Chapter 12 - The Interpreter Beatrice Never Asked For
The SUV turned around before it reached the airfield runway.
Gabriel ordered the driver back to the mansion.
Matteo called security.
Chloe called Dr. Park.
Nobody had the full story.
That was the problem.
Beatrice had not vanished from a locked room.
She had walked out of it.
According to the house staff, a certified ASL interpreter had arrived twenty minutes after Gabriel left.
She carried identification.
She knew Dr. Rinaldi's former appointment schedule.
She said Gabriel had arranged a legal consultation for Beatrice regarding medical malpractice.
The guards called the security office to verify.
Someone answered from an internal extension.
That person confirmed the appointment.
Beatrice went downstairs voluntarily.
Ten minutes later, she and the interpreter walked into the east garden.
Then the cameras went dark for ninety seconds.
When they returned, both women were gone.
Gabriel listened to the account without interrupting.
That frightened everyone more than shouting would have.
"Name," he said.
Matteo checked the visitor log on his tablet.
"Rachel Sloan."
Chloe looked over his shoulder.
The identification photograph showed a woman in her thirties with dark blond hair and glasses.
"Is she a real interpreter?"
Matteo was already searching.
"There is a Rachel Sloan on the state registry."
"Same city."
"Different photograph."
Gabriel's hand tightened around the back of the seat.
"Fake identification."
"Yes."
Chloe thought about Beatrice.
"She would not leave with a stranger just because the stranger signed."
Gabriel looked at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because deaf people are not magically trusting of anyone who knows ASL."
"She would ask questions."
"She would want to know who sent the person."
Matteo scrolled through the house logs.
"The interpreter told her Gabriel requested the meeting."
Chloe shook her head.
"Still not enough."
"Beatrice had spent all night learning not to trust arrangements made through other people."
"Something convinced her."
Gabriel's face became even colder.
"Find the garden footage."
They reached the mansion sixteen minutes later.
Dr. Park met them in the entry hall.
"I am sorry."
Gabriel walked past the apology.
"Show me."
They gathered in the security room.
The head of security had been replaced with a man Matteo trusted.
He pulled up the footage.
At 10:46, the fake interpreter entered Beatrice's room.
There was no audio.
The camera angle showed both women from the side.
Chloe moved closer to the screen.
"Slow it down."
The technician reduced the playback speed.
The fake interpreter signed fluently.
That made Chloe more uneasy, not less.
She was not pretending to know ASL.
She actually knew it.
Beatrice asked a question.
The interpreter answered.
Then she took out a folder.
Gabriel pointed.
"What's that?"
Chloe watched the signs.
"She says it is a legal consent form."
"She says your attorney needs Beatrice's signature to release medical records from Rinaldi."
Gabriel stared.
"I never authorized that."
"Beatrice asks which attorney."
The fake interpreter fingerspelled a name.
Chloe froze.
"Voss."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Harold Voss?"
"Yes."
Beatrice's expression changed on the video.
She stood immediately.
Chloe understood.
"That is what convinced her."
"Voss was connected to Antonio's archive."
"She thought the interpreter could lead her to information about Vincent."
Gabriel's voice turned harsh.
"So my mother walked into a trap because we left her out of the Vermont plan."
Chloe looked at him.
"No."
"She walked into a trap because someone used information she desperately wanted."
"Do not turn their manipulation into her mistake."
Gabriel said nothing.
The video continued.
Beatrice and the woman left the room.
The technician switched to hallway footage.
Chloe watched their hands as they walked.
The interpreter was doing most of the signing.
Then Beatrice stopped near the east staircase.
She looked directly at a camera.
Her right hand rose.
She brushed two fingers against her chin.
Then touched her wrist.
Then formed a shape near her chest.
Chloe leaned forward.
"Go back."
The technician rewound.
Gabriel looked at her.
"What?"
"She is saying something."
"To the interpreter?"
"No."
"To us."
The footage played again.
Beatrice looked into the lens.
Her first sign meant FALSE.
The second meant NAME.
The third was a fingerspelled letter.
M.
Then another.
I.
L.
L.
Chloe's pulse jumped.
"She knew the interpreter was lying."
Gabriel stared at the screen.
"Then why did she go?"
Chloe kept watching.
Beatrice signed one more phrase near her hip where the fake interpreter could not easily see.
FOLLOW ME.
Chloe turned.
"She wanted us to follow."
Matteo was already at the map console.
"Mill."
"What mill?"
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"There are three old mills connected to my family."
Matteo brought up locations.
"One in Yonkers."
"One outside Newburgh."
"One near Pier Nine."
Chloe stared at the footage.
Beatrice had not stopped signing.
There was a final movement.
She touched two fingers to her opposite shoulder.
Then made the sign for WATER.
"The one near the river."
Matteo pointed at the map.
"Newburgh mill sits fifty yards from the Hudson."
Gabriel turned toward the door.
Chloe grabbed his sleeve.
"Wait."
He looked at her.
"There is more."
They replayed the garden footage.
Beatrice and the interpreter stepped beneath a stone arch.
The camera angle widened.
A black vehicle waited beyond the hedge.
The image was partially obscured by leaves.
Matteo zoomed in.
The license plate was unreadable.
But the rear window reflected a face for half a second.
The technician froze the frame.
Gabriel moved closer.
Chloe recognized the man first.
Samuel Greco sat in the back seat.
Gabriel's mouth tightened.
"Samuel."
Matteo enlarged the image.
A second figure sat beside him.
Only one hand was visible.
The ring finger was missing its tip.
Nobody spoke.
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
She looked at Beatrice's frozen warning on the other screen.
Vincent might not merely be alive.
May you like
He might have been inside the car that took his mother.
