Page 82 of Keller

"And?"

"I wanted your gut read."

He exhales. Papers shuffle on his end. "Parsale didn't strike me as hiding anything. Wasn't defensive. Didn't seem coached. When I pressed him about who issued the directive, he defaulted to 'executive office' like it was obvious protocol."

"But he couldn't name anyone specific."

"Couldn't or wouldn't, I don't know. But I didn't feel like stonewalling. Felt more like he genuinely didn't think it was his place to question it."

I tap my pen against my notepad. "Companies lock things down when leadership gets killed."

"Exactly. Nothing about this guy suggested homicide involvement. He's a port operations manager. Been with Stone for twelve years. Clean record. No priors. No unusual deposits. No lifestyle inflation."

In fairness, Agent Kree’s job is to decide whether Parsale had anything to do with the mugging itself. Mine is to decide whether something inside Stone Intermodal made that mugging more than random.

Different angles, same dead man.

"So he was just following orders."

"That's my read."

I pause. Then I ask the question that's been circling in my head since I started reading.

"Thanks, Kree. I appreciate the time."

"You see something I'm missing?"

I consider my answer carefully. "Not yet. Just filling in gaps."

"Well, from my end, Parsale's not the guy. If there's a connection to the Stone homicide, it's not through him."

"Understood."

If Parsale didn’t originate it, then the directive came from somewhere in that tier. Not the public face of the company. The layer that moves before statements are drafted.

I scroll back up to Ridge’s name and then down again, tracing the line beneath him. The people who would execute instructions without ever appearing in a press conference.

Robert Stone's death was barely known at the time of these changes. That kind of response doesn’t happen without awareness.

And awareness implies context.

The question isn’t whether Parsale followed orders. It’s who was positioned to give them, and why the hell did they deliberately not leave a trail?

TWENTY-ONE

Keller

The 1991 Anti-Discrimination Ordinance:In 1991, New Orleans passed a city ordinance requiring Carnival krewes that parade on public streets to certify that their membership policies did not discriminate based on race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Several traditional krewes chose to disband or stop parading rather than comply, marking a pivotal shift in the balance between private tradition and public accountability.

The phone danceson the armrest. I glance at the screen and recognize it as the same one I called thirty minutes ago to schedule a meeting with Charlton Grant.

I didn't really have a plan when I reached out to Clara at the ass crack of dawn about scheduling the flight, but I figured I'd go and watch from afar.

But I want to hear his voice, I want to ask him questions. So, I decided to become a philanthropist looking to invest in historic properties. Old money always speaks to old money.

"William Baker speaking," I answer.

"Mr. Baker, this is Rebecca calling from Grant Preservation Associates."