Chapter 17 - The Vote of the Dead
Dorsey handcuffed Gabriel's right wrist to the conference chair despite Mara shouting that the position could compromise his circulation.
"He has a vascular injury."
Dorsey did not look at her.
"He also has a gunshot victim on the floor."
"He did not shoot him."
"You are his doctor."
"I am the woman who recorded Matteo confessing to murder thirty seconds ago."
That got Dorsey's attention.
Matteo's face changed.
Mara held up her phone.
Dorsey took it.
"Evidence."
Mara laughed in disbelief.
"You work for him."
"Careful."
Sadi stood beside the wall with her hands raised.
"He says that when he runs out of ideas."
Dorsey pointed at her.
"You are still under arrest."
"And you are still corrupt."
Matteo stepped between them like a reasonable uncle calming unruly children.
"Captain, we have a trust vote beginning in eight minutes."
Gabriel looked at him.
"Your nephew is bleeding on the floor."
Matteo glanced at Victor.
"Paramedics are coming."
Victor coughed.
Blood darkened his shirt.
His eyes opened briefly.
He looked at Matteo.
Matteo looked away.
Sadi saw it.
Victor was still alive.
That made him dangerous to Matteo.
"Mara."
Sadi nodded toward Victor.
Mara understood.
She moved toward him.
Dorsey blocked her.
"Stay where you are."
"He will die."
Matteo answered before Dorsey could.
"Then perhaps Gabriel should have aimed more carefully."
Gabriel's voice became quiet.
"You are getting careless."
Matteo smiled.
"I have control of the trust, your security contracts, three hospital boards, and the police captain standing behind you."
He looked at Sadi.
"Careless is something poor men worry about."
Sadi thought of her father maintaining old boilers while these men moved millions through signatures and blood.
"My father hid your entire company from you with two keys and a false ceiling."
Matteo's smile disappeared.
"Tomas died poor."
"And you are still afraid of what he left behind."
That landed.
Before Kendricks reached the table, the wall monitors switched from security feeds to a live media broadcast.
Matteo's face appeared on the lower screen from a statement recorded less than ten minutes earlier.
"Due to Gabriel Falcone's medical incapacity and a violent internal attack, emergency stewardship has transferred in accordance with the family trust."
Sadi stared at the timing banner.
The statement had been distributed while Matteo was upstairs shooting Victor.
Gabriel saw it too.
"Prewritten."
Enzo nodded.
"Same as the warrant."
The broadcast continued.
A photograph of Sadi appeared beside the words PERSON OF INTEREST.
Then footage showed officers leading her from her apartment in handcuffs.
The image made her angrier now than the arrest had.
Matteo's recorded voice described her as an unstable employee with unexplained access to the Falcone dining room.
Sadi laughed.
"Unexplained."
Mara looked at the screen.
"They really hate waitresses."
Gabriel's expression hardened.
"Turn it off."
Dorsey did not move.
Sadi looked at him.
"He told you to turn it off."
Dorsey smiled.
"He is not principal anymore."
Gabriel looked at the captain.
"Enjoy saying that while you can."
The broadcast cut to a statement from a hospital spokesperson claiming Gabriel had refused life-saving medical treatment because of impaired judgment.
Mara swore loudly.
"I never said that."
Sadi looked at her.
"They quoted you."
"They fabricated me."
The screen displayed a line attributed to Dr. Mara Klein.
PATIENT DEMONSTRATES DIMINISHED CAPACITY AND REPEATEDLY REFUSES MEDICALLY NECESSARY CARE.
Mara's face became dangerous.
"I am going to sue everyone in this building."
Enzo looked almost amused.
"Get in line."
Sadi understood what Matteo was doing.
He was not merely taking the trust.
He was building a public reality around the theft before anyone could challenge it.
Gabriel was irrational.
Sadi was violent.
Mara was confirming incapacity.
Victor was a tragic returning brother attacked by the man who stole his place.
Every lie had been prepared before the people inside it knew their roles.
"This is why he wanted cameras outside," Sadi said.
Gabriel nodded.
"A vote can be reversed."
"A story is harder."
Sadi looked at her own face on the monitor.
"Then we give them a better one."
That was when Kendricks entered with the attorneys and trustees.
The trust counsel, Mr. Kendricks, entered with three attorneys and two trustees.
He stopped when he saw Victor bleeding on the carpet.
"What happened?"
Matteo answered immediately.
"Gabriel attacked his brother."
Kendricks looked at the handcuffed Gabriel.
Then at Dorsey.
"Has anyone confirmed that?"
"I witnessed the aftermath," Dorsey said.
Sadi laughed.
"He arrived afterward."
Kendricks looked at her.
"You are Sadi Moreno."
"Unfortunately famous tonight."
"You are named in the old covenant."
Everyone went silent.
Sadi stared.
"What?"
Kendricks looked at Matteo.
"You did not tell her?"
Matteo's face hardened.
Gabriel looked at Sadi.
