Chapter 7 - The Greenhouse Grave
The Romano estate had been empty for eleven years.
Gabriel had ordered it closed after his mother died.
He had not slept there since.
Vittorio knew the property.
Adrian knew the property.
Half the old organization knew the property.
That should have made it the worst place to go.
Instead, Daniel had apparently used it as a hiding place.
Gabriel hated that his dead brother still understood his blind spots better than he did.
They reached the estate through a service road hidden behind bare trees.
The greenhouse stood at the far edge of the gardens.
Most of its glass panels were clouded with age.
Vines had swallowed the western wall.
Mia looked at the dark structure.
"Cheerful."
Gabriel gave her a glance.
"My mother grew orchids there."
Mia stopped joking.
"Sorry."
"Do not be."
They entered through a side door Marco opened with an old key.
The smell of wet soil remained even after a decade of neglect.
Broken pots covered the benches.
An iron watering can sat exactly where someone had left it years earlier.
Gabriel touched it.
"Daniel hated this place."
Mia looked around.
"Then why hide something here?"
"Because I loved it."
She looked at him.
Gabriel walked toward the back wall.
"Our mother made me help her every Saturday."
"And Daniel?"
"He found excuses."
A faint smile crossed Gabriel's face.
"Usually bad ones."
Marco checked the perimeter.
"What are we looking for?"
Gabriel looked at the greenhouse floor.
"No idea."
Mia remembered Hannah's wording.
"Price said Daniel hid something here."
"Yes."
"Not in the greenhouse."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Here."
Mia pointed to the old watering can.
"Did your mother have any habits Daniel would remember?"
Gabriel thought.
"She labeled everything."
"Everything?"
"Plants, tools, seed boxes."
Mia turned the watering can over.
A small brass label was attached beneath the handle.
RAIN.
Marco stared.
Gabriel swore softly.
Mia unscrewed the base.
Inside was a narrow rolled strip of paper.
Gabriel unfolded it.
A hand-drawn map showed the greenhouse and three garden paths.
A black X marked a point beneath an old stone bench.
Marco looked outside.
"This is getting theatrical."
Gabriel folded the map.
"Daniel watched too many movies."
They moved the bench together.
Beneath it was a square piece of stone with a metal ring set into the center.
Marco lifted it.
A shallow cavity appeared.
Inside lay a rusted toolbox.
Mia stared.
"That is my father's."
Gabriel looked at her.
"You are sure?"
"He painted the handle red because he kept losing it in the garage."
The faded handle was still red.
Mia knelt.
Her hands trembled as she opened the box.
Inside were old lock picks, a multimeter, two dead watches, a photograph, and a sealed envelope bearing her name.
Mia stopped breathing.
Gabriel stepped back.
"Take your time."
She looked at him.
"We do not have time."
"Take it anyway."
Mia opened the envelope.
Her father's handwriting covered the page.
Mia, if this reaches you, I failed to keep a dangerous promise.
Her eyes blurred immediately.
She blinked hard and kept reading.
I wanted you to believe I was only an accountant because ordinary fathers get to die ordinary deaths.
Mia pressed her lips together.
Gabriel looked away to give her what privacy he could.
She read silently for several lines.
Then her expression changed.
"What?" Marco asked.
Mia looked at Gabriel.
"My father worked for your father."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"In accounting?"
"Internal investigations."
Marco swore softly.
Mia kept reading.
"He found Crown Harbor nineteen years ago."
"Nineteen?"
"Long before Daniel."
Gabriel looked at the ledger.
"Who was stealing then?"
Mia reached the next paragraph.
Her face went pale.
"Vittorio."
Gabriel said nothing.
"My father says your father confronted him."
"Salvatore knew?"
"Yes."
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
"Then why was Vittorio still in the company?"
Mia continued reading.
"Because Vittorio threatened to expose every illegal account your father had ever created if he was removed."
Marco exhaled.
"Mutual destruction."
Mia nodded.
