Chapter 8 - The Second Name
The detective would not show Chloe the rest of the message at first.
Gabriel convinced him.
Chloe suspected the word convinced meant something different when Gabriel Costello used it.
The phone contained dozens of encrypted messages.
Most were still locked.
But the last incoming message was simple.
IF VINCENT FAILS, TAKE THE GIRL.
Beneath it was Chloe’s photograph.
Taken outside Il Canto.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
“Who sent it?”
The detective shook his head.
“Blocked relay.”
Dante looked at Vincent, who was being treated by paramedics across the church.
“He wasn’t working alone.”
Chloe rubbed both arms.
“I thought Carlo was the partner.”
“Carlo was muscle.”
Gabriel’s voice was cold.
“This is someone else.”
Beatrice touched Chloe’s shoulder.
You come home with us.
Chloe signed.
I can’t hide forever.
Beatrice frowned.
Tonight is not forever.
Chloe could not argue with that.
Gabriel took them to his townhouse in Gold Coast.
Unlike the lake house, it had actual color.
Books.
Old photographs.
A wooden dining table scratched by years of use.
Beatrice noticed Chloe looking surprised.
His father decorated this one.
Chloe nodded.
That explains it.
Gabriel looked from across the room.
“I understood that.”
Chloe smiled.
“Good.”
He had already started lessons.
Not officially.
But every time Beatrice signed something simple, he asked Chloe what it meant.
Water.
Food.
Sit.
Wait.
Safe.
Mother.
Sorry.
He repeated each movement until Beatrice nodded.
At 2:30 in the morning, everyone should have been sleeping.
No one was.
Dante worked in the study with two investigators.
Gabriel sat at the dining table with a laptop.
Chloe made coffee.
Beatrice sat near the window.
Chloe placed a mug beside Gabriel.
“You need to sleep.”
“So do you.”
“I’m not running an empire.”
“Neither am I tonight.”
She glanced at the screens.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out who benefits if Vincent fails.”
“Enemies?”
“Too many.”
“That seems unhealthy.”
“It is.”
Chloe sat across from him.
“What about the holding company?”
“Frozen.”
“And Pier 19?”
“Still mine.”
“The hospital?”
“Safe.”
“Then what does this other person want?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“You.”
Chloe’s stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because you heard everything my mother said.”
“So did you.”
“Yes.”
“But I’m easier to grab.”
“Yes.”
“Comforting.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“I’m assigning security to you.”
“No.”
“Chloe.”
“No permanent bodyguards.”
“Temporary.”
“No men following me into grocery stores.”
“One man.”
“No.”
“Two.”
“That negotiation went backward.”
He almost smiled.
Then his phone buzzed.
Dante entered from the study.
“We cracked part of Moretti’s messages.”
Gabriel stood.
“What did you find?”
“A contact saved as Bishop.”
“Who is Bishop?”
“We don’t know.”
Dante placed several printed pages on the table.
“Payments from shell companies.”
Gabriel scanned them.
His expression changed.
Chloe looked over.
Millions of dollars had moved through companies connected to the hospital, the harbor, and Costello Construction.
Gabriel pointed at one line.
“That account belongs to the city development fund.”
Dante nodded.
“Which means?”
Chloe asked.
Gabriel looked grim.
“Someone inside city government was helping him.”
The investigation expanded.
By sunrise, attorneys, accountants, detectives, and federal investigators were involved.
Gabriel discovered that Vincent’s betrayal stretched back nearly a decade.
Contracts had been manipulated.
Inspectors paid.
Security routes leaked.
Information sold.
And one name appeared repeatedly.
Councilman Richard Bishop.
Chloe stared at the photograph Dante placed on the table.
Bishop was sixty-two.
Silver-haired.
Popular.
Known publicly as a reform politician.
He had attended the hospital gala only hours earlier.
“He was inside the building?”
she asked.
Gabriel nodded.
“Sitting ten tables from my mother.”
Beatrice’s face hardened.
She signed.
I know him.
Chloe looked at her.
How?
Beatrice explained.
Years earlier, Bishop had been a young attorney working for Gabriel’s father.
He handled land deals.
Permits.
Development contracts.
He and Vincent had known each other for decades.
Gabriel sank into a chair.
“My father trusted both of them.”
Beatrice shook her head.
At first.
Then she signed something that made Chloe stop.
Your father kept a book.
Gabriel looked up.
“What book?”
Beatrice continued.
A ledger.
He wrote down every payment he discovered.
Gabriel stood.
“Where?”
Beatrice smiled faintly.
Then pointed toward him.
Gabriel frowned.
“Me?”
She nodded.
He gave it to you.
Gabriel looked confused.
“I never had a ledger.”
Beatrice signed.
You did.
The night before he died.
Gabriel’s face slowly changed.
A memory surfaced.
“My birthday.”
Beatrice nodded.
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
“He gave me an old prayer book.”
“What happened to it?”
“I put it in storage.”
Dante was already moving.
“Where?”
“Warehouse on Ashland.”
They left at eight.
The storage warehouse held decades of Costello family property.
Furniture.
Documents.
Paintings.
Boxes from Gabriel’s childhood.
It took two hours to find the crate.
Gabriel opened it himself.
Inside was a small leather prayer book.
He stared at it.
“My father told me never to lose this.”
Chloe asked, “Did you read it?”
“I opened it once.”
He turned the pages.
Bible verses.
Handwritten notes.
Nothing unusual.
Then Beatrice signed.
Cover.
Chloe translated.
Gabriel examined the back cover.
The leather was thicker than it should have been.
Dante used a small knife.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a memory card.
Chloe stared.
“Your father was dramatic.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“He would have liked you.”
They plugged the card into a secure laptop.
Files appeared.
Scanned bank statements.
Recorded conversations.
Photographs.
Names.
Bishop.
Moretti.
Carlo.
Several contractors.
Two police officers.
One judge.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
His father had known.
He had been building a case.
And he had hidden it with his son because he believed he might not survive long enough to use it.
Dante said, “This could destroy Bishop.”
Gabriel answered, “Good.”
A sound came from behind the warehouse shelves.
Chloe turned.
A man stepped out.
Then another.
Then three more.
One held a weapon.
Dante reached for his own.
Too late.
The man pressed the gun against Chloe’s back.
“Don’t.”
Gabriel froze.
Chloe closed her eyes.
The leader stepped forward.
He was dressed like a police officer.
Gabriel recognized him.
“Captain Harlan.”
The man smiled.
“Mr. Costello.”
Chloe’s stomach dropped.
One of the names on the memory card.
A police captain.
Harlan looked at the laptop.
“You should have left your father’s ghosts buried.”
Gabriel’s expression became deadly.
“Let her go.”
Harlan pushed Chloe forward.
“No.”
Beatrice stepped toward them.
Gabriel grabbed her arm.
Harlan smiled.
“Councilman Bishop sends his regards.”
Then he pressed the weapon against Chloe’s side.
“You’re coming with us.”
Gabriel said one word.
“No.”
Harlan smiled.
“Then the waitress dies here.”
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
For once, she had no joke.
No sarcastic answer.
No clever line.
May you like
Only fear.
And Gabriel Costello finally understood what it felt like to have someone’s entire life depend on whether he was willing to listen before it was too late.
