Chapter 18 - The Throne With Gabriel's Name On It
Dominic did not need Gabriel dead.
That was the mistake everyone had made.
He needed Gabriel discredited, isolated, and legally removed.
Death created investigations.
A transfer created signatures.
By the time Gabriel reached the Costello Maritime headquarters in Manhattan, Dominic had already occupied the twenty-third-floor boardroom.
He had done it with lawyers instead of guns.
That made the takeover harder to stop.
Agent Cross came with Gabriel because the forged transfer was connected to her evidence.
Matteo came because he knew the company systems.
Chloe came because Dominic had built too much of the lie around people who assumed nobody would read Beatrice's hands.
Beatrice came because nobody was foolish enough to tell her not to anymore.
Victor stayed in a secure federal medical location under Dr. Park's supervision.
He had agreed only after Beatrice promised to visit him that night.
The headquarters lobby looked normal.
That was unsettling.
Employees crossed marble floors carrying coffee.
Security guards stood at desks.
The company logo glowed above the elevators.
But Gabriel's access card did not work.
He swiped it twice.
The panel remained red.
Matteo tried his.
Also red.
Gabriel looked at the security desk.
The guard there swallowed.
"Mr. Costello, I have instructions."
"From whom?"
"Mr. Dominic Costello."
Gabriel's face became still.
"Open the elevator."
The guard looked at Cross's federal jacket.
Then at Gabriel.
"I cannot."
Beatrice stepped forward.
The guard knew who she was.
He looked embarrassed.
She signed something.
Chloe translated.
"Mrs. Costello says her late husband bought this building before you were born and she is not waiting in the lobby while her nephew steals it."
The guard looked helpless.
Cross showed her badge.
"You can open it for me."
He did.
The elevator ride to the twenty-third floor lasted forty-two seconds.
Gabriel said nothing.
At the boardroom doors, two private security men waited.
Neither belonged to Matteo's team.
One held out a hand.
"Mr. Costello, this is a closed corporate meeting."
Gabriel looked at him.
"Which Mr. Costello?"
The man hesitated.
That was enough.
Cross stepped forward.
"Federal agent."
"Move."
The doors opened.
Fourteen people sat around a long walnut table.
Lawyers.
Board members.
Two outside investors.
Dominic sat at the head.
Gabriel's chair.
He wore a charcoal suit and no tie.
For one disturbing second, Chloe understood Samuel's sentence.
Dominic was not just taking the company.
He was imitating Gabriel.
Same posture.
Same quiet voice.
Same place at the table.
He smiled when Gabriel entered.
"You made it."
Gabriel stopped across from him.
"Get out of my chair."
Dominic looked at the lawyers.
"You see the problem."
"He still thinks possession is authority."
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
Cross placed a document envelope on the table.
"Dominic Costello, I have questions concerning fraudulent transfers, kidnapping, witness intimidation, medical abuse, and obstruction."
Dominic looked at her badge.
"Then ask your questions through counsel."
A lawyer beside him stood.
"My client will cooperate with any lawful inquiry."
Gabriel laughed once.
"Your client kidnapped my mother six hours ago."
Dominic looked at Beatrice.
"Aunt Bea, did I kidnap you?"
Beatrice's expression hardened.
Dominic raised his hands.
Then he signed.
Fluently enough to shock Gabriel.
"Tell them you came because you wanted to see Vincent."
Beatrice stared at him.
Chloe felt anger rise in her chest.
Gabriel looked at Dominic's hands as if they were a weapon.
"You know ASL."
Dominic smiled.
"Enough."
Beatrice signed, "You learned my language to lie around me, not to speak to me."
Dominic understood.
His smile weakened.
Chloe translated aloud for the room.
Several board members shifted uncomfortably.
Dominic signed back.
"I learned because language is useful."
Beatrice's eyes hardened.
"That is why you never understood it."
Chloe translated that too.
A board member looked down.
Dominic switched to speech.
"This is touching."
"But the meeting concerns governance."
"Gabriel has exposed every legitimate company we own to criminal risk."
"Federal agents raided Pier Twelve."