"Named how?"
Kendricks opened a leather folder.
"The original 1998 covenant names Rosa Moreno and any direct descendant as independent custodial witnesses for medical incapacity proceedings involving the Falcone principal."
Sadi almost laughed.
"My mother had a vote?"
"Not a vote."
Kendricks adjusted his glasses.
"A veto over medical certification if there is evidence of G.F.H.-related coercion or drug exposure."
Gabriel understood first.
"That is why they needed her."
Matteo's expression told everyone it was true.
Sadi stared at him.
"You did not need me dead."
"Not at first," Matteo said.
"You needed me discredited."
The fake murder charge.
The apron.
Lucia's coerced statement.
All of it was designed to make Sadi legally unusable as a witness.
Kendricks looked at her.
"If you produce the original covenant, you can challenge the emergency transfer."
Sadi looked at Gabriel.
"Enzo has it."
Matteo smiled again.
"Enzo is currently in surgery."
Sadi's stomach tightened.
"How do you know?"
"I control three hospital boards, remember?"
Gabriel pulled against the handcuff.
"If you touched him—"
Matteo leaned closer.
"You are in no position to threaten me."
The conference room doors opened.
Every head turned.
Enzo stood in the doorway.
His face was white.
A fresh dressing covered his side beneath an open black coat.
Mara stared at him.
"I am going to kill you myself."
Enzo held up an archive case.
"Take a number."
Sadi almost smiled.
Matteo did not.
Enzo walked to the table and set down the case.
"Original covenant."
Kendricks reached for it.
Matteo's attorney moved first.
"Chain of custody is compromised."
Enzo looked at him.
"So is your career."
Kendricks opened the case.
The old document bore original signatures, embossed seals, and Tomas Moreno's witness mark.
Sadi saw her father's name and felt the room recede for a second.
Kendricks read quickly.
Then he looked at Matteo.
"The six-hour amendment cannot supersede this provision."
Matteo's face hardened.
"Why not?"
"Because medical incapacity involving Vascorin-class compounds requires Moreno custodial review."
Sadi looked at Mara.
"My mother anticipated this exact attack."
Mara nodded slowly.
"Looks like it."
Kendricks turned toward Sadi.
"Do you challenge the certification of Gabriel Falcone's incapacity?"
Sadi did not hesitate.
"Yes."
Matteo slammed his palm onto the table.
"She is a murder suspect."
Kendricks looked at him.
"That does not extinguish hereditary custodial authority."
"She is not qualified."
"The covenant does not require qualification."
"She is a waitress."
Sadi felt every eye turn toward her.
Matteo had said the word like it was an insult.
She thought of carrying plates while powerful men forgot she could hear them.
She thought of her father fixing boilers while families like this ignored him.
She thought of Rosa being treated like a nurse who should have stayed quiet.
"Yes," Sadi said.
Matteo looked at her.
"I am."
She stepped toward the table.
"And somehow I still found the evidence your lawyers, doctors, security teams, and bought police captain spent fourteen years trying to bury."
Dorsey's face reddened.
Matteo stared at her.
Kendricks closed the file.
"The emergency transfer is suspended pending review."
For one second, silence held.
Then Victor coughed from the floor.
"He shot me."
Everyone turned.
Mara dropped beside him before Dorsey could stop her.
Victor lifted a shaking hand and pointed at Matteo.
"Matteo shot me."
Matteo's face changed.
Dorsey stared at him.
Matteo looked back.
Something silent passed between them.
Then Matteo moved.
He grabbed Kendricks by the collar and pulled him backward.
At the same moment, the building lights went red.
Steel security shutters dropped over the windows.
An alarm began screaming.
Enzo reached for his gun.
Dorsey drew first.
"Nobody moves."
Gabriel looked at Matteo.
"What did you do?"
Matteo smiled without humor.
"If I cannot inherit the archive, nobody does."
Smoke began pouring from the ventilation grilles.
Sadi heard locks engage around the room.
Matteo dragged Kendricks toward a private door behind the conference table.
Dorsey covered him.
Enzo fired at the lock.
Dorsey returned fire.
Everyone dropped.
Sadi crawled toward Victor.
Mara was trying to stop his bleeding.
Gabriel ripped the conference chair sideways until the wooden arm cracked around the handcuff.
The room filled with smoke.
Matteo disappeared through the private door with Kendricks.
Dorsey followed.
Sadi saw the archive case near the threshold.
The original covenant was inside.
She ran for it.
The steel shutter dropped between rooms before she reached the door.
Sadi jumped back.
The case was on the other side.
So was the only copy of the original covenant.
Then a second shutter fell behind her.
Gabriel shouted her name.
Sadi turned.
She was no longer in the conference room.
She was trapped alone inside the trust archive corridor.
Smoke thickened overhead.
A red light flashed above the sealed door.
PURGE FIRE SYSTEM ARMED.
May you like
A digital countdown appeared on the wall.
FIVE MINUTES.
