Chapter 10 - The Man Who Might Not Be Dead
Hope was the cruelest thing Dominic had given Gabriel all night.
For six years, Vincent had been dead.
A grave existed with his name carved into stone.
A funeral had been held.
A mother had mourned.
A brother had carried guilt like a second skeleton.
Now one missing DNA test turned certainty into a question.
Gabriel hated the question immediately.
"No."
Matteo watched him.
"I am not saying Vincent is alive."
"Then do not say it like that."
"I am saying the identification process was compromised."
Beatrice stared at the report.
Her hands moved slowly.
"I never saw his body."
Chloe translated.
Gabriel looked at her.
"The casket was closed because of the fire."
Beatrice nodded.
"Dominic insisted."
Gabriel stood.
"Rinaldi."
Matteo blocked him gently with one arm.
"Think before you go in there."
Gabriel's eyes turned dangerous.
"Move."
"If Vincent is dead, Rinaldi knows why the records were false."
"If Vincent is alive, Rinaldi may know where he went."
"You scare him enough, he stops talking."
Gabriel stared at Matteo for several seconds.
Then he stepped back.
Chloe watched the exchange.
For the first time, she understood why Matteo was still trusted.
He was willing to tell Gabriel no.
That appeared to be a rare skill in the Costello organization.
"I will talk to him," Chloe said.
Gabriel looked at her.
"Absolutely not."
"Why?"
"Because he is involved in drugging my mother and possibly covering up my brother's death."
"Which is why he expects you to threaten him."
"He does not expect me."
"You are not trained for interrogation."
"Neither are you."
Matteo coughed into his hand.
Gabriel looked at him.
"Do not encourage her."
"I did not say anything."
Beatrice signed, "Let Chloe try."
Chloe translated with a small smile.
Gabriel gave his mother a betrayed look.
Beatrice shrugged.
Ten minutes later, Chloe sat across from Dr. Rinaldi in a guest room.
Gabriel watched through a camera from the adjoining study.
Chloe knew he hated every second of it.
That made the arrangement tolerable.
Rinaldi looked worse than he had an hour earlier.
His tie was loose.
His hands trembled.
Chloe placed Vincent's photograph on the table.
"Is he dead?"
Rinaldi stared at the picture.
"I want a lawyer."
"Then ask Gabriel for one."
"He is not the police."
"Correct."
"That seems to worry you more, not less."
Rinaldi looked toward the camera in the corner.
"Why are you here?"
"Because you do not know what I want."
"I know exactly what Gabriel wants."
"He wants his brother."
"Beatrice wants the truth."
"Matteo wants evidence."
"You do not know what I want."
Rinaldi looked at her.
"What do you want?"
Chloe placed Leo's photograph beside Vincent's.
"I want to know why this man died."
Rinaldi's face changed.
It was tiny.
It was enough.
"You know him."
"No."
"You recognized him."
"I have seen the file."
"Which file?"
Rinaldi closed his mouth.
Chloe leaned back.
"Dominic called me after someone broke into my apartment."
That part was true.
"He told me to ask Gabriel what he signed."
Also true.
"He wants me to believe Gabriel caused Leo's death."
Rinaldi's eyes flicked toward the camera.
"Maybe he did."
"Interesting."
"What?"
"You answered too quickly."
Rinaldi looked away.
Chloe let the silence stretch.
She had spent years waiting tables.
People who thought silence was awkward often filled it with information.
Rinaldi lasted eleven seconds.
"Gabriel signed the authorization."
"Yes."
"He cannot deny that."
"He did not."
Rinaldi looked surprised.
"Dominic said he would."
Chloe kept her face neutral.
"Dominic says many things."
"Did Dominic tell you Vincent died in the warehouse?"
Rinaldi's jaw tightened.
"The official report says he did."
"You supplied the dental records."
"I was the family physician."
"Beatrice says you were not Vincent's doctor."
Rinaldi rubbed his forehead.
"I had access to the family's records."
"Whose body was in the warehouse?"
"I do not know."
"Was it Vincent?"
"I do not know."
