original manifest from an independent storage facility.
The documents suggested a longstanding fraud involving customs declarations and valuable stolen goods.
Elliot Vane had overseen the transactions.
Graham Pike had handled operational approvals.
Julian had apparently discovered the scheme shortly before his crash.
Roman finally understood.
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His brother hadn't disappeared because he was irresponsible.
He had disappeared because he knew too much.
