Chapter 4 - The Envelope
Gabriel read the note twice.
The first time, his expression did not change.
The second time, his hand tightened around the paper until it creased.
“Who touched this?”
Marco swallowed.
“A hostess brought it from the front desk.”
“Who gave it to her?”
“She said a courier.”
“What courier?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel looked at Marco with a patience so thin it felt dangerous.
“Find out.”
Marco hurried away.
Chloe stood near the service bar with Leo’s transit card trapped inside her fist.
She could still feel the little ridge where the plastic had cracked.
She remembered taping it for him at the kitchen table in their old apartment.
She remembered Leo laughing when the tape stuck to her sleeve.
She remembered telling him he would lose his own head if it were not attached.
Now a stranger had mailed part of that memory into her workplace as a threat.
Gabriel held out his hand.
“Let me see the card.”
Chloe pulled it closer to her chest.
“No.”
“I’m not taking it from you.”
“You take a lot of things from people without asking.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
She knew the line was reckless.
She did not care.
He lowered his hand.
“Fair.”
That response surprised her more than anger would have.
Anthony returned through the front doors.
He carried a thin file folder.
“The accident report.”
Gabriel took it.
Chloe’s stomach tightened.
Anthony glanced at her.
“You may not want to read this here.”
“I have already read the police version.”
“This is not the police version.”
Gabriel opened the folder.
The first page was a photocopy of a corporate incident report.
Harbor Food Logistics.
Vehicle 47B.
Driver listed as Michael Doran.
Chloe shook her head.
“The drunk driver was Paul Henson.”
Anthony nodded.
“Henson was driving the sedan that ran the red light.”
“Then what did your truck do?”
Anthony hesitated.
Gabriel answered.
“It entered the intersection from the opposite side.”
Chloe looked at the diagram.
The Harbor truck had boxed Leo’s small car against the concrete divider.
Henson’s sedan struck the passenger side.
Leo had nowhere to move.
Chloe felt sick.
“Was the truck driver drunk too?”
“No.”
“Was he charged?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Anthony’s silence answered before his words did.
“The truck had the right of way.”
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“That is not why you hesitated.”
Gabriel turned another page.
The driver, Michael Doran, had resigned the next morning.
Forty-eight hours later, he received a seventy-five-thousand-dollar consulting payment from a company called North Meridian Holdings.
Chloe stared at the number.
“What is North Meridian?”
Gabriel did not answer.
Anthony did.
“A company Luca controlled at the time.”
The air disappeared from the room.
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“You knew about this?”
“No.”
“Your own cousin paid the truck driver two days after my brother died.”
“I said I did not know.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you?”
Gabriel closed the file.
“I don’t care whether you believe me tonight.”
His voice remained even.
“I care whether you stay alive long enough to decide later.”
Chloe hated that the sentence frightened her.
A hostess approached from the dining room.
“Marco said to tell you the courier came through the side entrance.”
Gabriel turned.
“Camera?”
She shook her head.
“System was down for nine minutes.”
Anthony frowned.
“Only that camera?”
“The hallway camera and loading dock camera.”
“Exactly nine minutes?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked toward the office.
“Who has access?”
The hostess glanced at Chloe.
“Marco.”
“And?”
“The owner.”
“And?”
She hesitated.
“Mr. Costello’s security office has remote access for private events.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
Anthony swore under his breath.
Chloe stared at them.
“So whoever delivered this knew when your cameras were blind.”
“Yes,” Gabriel said.
“And had access to Leo’s things.”
“Yes.”
“And knows where I work.”
“Yes.”
Chloe laughed once.
It sounded wrong even to her.
“Great.”
She picked up her bag.
Gabriel stepped into her path.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“No.”
Chloe’s eyes flashed.
“Move.”
“Chloe.”
“You are not my boss.”
“Tonight, that is fortunate for both of us.”
“Move.”
He did not.
She looked over his shoulder.