Chloe believed him.
That answer sounded different.
"Then why did you say it was?"
Rinaldi looked at the closed door.
"Because Dominic brought me a dental file."
Chloe's pulse quickened.
"Whose file?"
"It had Vincent's name on it."
"That is not what I asked."
Rinaldi closed his eyes.
"I did not verify it."
"Why?"
"Because I was afraid."
"Of Dominic?"
Rinaldi laughed once without humor.
"Of Antonio's system."
Chloe remembered Beatrice's warning.
Someone was still using Antonio's orders.
"Antonio had been dead six years by then."
"A dead man can build something that lives longer than he does."
"What system?"
Rinaldi stared at Vincent's photograph.
"Antonio kept contingency files on everyone."
"Politicians."
"Police."
"Business partners."
"His own people."
"Insurance in case loyalty failed."
"Dominic inherited the archive."
Chloe felt cold.
"Blackmail."
"Leverage."
"Same thing with a better suit."
Rinaldi almost smiled.
"Dominic knew things about my clinic."
"Billing."
"Prescriptions."
"Mistakes I made years ago."
"He told me I would lose everything if I refused."
"So you drugged Beatrice."
Rinaldi looked ashamed.
"At first I only gave her a mild sedative."
"Then he increased it."
"And Vincent?"
Rinaldi's face tightened again.
"I went to Warehouse Nine because Dominic said Vincent was having a panic episode."
"Was he?"
"No."
"He was angry."
"He accused Dominic of stealing."
"He had a folder in his hand."
"What happened?"
"Dominic told me to leave."
"I left."
"Was Samuel there?"
"I saw his car."
"Did you see Vincent after that night?"
Rinaldi hesitated too long.
Chloe's pulse jumped.
"You did."
Rinaldi looked at her.
"Not clearly."
"What does that mean?"
"Three months after the fire, I was at a private clinic in Montreal."
"I saw a patient being moved through a restricted corridor."
"His face was bandaged."
"He had burn injuries."
"He was unconscious."
Chloe leaned forward.
"Why did you think it was Vincent?"
Rinaldi's hands started shaking.
"His left hand."
"What about it?"
"Vincent lost the tip of his ring finger in a boating accident when he was sixteen."
Chloe looked toward the camera.
Behind the wall, Gabriel would be hearing every word.
"The patient had the same injury?"
"Yes."
"Did you tell anyone?"
"Dominic was standing at the end of the corridor."
Chloe stopped breathing.
"Dominic saw you?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
Rinaldi's face went gray.
"He said if I loved my children, I had seen a stranger."
Chloe sat back.
The door opened behind her.
Gabriel entered.
He had ignored the plan.
His face was pale but controlled.
"Name the clinic."
Rinaldi looked at him.
"Saint-Vallier Neurological Institute."
"Private wing."
"Montreal."
Gabriel turned to Matteo in the doorway.
"Find everything."
Matteo was already typing.
Rinaldi stood.
"Gabriel."
Gabriel looked at him.
"If Vincent survived that fire, he may not know who he is."
"Why?"
"The patient I saw had a cranial injury."
"The chart outside the room said severe retrograde amnesia."
Gabriel's face changed.
Rinaldi continued.
"If it was Vincent, Dominic may have kept him alive because a dead man could not tell anyone what he knew."
"But a living man who remembered nothing could still be useful."
"Useful how?" Chloe asked.
Rinaldi looked at Gabriel.
"Antonio's archive was not in the warehouse."
"Vincent knew where it was."
"Dominic may have been waiting for his memory to return."
Matteo's phone chimed.
He looked at the screen.
Then at Gabriel.
"The institute has no patient named Vincent Costello."
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
Matteo scrolled.
"But six years ago, a private patient was admitted under the name Victor Cole."
"Same age."
"Same blood type."
"Burn trauma."
"Head injury."
"Transferred out after eleven months."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"Transferred where?"
Matteo looked up.
"The record is sealed."
"Who paid the bill?"
Matteo's expression turned grim.
May you like
"D.C. Strategic Group."
