Chapter 16 - THE SAINT UNMASKED
Elena stood beside the printer and looked at a photograph that appeared to place her within twenty feet of the man who sabotaged Daniel Vale’s car.
Her face did not collapse.
It hardened.
“These are fake.”
Norah picked up the first image.
The grain, time stamp, and camera angle matched fifteen-year-old parking-garage surveillance.
That did not make the image genuine.
Old footage could be altered.
But altering it convincingly required access to the original recording or an excellent copy.
“Where were Carlo’s surveillance archives stored?”
Elena looked at the shelves.
“Here, eventually.”
Gabriel laughed without humor.
“Of course.”
Norah examined the second photograph.
Daniel’s car appeared clean and dry.
The concrete floor beneath it showed a thin crescent of water.
In the third photograph, Elena’s shoes reflected that water.
The fourth photograph showed the unknown man beside Daniel’s hood.
His right shoe cast no reflection.
Norah felt a small surge of relief.
“This one is altered.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“How?”
“The reflection is missing.”
Elena stepped closer.
“What about the other photographs?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Declan took the fourth sheet.
“So someone built a fake sequence around real images.”
Norah nodded.
“Likely.”
“Why?”
“To force us to choose whether Elena is framed or guilty.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“Again.”
Mateo checked the archive network.
“The printer job came from inside the building.”
“Which floor?”
“Twenty-two.”
Elena’s records level.
Everyone looked upward as if they could see through concrete.
Mateo spoke into his radio.
“Seal the elevators.”
Static answered.
Then nothing.
He tried again.
No response.
“Someone is jamming us.”
The basement lights went out.
Emergency power came on three seconds later.
Red lamps filled the archive.
Gabriel drew his weapon.
A voice came through the building intercom.
Dominic Santoro.
“Gabriel.”
Everyone froze.
Gabriel looked at Mateo.
“Dominic is at my mother’s house.”
“He was.”
The intercom crackled.
“Do not come upstairs with weapons raised.”
Declan smiled bitterly.
“That is encouraging.”
Dominic continued.
“I am on twenty-two.”
Gabriel’s voice hardened.
“How did he get here?”
Mateo shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Norah looked at Elena.
“Private elevator?”
Elena nodded.
“From the alley garage.”
Gabriel started toward the stairs.
Norah caught his sleeve.
“What if this is the point?”
He looked at her.
“Dominic appears in the building right after evidence points at Elena.”
“So?”
“So whoever controls the intercom wants us upstairs.”
Gabriel considered it.
Then the intercom spoke again.
“Norah, I have the key your father gave me.”
Her breath caught.
Dominic’s missing key.
The one stolen three years earlier.
He continued.
“And I know who took it.”
Norah looked at Gabriel.
He saw the decision in her face.
“We go together.”
They climbed twenty-two floors because the elevators had locked themselves.
Gabriel’s wound made every landing slower.
By floor fourteen, sweat covered his face.
Norah wanted to stop.
He refused.
By floor twenty, Declan was carrying half Gabriel’s weight while pretending he was not.
Neither man acknowledged it.
The twenty-second-floor door stood open.
Dominic waited in Elena’s records room.
A pistol lay on the floor five feet from him.
His hands were empty.
A black enamel cross rested on the desk.
The brass key beside it was smaller than Norah’s key marked 814.
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
“I sent your mother with my men to another house.”
“Without telling me.”
“I had reasons.”
“You always do.”
Dominic looked at Norah.
“I found the key in Teresa’s prayer box last year.”
“You said it was stolen.”
“It was.”
“By Teresa.”
“Yes.”
The admission changed the room.
“Why?”
“She discovered where her false inheritance came from.”
“The two-point-four million.”
“Yes.”
“What did she do with the key?”
“Kept it because she was afraid Carlo would kill us if he knew she had learned the truth.”
“Carlo was already dead when the key disappeared.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“I lied about the date.”
Gabriel’s voice became dangerous.
“Why?”
“Because I did not want you asking what Teresa knew.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew about Declan.”
Declan stared at him.
“What?”
“Maeve told her before she died.”
Declan’s face went white.
“My mother is alive.”
Dominic’s expression froze.
Norah felt a chill.
“What do you mean, before she died?”
Dominic blinked.
“I meant before Teresa died.”
Too fast.
Declan stepped forward.
“You said Maeve told Teresa.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“My mother told me six months ago that no one except you knew.”
Dominic’s face closed.
There was another secret.
Gabriel saw it too.
“Tell him.”
Dominic looked at Declan.
“Maeve did not learn your father’s identity six months ago.”
“I know that.”
“She contacted Teresa when you were twelve.”
Declan stared.
“Why?”
“To ask Carlo for help.”
“With what?”
“You were sick.”
Declan’s expression flickered.
“I had leukemia.”
Norah looked at him.
