Related Cases (1)
Related Novels (1)
Related Chapters (4)
Where the Ashes Settle
Words: 3041 · Source Novel:: The Inherited Noose
The jury finds for Robinson. Damages are ruinous, but the real verdict is the flood of state criminal indictments. Rizzo moves to take the throne, only to be shot by his own nephew in a dispute over the scraps. Vincent, abandoned and alone, walks to the pier at midnight. He meets Robinson, now a breathing ghost with nothing left to lose. No guns are drawn; only the cold Bayhaven wind speaks. Vincent realizes the legitimate future he wanted was a mirage built on rot, and the law was merely the instrument of a deeper, merciless accounting. He turns himself in to Harker, not for penance, but as the final knot in a causal noose that required his surrender to complete the circle. The case Robinson v. Katukooi et al closes, but the city's shadows stretch on, unchanged.
A Glass of Poisonous Precedent
Words: 3056 · Source Novel:: The Inherited Noose
With the family in civil war and the state circling, Vincent's only move is to torpedo the lawsuit by discrediting Robinson. He digs, but every witness recants or turns up dead—Rizzo's doing. In a smoky hotel room, Lillian reveals she has been feeding Robinson's attorney evidence, as recompense for her own sister's death years ago on Katukooi orders. The final blow comes when the judge rules the civil case can proceed to a jury, and Harker testifies publicly about the pier bodies. Vincent sits in the courtroom, watching the unbroken chain of his father's sins hang him, link by link.
A Complaint in the Blood
Words: 2987 · Source Novel:: The Inherited Noose
The civil suit Robinson v. Katukooi et al is filed, naming the family business and its shell companies. Vincent tries to buy Robinson off, but the dying man slams the door, haunted by a memory he won't share. Rizzo, meanwhile, begins a shadow play, leaking old ledgers to a corrupt vice cop, Detective Harker, in exchange for immunity. Vincent's wife, Lillian, starts whispering with Rizzo's nephew. The city freezes the contract, and Vincent realizes the lawsuit is not about money—it is a guided missile aimed at the family's soul, and someone inside lit the fuse.
The Last Concrete Saint
Words: 3124 · Source Novel:: The Inherited Noose
At his father's rain-drenched funeral, Vincent Katukooi announces the family will pivot from bootlegging and extortion to a legitimate waste-hauling union. The old guard, led by the stone-faced consigliere Aldo Rizzo, receives the news with funeral silence. Across town, dockworker Thomas Robinson collapses, his lungs rotted by chemicals illegally dumped by Katukooi trucks. A faded lawyer with a grudge takes his case. Vincent's first clean deal—a city contract—hangs by a thread, and the first crack appears when his childhood friend and fixer, Eddie, suggests burning the medical records.