Page 59 of Keller

Wells watches it happen, his jaw remaining tight.

“They’re not browsing,” he says quietly. “They’re pulling everything around the murder. They're fishing, and I need to make sure nothing’s biting so they move on.”

FIFTEEN

Quinn

Krewe Hierarchies:Most krewes operate under a defined chain of command, led by a captain and supported by lieutenants and committee chairs who oversee logistics, membership, and event planning. This internal structure preserves order and authority, ensuring that tradition and decision-making remain tightly controlled.

The badge reader chirps.Green light. I push through the security door and let it seal behind me.

Monday mornings always feel like this. The weekend evaporates the moment I cross the threshold. Whatever warmth existed out there, the run with Keller, the movie, the kiss on my porch, it stays on the other side of reinforced glass.

In here, everything is protocol.

I drop my bag at my desk and boot up the workstation. The encrypted login takes three separate credentials. Password, badge tap, fingerprint. The system hums to life, the glow spreading across the muted gray walls.

The audit dashboard loads, and I pull up the variance summary I flagged yesterday.

Three projected container arrivals. One cluster of amendments. All entered within minutes of each other. I am not chasing ghosts. I am following data.

That's what I tell myself as I open the formal request portal and draft the follow-up. I keep the language neutral.

Routine variance clarification. Q4 routing amendment review. Requesting projected routing logs for inbound containers scheduled October tenth through thirteenth, Terminal 4.

Submit.

The confirmation pings almost immediately. I lean back in my chair while the system processes the request. It usually takes longer than this. Either the queue is light, or someone has streamlined something behind the scenes.

The deeper logs populate. On their face, they are clean.

Manual routing amendments authorized by a mid-level operations manager, David Parsale, entered the morning after Robert Stone was murdered. I pull his file. Twelve years with Stone Intermodal. Strong reviews. No disciplinary issues. The kind of employee who keeps his head down and keeps the machine moving.

The justification language is identical on all three entries.

Temporary routing consolidation due to executive-level security disruption.

I read the phrase twice.

Executive-level security disruption.

Robert Stone was killed on October 12th. The company would have tightened protocols overnight. Federal investigators descending, legal counsel swarming, insurers assessingexposure. Movement would continue, but nothing would be business as usual.

Pre-designating certain inbound shipments for bonded warehouse holding during instability is defensible. It limits liability. It buys time.

On paper, it makes sense.

I open the timestamp metadata.

10:42 a.m. 10:47 a.m. 10:56 a.m.

Fourteen minutes. Three projected arrivals. Same credential. Identical language copied into each field.

I pull the manifest details.

All three vessels were still in transit when the amendments were entered. Two had estimated arrivals of October 30th. The third was not due until November seventeenth.

None of these containers were anywhere near New Orleans on October thirteenth. They were still weeks out.