He had never mentioned it.
Dominic continued.
“Carlo paid for treatment anonymously.”
Declan’s voice became rough.
“And then?”
“Teresa stayed in contact with Maeve.”
“For twenty-three years?”
“Yes.”
“Did my mother know who Teresa was?”
“Yes.”
Declan laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“So every mother in this family knew who I was except me.”
Dominic did not answer.
Norah pointed at the key.
“What does it open?”
“A private safe in Carlo’s old cathedral office.”
Gabriel frowned.
“He had an office in Saint Agatha’s?”
“In the rectory basement.”
“The prayer.”
Dominic nodded.
“A14 meetings were called prayers because Carlo met captains beneath the church.”
Norah felt several phrases align.
THE SAINT SEES THE WHOLE TABLE.
THE SAINT PROTECTS THE HEIR.
The Saint had begun as an access protocol tied to the church-based succession reserve.
Then someone turned it into an anonymous identity.
“Who uses the Saint identity now?”
Dominic looked at Elena.
She stared back.
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel’s hand tightened around his pistol.
“Wrong answer.”
Dominic’s eyes remained on Elena.
“I know who reactivated it.”
Norah stopped breathing.
“Who?”
Dominic reached inside his coat slowly.
Mateo raised his weapon.
Dominic pulled out a folded document.
“I did.”
Dominic’s confession about reopening Atlas did not come easily.
He sat across from Gabriel with the posture of a man choosing which sins to name before time ran out.
“I saw six transfers over eighteen months.”
“How much?”
“Less than thirty thousand total.”
Norah frowned.
“Testing amounts.”
“Yes.”
“Someone was probing dormant pathways.”
“That was my conclusion.”
“What did you do?”
“I created a controlled discrepancy in a construction contract.”
“Five hundred thousand.”
“Yes.”
“Why construction?”
“Because Daniel’s old notes began there.”
Norah felt anger rise.
“You used my father’s investigation as bait.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Yes.”
“And you never considered that whoever noticed the bait might notice me when Gabriel hired me.”
“I did.”
“That is worse.”
“I asked Gabriel not to involve you.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“You told me she was too independent.”
“She is.”
“That was not your reason.”
“No.”
Norah stared at both men.
“So Gabriel ignored your warning because he thought you were criticizing my temperament.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“Your temperament is excellent.”
“Do not try charm while confessing recklessness.”
He lowered his eyes.
“The leak should have been small.”
“Then someone saw it.”
“Yes.”
“They cloned Declan after the promotion.”
“Yes.”
“They expanded five hundred thousand into three million.”
“Yes.”
“And used your trap to finance Gabriel’s murder.”
Dominic looked older than Norah had ever seen him.
“Yes.”
For the first time, she understood why his loyalty and guilt looked so similar.
He had not created the enemy.
He had opened a door and convinced himself he could control who walked through it.
Gabriel’s face changed.
Dominic placed the document on the desk.
“Eighteen months ago, I reopened Atlas.”
Declan swore.
Norah stared at him.
“You started the current transfers.”
“I started a controlled leak.”
“Three million dollars.”
“Originally five hundred thousand.”
“What happened?”
“Someone hijacked the mechanism and expanded it.”
Gabriel stepped toward him.
“You stole from me to run a private investigation.”
“Yes.”
“You framed Declan.”
“No.”
“You used the Atlas system the week before I promoted him.”
“I used an old administrator credential.”
“Then someone cloned his clearance during the promotion and attached it to your leak.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
Dominic’s face twisted with grief.
“Because I believed the person who killed Daniel was still inside the family.”
“And you thought it could be me.”
Dominic did not answer.
Gabriel looked as if the bullet in his side had hurt less.
Norah stepped between them again.
“What were you trying to expose?”
Dominic looked at her.
“The person who had begun moving tiny amounts from dead Atlas accounts.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“The same time Teresa’s key disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“But Teresa took the key.”
“Yes.”
“So why did the activity start then?”
“Because Teresa was dying and gave the key to someone.”
“Who?”
Dominic’s gaze moved toward Elena.
Elena went very still.
“She gave it to you.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
Dominic’s voice broke.
“She told me she did.”
Elena stepped backward.
“She never gave me a key.”
Dominic reached for another paper.
A gunshot shattered the window.
Dominic jerked.
Blood spread across his chest.
Gabriel caught him before he hit the floor.
Mateo fired toward the opposite rooftop.
Declan dragged Elena behind a cabinet.
Norah dropped beside Dominic.
His eyes found hers.
“Listen.”
“Save your breath.”
“Teresa...”
Blood filled his mouth.
“Who did Teresa give the key to?”
Dominic looked past Norah toward Elena.
Then his eyes shifted.
Not to Elena.
To the empty doorway behind her.
May you like
His final word came out as a whisper.
“Isabella.”