"Your father let him keep a small part of the legitimate business in exchange for closing Crown."
Gabriel looked at the old greenhouse glass.
"But he never closed it."
"No."
"And my father knew that?"
Mia read farther.
"He suspected."
"Why did Elias leave?"
Her voice broke slightly.
"Because he was scared for me."
Mia sat back on her heels.
"He says Vittorio discovered who had traced the accounts."
Gabriel's face hardened.
"What happened?"
"My father resigned, changed our address, and told me we were starting over."
Mia laughed once, painfully.
"I thought he had lost his job because he was stubborn."
Marco crouched near the toolbox.
"And six years ago he died."
Mia nodded.
She kept reading.
Then she stopped.
Gabriel noticed.
"What does it say?"
Mia looked at him.
"Daniel found him before he died."
"Why?"
"Daniel had started seeing the same Crown patterns."
Gabriel closed his eyes briefly.
"He went looking for the first investigator."
"Yes."
Mia touched the photograph inside the toolbox.
It showed Elias and Daniel standing beside the black sedan from the ledger.
Now the image made sense.
"My father gave Daniel the master key."
Marco looked at the box.
"Where is it?"
Mia read the last lines of the letter.
Then she looked at the two broken watches.
Her expression changed.
"He says I already have it."
"Have what?"
"The original key."
Mia picked up one of the watches.
The back plate was scratched.
Her father had worn it every day until she was sixteen.
After he died, Mia had kept it in a kitchen drawer for years.
She had never known it had gone missing from her apartment.
"Someone moved this toolbox after his death."
Gabriel looked at the handwriting.
"Daniel."
"Probably."
She pressed the crown of the watch.
Nothing happened.
Marco took a small knife and pried open the back.
Inside the battery compartment sat a thin metal wafer engraved with a sequence of numbers.
Mia stared.
"That is not a digital password."
"What is it?" Gabriel asked.
"A banking key."
Marco frowned.
"For Crown?"
"For whatever account sits above Crown."
Gabriel looked at the black ledger.
"The master account."
Mia nodded.
A car door slammed outside.
Marco killed his flashlight.
Everyone froze.
Another door closed.
Then a third.
Gabriel moved Mia behind a stone planter.
"How many?"
Marco listened.
"At least four."
Mia whispered, "Vittorio tracked the decoy phone south."
"So this is not him."
"Or he had two teams."
Marco checked the greenhouse entrance.
A beam of light swept across the garden.
Gabriel closed the toolbox.
"Take the key."
Mia slipped the metal wafer into her boot.
Marco looked at Gabriel.
"Rear exit leads to the creek."
"Move."
They reached the back door before a voice called from outside.
"Gabriel."
He stopped.
Mia recognized the voice from the phone.
Damian Sterling.
Marco raised his weapon.
Gabriel shook his head.
"Not yet."
Sterling stepped into the greenhouse alone.
He was tall, silver-haired, and dressed in a dark raincoat.
His hands were empty and visible.
"You picked a sentimental meeting place."
Gabriel's face stayed cold.
"You were not invited."
"Neither was I to Daniel's funeral, but I sent flowers."
Gabriel moved toward him.
Mia stepped between them before the first punch landed.
"If you break his jaw, he becomes less useful."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Move."
"No."
Sterling raised his eyebrows.
"She does that to you too?"
Gabriel ignored him.
"Why are you here?"
Sterling looked at the toolbox.
"Because I know what Elias Carver hid."
Mia's face hardened.
"Did you know my father?"
"Once."
"Did you kill him?"
"No."
"Everyone says no."
Sterling's expression changed.
"Your father died because he trusted Adrian Vale."
Gabriel looked at him.
"Adrian claims he protected Elias."
"Adrian protects institutions."
Sterling stepped closer.
"People are negotiable."
Mia held his gaze.
"Who ordered my father's crash?"
Sterling answered without hesitation.
"Vittorio."
Gabriel watched his face carefully.
"And Daniel?"
Sterling looked at him.