“Anthony.”
Anthony raised both palms.
“I am too old to get between the two of you.”
Under different circumstances, Chloe might have laughed.
Instead, she turned toward the kitchen exit.
Marco came through it at the same moment.
He looked worse than before.
“Chloe.”
“What?”
“I need to talk to you.”
His eyes flicked toward Gabriel.
“Alone.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Chloe followed Marco into the dry-storage room.
He closed the door.
Then he locked it.
“Marco, what is going on?”
He pressed both hands to the stainless-steel shelf.
“I got a call.”
“From who?”
“The owner.”
“What did he want?”
Marco looked at her.
“You’re fired.”
Chloe stared.
“For what?”
“He said there was a complaint from Table 7.”
Chloe almost laughed.
“Gabriel is standing ten feet away.”
“I know.”
“Did you ask him?”
“I tried to explain.”
“The owner told me not to explain anything.”
“He told me to get you out of the building before midnight.”
Chloe looked at the clock mounted above the pantry door.
11:41 p.m.
A cold sensation moved down her back.
“Before midnight.”
Marco nodded.
“He said those exact words.”
Chloe unlocked the door and walked straight back to Gabriel.
“Did you complain about me?”
Gabriel looked genuinely confused.
“No.”
“Did anybody at your table?”
“No.”
“Then someone just used your name to get me fired and told Marco I had to leave before midnight.”
Gabriel checked his watch.
His entire posture changed.
“Anthony.”
“I heard.”
Anthony already had his phone out.
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
“You are coming with us.”
“No.”
“This is not a debate now.”
“It became a debate the second you used that tone.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Someone killed the cameras, sent your dead brother’s property into this building, and arranged to put you on the street at a specific time.”
He lowered his voice.
“If you want to hate me tomorrow, I will make time.”
“Tonight you are not walking out that door alone.”
Chloe wanted to argue.
Then the lights went out.
The entire restaurant fell into darkness.
Someone screamed in the dining room.
A glass shattered.
Anthony’s voice cut through the dark.
“Down.”
Gabriel grabbed Chloe by the waist and pulled her behind the service bar.
She hit the floor on one knee.
Emergency lights flickered red along the walls.
A loud pop came from the front entrance.
Then another.
Not gunshots.
The glass doors cracking under impact.
Gabriel positioned himself between Chloe and the lobby.
“Stay here.”
She grabbed his sleeve.
“Beatrice.”
His head snapped toward the private room.
“Anthony has her.”
A figure moved through the red light near the kitchen doors.
Chloe saw only a dark jacket and a baseball cap.
The figure threw something onto the floor.
It skidded beneath the service station.
Then he ran.
Gabriel started after him.
Chloe caught his arm.
“Wait.”
On the floor lay another envelope.
This one had her name written across the front by hand.
Chloe reached for it.
Gabriel stopped her.
“No.”
He used a napkin to lift it.
Inside was a photograph.
Chloe’s apartment building.
Taken that afternoon.
Gabriel took the envelope without touching the paper inside.
He used the corner of a clean napkin, a habit so careful that Chloe wondered how many threats he had handled before tonight.
Beatrice watched him with a tired anger that made her look suddenly older.
Chloe signed to her.
Has this happened before?
Beatrice hesitated.
Then she answered.
Not like this.
Not since Salvatore was alive.
Gabriel caught his father’s name on Chloe’s lips.
“What did she say?”
Chloe translated.
The room tightened around them.
Marco whispered that he could call the police.
Gabriel did not laugh.
He only looked at the emergency exit, the disabled camera above it, and the envelope that had appeared during a blackout nobody could explain.
Someone had planned every second.
On the back, someone had written one sentence.
THE NEXT WARNING WILL NOT BE PAPER.
The emergency lights reflected in Gabriel’s eyes.
He looked at Chloe.
May you like
“You are not going home.”
For the first time that night, Chloe did not argue.
