Chapter 3 - The House That Was Already Compromised
Marco ended the call without saying goodbye.
Gabriel crossed the basement in three steps and ripped the printed page from the tray.
There was no signature.
There did not need to be one.
Mia forced herself upright.
"Do not touch anything else."
Gabriel looked at the paper.
"This computer is offline."
"Then something in this room is not."
Marco pulled the power cord from the wall.
The printer went dark.
Mia looked toward the ceiling.
"Check the electrical outlet."
Marco removed the faceplate with a screwdriver.
Behind it sat a black device no larger than a coin.
A tiny green light blinked once.
"Cellular relay," Marco said.
Gabriel's eyes moved around the basement.
"Your cousin know about this place?"
"He owns it."
"That was not my question."
Marco's mouth tightened.
"He knows I use it."
"Who else?"
"No one should."
Mia looked at the dead printer.
"Should is having a terrible night."
Gabriel folded the page once.
"We move again."
Price looked up from his medical kit.
"She should not move anywhere."
Gabriel turned to him.
"Then make her portable."
Mia almost smiled despite herself.
Price did not.
"Her blood pressure is dropping."
That changed Gabriel's expression.
"How bad?"
"Bad enough that I am done negotiating."
Mia tried to object.
Price pointed at her.
"You stole a truck with cracked ribs, relocated your own shoulder, attacked a security chief with a flashlight, and opened a hidden tunnel while bleeding."
He snapped his medical case shut.
"You have exhausted your voting rights."
Marco coughed to disguise a laugh.
Even Gabriel looked amused.
Mia gave the doctor a cold stare.
"I dislike you."
"Excellent."
Price stood.
"You can dislike me while receiving a transfusion."
Gabriel looked at Marco.
"Where?"
Marco thought for two seconds.
"Saint Catherine's old surgical wing."
Price shook his head.
"Closed six years ago."
"Basement suite is still functional."
"Why?"
Marco looked at Gabriel.
"Your father paid for it."
Mia blinked.
"Of course he did."
They left through the print shop's rear loading bay.
This time Marco changed vehicles twice.
He removed every phone battery he could remove and sealed the remaining devices inside a metal cashbox.
Leo slept through almost all of it.
Mia did not.
She watched every turn through half-open eyes.
Gabriel sat across from her in the van.
"You can sleep."
"That is what people keep telling me right before armed men find us."
"Fair point."
"Also, I do not trust the doctor."
Price looked up from the front seat.
"I can hear you."
"Good."
Gabriel lowered his voice.
"Do you trust me?"
Mia looked at him.
There was no easy answer.
"I trusted your accounting controls."
"That bad?"
"Worse."
He leaned back.
"At least you are honest."
Mia looked toward Leo.
"I trust that you love him."
Gabriel followed her gaze.
"That is not the same thing."
"No."
"But it is enough for tonight?"
Mia closed her eyes for the first time.
"It has to be."
Saint Catherine's old surgical wing sat beneath a modern hospital tower on the west side.
The public elevators no longer stopped there.
Marco accessed the basement through a maintenance corridor used for linen deliveries.
Price found the hidden suite exactly where Marco said it would be.
The room smelled faintly of dust and antiseptic.
An old surgical light hung above a narrow bed.
Gabriel stayed while Price cleaned Mia's wound.
Mia noticed.
"You do not have to supervise."
"I am not supervising."
"Then what are you doing?"
Gabriel looked at Leo sleeping in a portable crib beside the wall.
"Making sure nobody enters that door."
Mia studied him.
"You think Vittorio sent the men?"
"Daniel did."
"Daniel suspected him."
"My brother did not scare easily."
Price injected a local anesthetic.
Mia flinched.
Gabriel's eyes moved to her face.
She noticed that too.
"I have had paper cuts worse than this."
Price snorted.
"She is lying."
"I assumed."
Mia ignored both men.
"Vittorio asked whether I was alive before he asked what happened."
Gabriel's expression became distant.
"He has known me since I was six."
"That makes this harder."
"No."
Gabriel looked at her.
"It makes me slower."
"That can be worse."
"I know."
Price finished the last stitch and covered the wound.
"She needs rest."
