Bassel Crime Detective Series: Chapter Two

Chapter 2: The Docks

The docks smelled like saltwater and forgotten dreams. The kind of place where people disappear without anyone asking where they went. A lot of things get lost here—boats, cargo, and sometimes, people. It was the kind of place you came to if you wanted to vanish, and the kind of place where deals were made in whispers, promises bought and sold with no intention of ever being paid.

I lit a cigarette as I made my way down the pier, the smoke mixing with the damp air, the orange glow barely lighting up the darkness around me. The docks weren’t a place for anyone with a clean conscience, and I knew better than to think I’d find anything resembling innocence out here.

The address Angie gave me led me to a warehouse at the far end of the pier. It was old, rusted, and smelled like fish and mildew—exactly the kind of place where shady deals went down. The windows were blacked out, the walls covered in layers of grime and rust. A single flickering light buzzed above the door, casting a sickly glow over the graffiti-tagged concrete.

I approached slowly, keeping to the shadows. My hand rested on the grip of my gun, though I wasn’t sure it would do me much good if things got ugly. Out here, things usually got ugly fast.

I’d been to this warehouse before, not long ago, but not in a while. The last time, I was working a different case—one that had led me to the wrong kind of people. The kind that didn’t like being reminded of their dirty work. But tonight, it wasn’t the wrong kind of people I was looking for. It was Frankie.

I reached the door, my fingers curling around the rusty handle. Just as I was about to twist it, I heard voices. Low murmurs. A couple of hushed laughs. They were inside. And from the sound of it, they weren’t alone.

I pulled my coat tighter around me, slipping into the darkness of the alleyway beside the warehouse. There was a small, grimy window near the side. I crouched down and peered through it.

What I saw made my blood run cold.

Frankie was in there. But he wasn’t alone. He was sitting at a table, his hands cuffed in front of him, but it wasn’t the cuffs that made me stop. It was the three people around him. They weren’t just any thugs. They were the kind of guys you heard about in whispers—the kind of men who ran things from the shadows, with money and power that reached farther than anyone cared to admit. The men who didn’t just break bones; they broke everything.

I recognized one of them. A rat-faced man named Vito. He’d been rumored to be involved in the heist that had shaken the city a few months ago—the robbery at the Glensworth Hotel. The one where a millionaire couple, the Glensworths, had been tied up in their own penthouse and robbed blind. No one knew how the thieves had gotten in, and no one knew how they’d gotten out. The whole thing had been clean, too clean. No witnesses. No trace. The Glensworths were left humiliated, their wealth stripped from them without so much as a single piece of evidence left behind.

But now, as I watched through the window, I realized something I should’ve put together earlier. Frankie wasn’t just some low-level thug. He was part of something much bigger. Something deeper. A whole underground network that had made that heist look like a Sunday picnic.

I pressed my ear to the door, straining to catch more of the conversation.

“You don’t understand, Frankie,” Vito’s voice was cold, calculating. “This wasn’t just about the money. You know that, right?”

Frankie’s voice was shaky, but there was a hardness to it that I didn’t expect. “I didn’t sign up for this. I thought we were just taking a little cash and making our way. But you guys are talking about… about taking over the whole damn city.”

The words hit me like a punch. Taking over the whole city?

I didn’t need to hear more. Frankie was deeper in this than I ever realized. The heist had been a cover for something much larger. And Frankie had gotten tangled up in it, whether he liked it or not.

Vito laughed, a sound like gravel scraping against concrete. “It’s too late for regrets, Frankie. You’re in this now, and there’s no way out. You help us, or you get buried like all the others.”

My heart skipped a beat. All the others?

I didn’t wait to hear more. I pulled away from the window and backed into the alley, making sure my steps were quiet. I had to think fast. Whatever game these guys were playing, it wasn’t just about robbing a couple of millionaires. They were working toward something bigger, something more dangerous.

I shook my head and thought about all of the information I just heard. Vito and his friends planned to take over the city and Frankie may have double crossed them and now was being interrogated. Once they got all of the information from him, he was going to be swimming with the fishes. 

I had to act fast if I wanted to save Frankie. My brain was telling me to not get involved in this mess; to walk away and not turn back. My life would be daisies and I won’t have to sleep with one eye open. But I took this job and had to save Frankie no matter the cost.

So, I did the only thing I could, I knocked on the door.

© All rights belong to Books of Brilliance

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook