Chapter 29 - The Prison Visit
The maximum-security facility was a bleak fortress of gray concrete and barbed wire, isolated in the middle of a barren, frozen landscape. I walked through the metal detectors and security checkpoints with the cold, detached precision of a woman who had long ago stopped fearing the dark. Chloe remained in the rental car outside; this was a confrontation I needed to face alone.
I was escorted into a sterile visitation room bisected by a thick pane of bulletproof glass. The heavy steel door on the opposite side clanged open, and Dominic was led in by a guard.
He wore a faded orange jumpsuit. The expensive haircuts and tailored suits of his past were gone, replaced by the hollow, aged look of a man who had spent years staring at a cinderblock wall. His eyes, however, still burned with that familiar, arrogant malice.
He sat down and picked up the heavy black telephone receiver. I mirrored his action, my face completely impassive.
"Anna," Dominic sneered, though his voice cracked slightly. "I knew you'd come. You always were too curious for your own good. You look... different. Expensive."
"I am expensive, Dominic," I replied, my tone flat and devoid of any emotion. "And my time is heavily billed. You have exactly three minutes to tell me what you know about Senator Hastings' black book before I hang up this phone and you go back to rotting in silence."
His sneer faltered. He expected the terrified, submissive wife. Instead, he was facing a titan.
"Straight to business," he muttered, shifting uncomfortably in his plastic chair. "Hastings is the political muscle behind the offshore syndicates. Julian Croft was just a regional manager. When Julian was laundering money, Hastings took a twenty percent cut to ensure federal regulators looked the other way. But Hastings is paranoid. He kept a physical ledger of every bribe, every dirty contract, and every offshore account."
"Where is it?" I demanded.
"Julian told me Hastings keeps it in a private, unregistered vault beneath the old Federal Reserve building in Chicago," Dominic whispered, leaning closer to the glass. "It’s an off-the-books secure storage facility used by the ultra-elite. Biometric scanners, armed guards. You can't just hack it from a laptop, Anna."
I absorbed the information, my mind racing. A physical vault.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked coldly.
Dominic’s eyes widened with a pathetic, desperate intensity. "Because Julian threw me under the bus! Hastings let me take the fall! I want them ruined. And I want a letter from you to the parole board recommending early release in exchange for the intel."
I looked at him, feeling a profound sense of closure. He was so small. So completely powerless.
I slowly lowered the receiver, breaking the connection. I stood up, adjusting my coat.
May you like
"Anna! Wait!" I could hear his muffled screams through the thick glass. He slammed his fists against the window, his face contorting in panic.
I didn't smile. I didn't gloat. I simply turned my back on him and walked out of the room, leaving him to scream in a cage he would never, ever leave. I had the information I needed. The rest was just noise.