"Same man."
"Prove it."
"I can."
"Then do it."
Sterling looked toward the garden.
"Not here."
Marco laughed once.
"Convenient night for that phrase."
Sterling ignored him.
"I delayed Daniel's car because Vittorio paid me."
Gabriel's eyes hardened.
"That makes you part of the murder."
"I was told the delay was for a photograph."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
Sterling's expression became bitter.
"I expect you to believe I would have charged more for murder."
Mia almost hated that the logic sounded plausible.
Sterling continued.
"When Daniel died, I understood what I had helped arrange."
"And you stayed quiet."
"Because Vittorio had records that could put me away for thirty years."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"Why talk now?"
"Because he sent men wearing my colors to kidnap Leo."
Sterling's jaw tightened.
"He wants you to blame me, kill me, and destroy the one witness who can connect him to Daniel's route."
Mia looked at Gabriel.
"That fits."
Gabriel did not like it.
That did not make it false.
Sterling reached slowly into his coat.
Marco raised his weapon.
"Easy."
Sterling removed a photograph.
He handed it to Gabriel.
The image showed Vittorio standing beside a truck in an industrial lot.
The truck's company logo read MIDWEST AGGREGATE SERVICES.
Gabriel knew the name.
It belonged to the driver blamed for Daniel's crash.
"When?"
"Six days before Daniel died."
Mia turned the photo over.
A license number was written on the back.
Marco looked at Sterling.
"Where did you get this?"
"My man took it because I do not trust clients who hide murder inside logistics jobs."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"Your man still alive?"
Sterling glanced toward the garden.
"He was until this afternoon."
A red dot appeared on Sterling's chest.
Mia saw it.
Again.
"Down."
This time Gabriel moved before she did.
He pulled Mia behind the stone planter.
The shot shattered a glass panel.
Sterling hit the floor.
Marco fired toward the trees.
More shots tore through the greenhouse.
Old glass rained across the benches.
Sterling crawled behind an iron table.
"That is Vittorio's answer."
Gabriel shouted, "Rear exit."
They moved through the broken door toward the creek.
Mia ran despite Price's orders.
Pain burned through her side.
Gabriel grabbed her arm and half carried her down the slope.
Sterling followed.
Marco stayed behind long enough to return fire.
At the creek, a narrow maintenance bridge crossed toward a wooded road.
Two men appeared on the opposite side.
Sterling stopped.
"Those are mine."
Gabriel raised his weapon anyway.
"Tell them to prove it."
Sterling shouted a code phrase.
Both men lowered their guns.
They reached an armored sedan hidden beyond the trees.
Inside, Sterling handed Gabriel a small recorder.
"This contains the conversation where Vittorio ordered Daniel delayed."
Gabriel stared at it.
"Why did you not bring this to me eighteen months ago?"
"Because eighteen months ago you would have killed me before pressing play."
Gabriel said nothing.
Sterling looked at Mia.
"Your father made the same mistake Daniel did."
"Trusting Adrian?"
"Believing evidence protects the person holding it."
Mia's eyes hardened.
"What protects them?"
Sterling looked toward Gabriel.
"Power."
Gabriel pressed play.
Vittorio's voice filled the car.
"Four minutes."
Sterling answered on the recording.
"That is all?"
"Four minutes on Route B14."
"And then?"
"Your men leave."
"What happens to Daniel?"
A pause.
Then Vittorio spoke.
"Daniel stops being a problem."
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Gabriel stared at the device.
Mia watched his face.
Then Sterling's driver suddenly collapsed over the steering wheel.
Blood appeared on the side of his neck.
The rear door opened.
A man wearing Romano security credentials pointed a gun into the car.
Marco fired first.
The man fell.
Sterling looked at the dead attacker.
Gabriel looked at the credentials.
They belonged to one of his own senior guards.
Marco went pale.
"That badge was issued this morning."
Gabriel looked at him.
"By whom?"
Marco's answer was almost a whisper.
May you like
"My office."
