Chapter 14
MIRA
Numbers swim across my laptop screen, columns of transactions that finally start to align into something coherent.
I've been awake for hours, buried in the financial records that refused to make sense until they suddenly do.
The coffee Shaw brought me sometime before sunrise sits cold in its mug, forgotten while I trace money through accounts designed to hide the truth.
Tate stands silent watch at the front window, solid and alert. Cole monitors the back approach from his position in the yard. Brotherhood protection isn't a comfort—it's a reminder that someone wants me dead enough to require armed guards.
My laptop screen blurs as exhaustion pulls at my focus, but the pattern in the data won't let me stop.
Cascade Services looked legitimate on the surface—small logistics and consulting firm operating in the Pacific Northwest with unremarkable revenue and standard business filings.
But I've spent years learning to look beneath surfaces, to find connections others miss.
This company has too many irregularities buried in the details.
Ownership structure is deliberately obscured through layered corporate entities, the kind of setup that screams someone has something to hide.
I pull up the Oregon Secretary of State business registry and start digging through incorporation documents.
The registered agent is a law firm in Portland—Morton & Lyle, one of those mid-tier firms that handles dozens of shell company registrations without asking too many questions.
But the actual ownership requires cross-referencing multiple filings and following trails through subsidiary companies and holding entities.
First layer: Cascade Services LLC is wholly owned by Pacific Northwest Holdings Group.
I pull that company's filing. It's registered in Delaware, which means minimal disclosure requirements.
The board of directors lists three names I don't recognize—probably lawyers or paralegals who signed incorporation documents for a fee.
Second layer: Pacific Northwest Holdings Group shows ownership by Coastal Investment Partners. It's another Delaware registration, another set of anonymous board members who exist only on paper.
Years of tracking money through shell companies have taught me patience with these structures. Most investigators would give up here, accept that the ownership is deliberately obscured and move on to other leads. But I've learned that there's always a crack if you know where to look.
I pull tax records. Even shell companies have to file, and buried in the EIN documentation there's always a responsible party listed for IRS purposes. Someone has to sign the forms, take legal responsibility, provide a social security number or personal identification.
There it is. Buried in the Schedule K-1 for Coastal Investment Partners: Richard Sullivan, listed as managing member with a Portland address.
My breath catches. Richard Sullivan—the man who attacked me in the parking garage, David Sullivan's brother, the one Shaw recognized immediately as having a grudge against the Brotherhood.
Last night we knew someone controlled Cascade Services through layers of shell companies.
Now I've broken through those layers, and Richard's name is right there in the tax filings.
He doesn't just have motive. He built the entire infrastructure to hide his crimes.
Adrenaline spikes sharp and immediate as the full picture crystallizes. I pull up Richard's financial history, cross-referencing it with the timeline we've already established.
Sullivan Transport existed for over a decade before filing for bankruptcy protection eighteen months ago.
The company specialized in commercial logistics and freight services, competing for contracts with businesses throughout the Anchor Bay area and beyond.
Revenue peaked five years ago at just over three million annually—respectable for a regional player, enough to support a comfortable lifestyle and steady growth.
Then the decline started.
I cross-reference their client list with the businesses that burned and with known Brotherhood-connected vendors.
Richard bid on a contract to provide logistics services for Pete Garrett's storage facility—lost it to a Brotherhood-connected freight company.
Six months later, he bid on delivery services for Beth Crawford's tattoo parlor supply needs—lost it to another Brotherhood vendor.
The pattern repeats over and over: Sullivan Transport submits competitive bids, loses to companies the Brotherhood either owns or prefers to work with.
Financial records show systematic rejection and business failure.
Money hemorrhaged as contracts dried up, as clients chose Brotherhood-connected vendors over Richard's services, as revenue declined quarter after quarter until bankruptcy became inevitable.
The final year shows desperate measures: reduced staff, sold equipment, loans taken out against personal property. Nothing worked.
Business filings shift from professional to defensive in the final quarterly reports before the company folded. Richard Sullivan blamed the Brotherhood for freezing him out of the market, for using influence to steer business away from his company, for destroying what he'd spent years building.
His company couldn't compete. That's reality. But reality doesn't matter when someone's nursing a grudge that turns violent.
He lost his company. Lost his contracts. Lost his livelihood. Decided the Brotherhood needed to pay.
Cascade Services was created six months after Sullivan Transport went under, registered with the same law firm, funded with money from sources I'm still tracing—probably personal assets liquidated during the bankruptcy, maybe loans from family.
Richard used it as a shell company to hide his activities, to funnel payments that would eventually be traced back to Jonathan Hartley instead of himself.
The paper trail was designed to point investigators toward Hartley Industrial as the source of the fires, using Hartley's known grudge against the Brotherhood and his company's financial desperation as the perfect cover.
When I trace payments flowing from Hartley Industrial to Cascade Services, I find consulting fees and service contracts that existed only on paper.
Richard created an entire false business relationship to establish the connection investigators would eventually find.
Invoices for logistics consulting, freight optimization studies, supply chain analysis—all legitimate-sounding services that Hartley's struggling company would plausibly need.
But none of the work was ever performed.
Then he killed Hartley when we got too close.
Shaw appears in the doorway carrying fresh coffee. He moves with that controlled stillness that marks his Marine Recon training, every step deliberate, every movement efficient. Watches me with the same intensity he brings to fire scenes, reading how close I am to breaking through.
"You've got something." Statement of fact rather than question.
"Richard Sullivan owns Cascade Services.
" I turn the laptop so he can see the corporate filings and ownership documents.
"The man who attacked me, who's been threatening us—he created the shell company we've been tracking.
His logistics company went bankrupt after losing contracts to Brotherhood-preferred vendors.
He blamed your club for destroying his business, and now we know he built the entire financial infrastructure to hide his revenge. "
Shaw sets the coffee beside my laptop and leans over my shoulder to study the screen, his body warm against my back.
He goes completely still as he puts the pieces together, and I feel the shift in him—the civilian investigator receding, the Marine emerging.
Controlled violence waiting for a target.
"Richard." His voice is flat and cold. "The bastard who attacked you in the parking garage.
He was bitter after his company failed, made noise about the Brotherhood controlling the market and freezing out competition.
Will offered to sit down and talk. Richard refused.
Said he didn't need charity from the people who destroyed him. "
"It wasn't charity he wanted." I pull up the timeline I've been building, showing how the fires correlate with Richard's business failure and the creation of Cascade Services.
"He wanted revenge. Look at this pattern.
Sullivan Transport loses a major contract to a Brotherhood-preferred vendor, and within weeks, that vendor's business burns.
Over and over. He systematically targeted every business that benefited from the contracts he lost."
Shaw's hand settles on my shoulder, his grip firm and grounding while he studies the evidence.
His knuckles are white against my sweater, tension radiating from him in waves.
"He made the partnership offers himself.
Pretended to represent the Brotherhood. Created the protection racket narrative to destroy our reputation while eliminating his competition. "
"Exactly." I pull up more files. "When you and I started getting close to the Cascade Services connection, when the financial analysis started pointing toward the shell company, Richard killed Jonathan Hartley to eliminate the link.
Hartley was supposed to be the fall guy, take all the blame for the arson while Richard walked away clean.
But we connected the dots too fast, so he had to tie up the loose end. "