Mia opened her mouth.
Gabriel spoke first.
"You heard him."
"I also heard a dead man accuse your uncle and a printer threaten us from beyond the grave."
"The printer was not beyond the grave."
"That is your objection?"
Gabriel's mouth almost curved.
Then Leo began to cry.
Mia moved instinctively.
Pain stopped her.
Gabriel reached the crib first.
He lifted the baby awkwardly.
Leo cried harder.
Mia held out her hands.
"Support his neck."
"I know how to hold him."
"He disagrees."
Gabriel adjusted Leo.
The crying softened.
"Traitor," Gabriel murmured.
Mia watched them.
Something in her face softened before she could stop it.
Gabriel saw.
Neither mentioned it.
A knock sounded at the door.
Marco's voice came from outside.
"Boss."
Gabriel handed Leo to Mia.
"Stay here."
"Where would I go?"
He opened the door only after checking through the narrow observation slot.
Marco entered carrying a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was the dead attacker's shoe.
A blue plastic tag was tucked beneath the laces.
Mia leaned forward.
"That is what I saw."
Marco placed it on the metal counter.
"It has a number."
Gabriel read it.
"Fourteen."
Mia looked at him.
"The warehouse had colored zones."
"Blue was what?"
"I do not know."
Marco pulled a folded receipt from the shoe lining.
"Maybe this helps."
The receipt was from a truck stop in Hammond.
Time stamped two nights earlier.
Three items were listed.
Coffee.
Diesel additive.
A prepaid phone card.
On the back someone had written a short sequence by hand.
B14-VR-617.
Gabriel stared at the letters.
"VR."
Marco said nothing.
Mia did.
"Could mean Vittorio Romano."
"Could mean vehicle route."
Gabriel's answer came too quickly.
Mia looked at him but did not challenge it.
Marco pulled the dead driver's phone from another bag.
"No passcode."
"Too easy," Mia said.
"Exactly."
Marco powered it on inside a signal-blocking pouch connected only to a forensic reader.
The phone contained three contacts.
Driver.
Warehouse.
Home.
No names.
No messages.
One photograph.
Marco opened it.
Gabriel stopped moving.
The image showed Daniel Romano standing beside a black sedan in a parking garage.
The date stamp was eight days before his death.
A second man stood beside him with his back to the camera.
Mia leaned closer.
"Can you identify him?"
Gabriel stared at the man's coat.
"No face."
Marco zoomed in.
A hand rested against the roof of the sedan.
On the smallest finger was a heavy silver ring bearing the Romano family crest.
Mia looked at Gabriel.
"How many people have that ring?"
"Seven."
"Including Vittorio?"
"Yes."
Marco enlarged the reflection in the car window.
The image pixelated badly.
Still, part of the man's profile became visible.
Gray hair.
A narrow nose.
A scar near the left temple.
Marco went silent.
Mia looked between the two men.
"You know him."
Gabriel's voice turned hollow.
"That is not Vittorio."
"Then who is it?"
Gabriel took the phone from Marco.
"Adrian Vale."
Mia remembered the access list.
Gabriel.
Marco.
Vittorio.
Daniel.
Adrian.
Five trusted people.
One dead.
One sitting beside her.
Two now tied to the secrets Daniel left behind.
"Your attorney?" she asked.
"My father's attorney before he was mine."
Marco's phone vibrated inside the metal cashbox.
Everyone looked at it.
Marco opened the box and checked the screen.
"It is Hannah."
Gabriel took the call.
"Hannah?"
At first there was only breathing.
Then his sister-in-law spoke.
Her voice trembled.
"Gabriel, where is my son?"
"Safe."
"Put him on the phone."
"He is six months old."
"Then let me hear him breathe."
Gabriel carried the phone to the crib.
Leo made a small sleepy sound.
Hannah began crying.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"I am bringing him to you."
"No."
His eyes opened.
"What?"
Hannah's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Do not come here."
Gabriel looked at Marco.
"Why?"
"Because your uncle Vittorio is sitting in my hospital room."
Gabriel's face went still.
Hannah inhaled shakily.
May you like
"And he just asked me to sign guardianship papers for Leo."
