Chapter 8 - Names Hidden in Numbers

The next morning, Mara and Elise gathered invoices in a windowless room while Ruiz quietly interviewed supply sergeants who had worked the night shift.

Every stolen shipment had been marked delivered. Every disputed receipt carried an override from the same contractor terminal. Someone had used Thomas's old account as a ghost in the system.

"Thomas said the numbers were names," Mara remembered. "What if the purchase codes identify people, not pallets?"

Elise frowned. "Explain."

Leon's shop smelled like the places Thomas used to love: cold metal, old coffee, engine grease, and the stubborn hope that anything broken could be repaired. Mara touched a wrench on the counter and wished for an ordinary problem with an ordinary solution.

Mara placed three invoices side by side. Each contained a five-digit adjustment number beginning with 31. In the personnel directory, the corresponding final digits matched the badge IDs of warehouse employees who had resigned or been reassigned.

"It's a routing list," she said. "They used supply orders to pay or threaten employees."

One number belonged to Celia Grant. Another belonged to a truck driver named Leon Park, who had reported a brake failure four days before Thomas died.

They tracked Leon to an equipment repair shop near Savannah. He agreed to meet after closing. When Mara arrived with Elise, he was packing his tools into a cardboard box.

"I don't have anything for you," Leon said, although fear made his voice shake.

"Thomas Ellis trusted you," Mara answered.

Leon's hands stopped. "Tom said somebody would come. He thought it would be his sister."

He opened a rusted toolbox and pulled out a flash drive sealed in a plastic bag.

"Your brother copied the loading records," Leon said. "The real ones. Trucks leaving empty, trucks coming back full, medical supplies sent to private buyers."

"Why didn't you go to the police?"

Leon looked toward the dark road. "Because the last person who tried was Thomas."

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Headlights swept across the shop's windows. A black SUV stopped outside. Someone stepped out and lifted a radio.

Leon whispered, "That's the truck that followed him the night he died."