"He disappeared overnight."
"He allowed personal grief to interfere with operations."
"And he has brought a restaurant employee into confidential family matters."
Chloe looked at him.
"You broke into that restaurant."
Dominic smiled.
"Can you prove it?"
Cross answered.
"We can prove your security company installed an unauthorized recording system."
"We can prove your shell company paid Beatrice Costello's doctor."
"We can prove the same company paid Mercer Freight after Leo Bennett's death."
The boardroom changed.
Dominic's lawyer leaned toward him.
Dominic did not move.
"Payment is not murder."
Cross nodded.
"True."
"That is why I said I have questions."
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
"And while she asks them, this company needs leadership."
He slid a stack of papers across the table.
"The transfer is valid."
Gabriel did not touch it.
"My signature is forged."
"Your signature was witnessed."
"By whom?"
A board member at the far end lifted his hand nervously.
"I witnessed a digital signing session last month."
Gabriel looked at him.
"I was in Chicago last month."
"The meeting was remote."
"You appeared by video."
Matteo frowned.
"Which platform?"
The board member named it.
Matteo opened his laptop.
"Give me the date."
The lawyer objected.
Cross told him to sit down.
The date was August 11.
Matteo checked Gabriel's travel records.
"He was in Chicago."
Dominic shrugged.
"Remote meeting."
"Exactly."
Matteo connected to the company's video archive.
His access had been revoked.
Cross produced a preservation order.
The IT director reluctantly restored read-only access.
The meeting recording appeared.
Gabriel's face filled the screen.
He approved a transfer.
He said the correct names.
He answered two questions.
Chloe stared.
"That looks like you."
Gabriel's face was grim.
"It is not."
Dominic smiled.
"Convenient."
Matteo enlarged the image.
"Deepfake."
One lawyer scoffed.
"Based on what?"
Matteo pointed at the screen.
"The blink pattern is wrong."
"Compression around the mouth changes when he turns."
"And the audio waveform has synthetic smoothing."
Dominic leaned back.
"You can make any accusation sound technical."
Beatrice had been watching the screen.
Suddenly she stood.
She pointed.
Then signed urgently.
Chloe followed her gesture.
The video Gabriel raised his left hand to adjust his collar.
Beatrice signed, "Wrong hand."
Gabriel looked at her.
"What?"
Chloe translated.
"She says you never adjust your collar with your left hand."
Dominic laughed.
"That is your evidence?"
Beatrice shook her head.
She signed, "His ring."
Chloe looked closer.
The fake Gabriel wore a signet ring on his right hand.
The real Gabriel wore his on the left.
Matteo froze the frame.
Then he smiled for the first time all day.
"There."
The board members leaned closer.
Dominic's lawyer stopped smiling.
Gabriel looked at his mother.
She raised an eyebrow.
He shaped a clumsy sign toward her.
"Good."
Beatrice corrected his hand position automatically.
Chloe nearly laughed.
Dominic slammed his palm on the table.
"A mirrored video feed explains the ring."
Matteo shook his head.
"The company logo behind him is not mirrored."
Silence.
Cross stood.
"Nobody leaves this room."
Dominic looked at his attorney.
The attorney looked frightened now.
Then the boardroom lights went out.
Emergency lights came on red.
Matteo looked at his laptop.
"Network cut."
Cross reached for her radio.
Static.
The elevator indicator outside went dark.
Gabriel looked toward Dominic's chair.
It was empty.
A side door behind the head of the table stood open.
Matteo ran to it.
A private service elevator descended behind a locked steel gate.
"He planned an exit."
Cross called her agents by phone.
No signal.
Chloe looked at the boardroom table.
Dominic had left one object behind.
A black phone.
Its screen lit by itself.
A video call began.
Victor appeared on the screen.
He was no longer in the federal medical location.
A man stood behind him.
Frank D'Amato.
Gabriel's face became ice.
Victor looked terrified.
D'Amato held up a card.
COME ALONE TO IL CANTO.
Then Victor raised his hands below the card where D'Amato could not see.
He signed one word.
May you like
"Don't."
