Page 102 of Keller

It isn't illegal. Trustees can authorize expenditures within their discretion. The amount is modest in the scope of what the Stones spend, and especially for a logistics empire. Ten thousand dollars wouldn't raise flags at most institutions.

But it doesn't fit.

I pull up my October timeline. The spreadsheet where I've been tracking every anomaly.

I add a new row.

September 29. Eleanor Stone Historic Preservation Trust. $10,000 wire to Maris Intelligence Group. Strategic Advisory Retainer. Purpose unknown.

Two weeks later, Robert Stone is dead.

What were you looking for?

I pull up my October timeline. The spreadsheet fills the left half of my screen. Compliance logs occupy the right.

The dates stare back at me.

On October 10, there are preliminary operational irregularities tied to a Gulf Meridian Imports shipment. GulfMeridian is who ordered the fentanyl shipment, but on October 10, no one knew that. At least, that's the story.

October 11. Executive-level expedited Gulf corridor clearance for three containers.

October 12/13, Robert Stone was murdered.

October 13, his body was discovered, due to an apparent mugging. Wallet missing. Watch gone. The kind of scene that makes patrol officers shrug and write it up as wrong place, wrong time.

October 13, during the morning work hours, three manual overrides were entered within fourteen minutes. Landing designation altered for those same containers. Executed under David Parsale's credentials. Later described by Parsale as instructions "from above."

October 13. Immediately after. Automated compliance flag generated. "Inspection Variance – Executive Override." Status changed to "Executive Review – Resolved." No written memo. No customs notation. No signature.

The September 29 Maris wire now sits in the center of that cluster.

I drag the payment entry into position on my timeline. It locks between the preliminary irregularities and Robert Stone's death.

Two weeks before, almost to the day.

My fingers hover over the keyboard. I pull up a fresh search window and enter Maris Intelligence Group again. This time, I dig deeper than the homepage summary.

I read through three pages of service offerings. Every single one relates to cargo, vessels, ports, and transit corridors.

Nothing about historic buildings or preservation grants.

The firm profile aligns with Gulf shipping risk, exactly the kind of work Stone Intermodal would need.

But Robert Stone didn't pay for this service through Stone Intermodal. He paid through a dormant trust named for his dead wife. A trust that hadn't moved money in fifteen years.

Was he hiding it?

The recognition tightens in my chest. It's the feeling I get when scattered data points suddenly arrange themselves into a pattern I didn't see coming, but now can't unsee.

Robert Stone hired a maritime risk firm two weeks before his murder. He buried the payment in a forgotten family trust. And within forty-eight hours of his death, someone rerouted three containers of drug precursors using a low-level employee instead of doing it themselves.

I lean back in my chair.

My mandate is narrow. Financial irregularities, compliance failures, and operational variance. I'm not homicide or organized crime. I'm not even primary on the trafficking angle.

But this wire sits at the intersection of all three.

I close the Maris Intelligence Group tab and open a blank document. My fingers rest on the keys without moving.