I told him that then.
I doubt he ever believed me.
I return my attention to the company name displayed on Foster’s screen.
“Yet somehow,” I say, “the company is operating again.”
“And one of its drivers is looking for the Moretti family,” Spike adds.
“The fact that they’re using the same name is strange, right?” Skip asks. “If they’re trying to hide whatever they’re doing, why bring back the name of a company you shut down?”
“It’s more than strange,” Stefano says. “It’s either incredibly foolish or deliberately disrespectful.”
Possibly both.
“Luca,” I say. “Contact my second in Ohio. Ask him whether we sold the building that once housed Riverfront Shipping.”
“If we did, it wasn’t reported,” Luca tells me. “I met with our financial team last week. There have been no records of any properties being bought or sold in Ohio within the past year.”
“So, you still own it?” Spike asks.
“Unless someone made a very serious error,” Luca answers.
My family doesn’t make errors involving properties that large.
The old Riverfront warehouse sits near the Ohio River, with enough room to house more than fifty trucks at a time. It was selected because it provided easy access to several major highways, allowing our drivers to move people quickly in every direction.
When Stefano dismantled the operation, we shut the building down but never sold it. Abandoned Moretti properties have their uses, and unlike most legitimate businessmen, we have no need to justify why valuable real estate sits empty.
“Go ahead and call him,” I instruct. “Find out the last time he personally inspected the property and whether anyone has accessed it since the company closed. We’ll decide how to move forward based on his answers.”
“Yes,Don.”
Luca steps away from the group and pulls out his phone.
“Wouldn’t your people have noticed if someone reopened an entire shipping company inside a building you own?” Bones asks.
“They should have,” Stefano says.
My brother looks at me, and I recognize the anger settling behind his eyes. If the warehouse is being used without our knowledge, someone in Ohio has either become careless, incompetent, or compromised.
None of those possibilities will end well for them.
“What if they’re only using the company’s name?” Spike asks. “The trucks could be operating out of another warehouse.”
“Then Chris Olsen’s employment records wouldn’t connect him to their old address,” Foster says, looking at a file on my laptop Luca was showing him before he stepped out. “His tax records list Riverfront Shipping as his employer. Same company name. Same address. According to every record I can access, the business has been operating out of that building for nearly eleven months.”
Eleven months.
Someone has been running trucks in and out of a Moretti-owned warehouse for almost a year without my knowledge?
I slowly rise from my chair.
“Foster,” I say, keeping my voice calm. “Find out everything you can about the company’s current operations. Employees, trucks, contracts, deliveries. Everything.”
“I’m on it.”
“Spike, please send me Chris Olsen's contact information,” I say. “I’ll set up a meeting and would appreciate it if you were there.”
