Chapter 11 - The Name Victor Cole
Gabriel did not go to Montreal immediately.
For a man who had spent most of his life acting before other people finished thinking, that restraint cost him visibly.
He wanted a plane in the air within twenty minutes.
Matteo wanted verification first.
Chloe wanted coffee.
Beatrice wanted all of them to stop pretending she was not part of the decision.
She got her way first.
They gathered around the breakfast table shortly after ten.
Dr. Park had ordered Beatrice to avoid unnecessary travel until the sedative cleared her system.
Beatrice had responded with a sign that Chloe politely translated as "nonsense."
The actual sign had been less polite.
Gabriel sat across from his mother.
"You are not flying to Canada today."
Beatrice watched his lips.
Then she looked at Chloe.
Chloe signed the sentence.
Beatrice immediately replied.
"I have been ordered around enough for one lifetime."
Gabriel waited for the translation.
"She says she understands your concern," Chloe said.
Beatrice turned sharply toward her.
Chloe smiled.
"Fine."
"She says you can take your order and fold it into a very small shape."
Matteo looked down at his coffee.
Gabriel stared at Chloe.
"That is closer, isn't it?"
"Much."
Beatrice looked satisfied.
Gabriel rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Dr. Park says no travel."
Beatrice signed, "Then bring Vincent to me."
The sentence changed the room.
For six years, nobody had spoken as if that were possible.
Gabriel looked at the table.
"If it is him."
Beatrice's eyes hardened.
She signed, "Hope is not stupidity."
"I can hope and still demand proof."
Chloe translated.
Gabriel looked at his mother with something like surprise.
Maybe he was discovering how much of her he had reduced to simple categories.
Old.
Deaf.
Grieving.
Fragile.
The woman in front of him was none of those words by herself.
Matteo's laptop chimed.
He turned the screen toward Gabriel.
"I got billing history from Saint-Vallier through an old insurance contact."
"Victor Cole was admitted under a private trust."
"The trust address belongs to an attorney in Manhattan."
"Name?"
"Harold Voss."
Gabriel's expression darkened.
"My father's estate lawyer."
"Retired eight years ago."
"Alive?"
"Barely."
"Nursing home in Connecticut."
Chloe looked at Beatrice.
She had recognized the name.
Her hands moved.
"Voss kept Antonio's sealed papers."
"After Antonio died, Dominic visited him every month."
Gabriel looked at Matteo.
"Did I know that?"
"Not from any calendar I can find."
Matteo opened another file.
"There is more."
"Victor Cole left Saint-Vallier eleven months after admission."
"He was transferred to a rehabilitation facility in northern Vermont."
"Facility name?"
"Green Hollow Recovery Center."
"Who owns it?"
Matteo gave him a grim smile.
"A company owned by another company owned by D.C. Strategic Group."
Chloe stared.
"Dominic really likes initials."
"He likes distance," Gabriel said.
The word carried more meaning now.
Chloe heard it.
Gabriel did too.
He had spent years building distance between himself and consequences.
Dominic had spent those same years using distance as camouflage.
Matteo continued.
"Green Hollow closed three years ago after a licensing dispute."
"Records were transferred to the state."
"I have a contact pulling them."
Gabriel stood.
"We go to Vermont."
Chloe stood too.
"I am coming."
"No."
"That answer is getting repetitive."
"So is your refusal to understand danger."
"I understand danger very well."
"I found a man waiting in my apartment."
"I am simply not confusing danger with obedience."
Beatrice signed, "Take her."
Gabriel looked at his mother.
"Why?"
Beatrice pointed at Chloe's hands.
Then she signed, "Vincent knew ASL."
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
"You never mentioned that."
Gabriel's face changed.
"We all knew some when we were children."
Beatrice corrected him immediately.
"Vincent knew more than some."
Chloe translated.
Beatrice's hands became softer.
"Vincent kept signing with me after Antonio stopped."
"Gabriel stopped at fourteen."
Gabriel looked away.
Chloe sensed a story there.
She did not ask yet.
Beatrice continued.
"Vincent used sign when he was angry because Antonio could not understand him."
A faint smile appeared on her face.
"It drove his father insane."
Gabriel almost smiled too.
Then Beatrice signed, "If Victor Cole is Vincent and his memory is damaged, his hands may remember what his mouth does not."
Chloe felt the truth of that immediately.
Language lived in strange places.
Muscle memory could survive things conscious memory did not.
Gabriel looked at her.
"Fine."
"You come."
"That sounded painful."
"It was."
Matteo looked between them.
"I am coming too."
"That was not under debate," Gabriel said.
They left Beatrice with Dr. Park and four guards whose loyalty Matteo had personally verified.
Before leaving, Chloe knelt beside Beatrice's chair.
"You okay?"
Beatrice signed, "No."
Chloe appreciated the honesty.
"Me neither."
Beatrice touched her cheek.
Then she signed, "If Vincent is alive, Gabriel will blame himself for six years he could not change."
Chloe looked toward Gabriel at the door.
"He already blames himself for everything."
Beatrice shook her head.
"No."
"He blames himself only for things he can control."
"That is how he avoids the things he cannot."
Chloe considered that.
Beatrice added, "Do not let him turn guilt into another wall."
Chloe almost laughed.
"You are asking a lot from a waitress."
Beatrice smiled.
"You stopped being only a waitress when you answered me."
Chloe's throat tightened.
She squeezed Beatrice's hand.
The drive to the private airfield took forty minutes.
Gabriel spent most of it on the phone.
At the gate, his second phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
Then at Chloe.
"Someone sent me a file."
"From?"
"Unknown number."
Matteo leaned over.
The attachment was a photograph.
It showed Chloe standing outside Il Canto with Leo two years earlier.
A red circle had been drawn around Leo.
A blue circle had been drawn around Chloe.
Below the image was a line of text.
ONE BENNETT WAS ENOUGH.
Chloe felt her stomach drop.
Gabriel's face became stone.
A second message arrived.
THIS TIME SHE IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.
Matteo cursed.
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
"You still want to come?"
Chloe stared at the threat.
"More than before."
"Why?"
"Because whoever sent that wants me scared and separate."
"I have spent enough of my life letting other people decide what my brother's death means."
She handed the phone back.
"I want the truth."
Gabriel nodded once.
Then his own phone rang.
Dr. Park's name appeared.
He answered immediately.
"What happened?"
His face changed.
"Put my mother on video."
He listened.
"Elena, put her on video now."
Chloe's pulse jumped.
Gabriel's voice turned colder.
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"What do you mean she is not in her room?"
