Chapter 4 - The House That Stopped Signing
Gabriel's mansion stood above the Hudson River behind iron gates and old stone walls.
Chloe had seen photographs of houses like it in magazines and had always assumed nobody actually lived in them.
This one looked less like a home than a place designed to survive a siege.
Three black vehicles entered through the gates shortly after midnight.
Chloe sat in the rear of the middle car beside Beatrice.
Gabriel sat across from them.
No one had asked Chloe whether she wanted to come.
That fact had become increasingly irritating during the drive.
She waited until the gates closed behind them.
"I need to be clear about something."
Gabriel looked at her.
"You're not keeping me here."
"I'm keeping everyone who was in that room secure until I know who compromised Pier Twelve."
"That's a fancy way to say keeping me here."
"Someone in my family knew your brother."
"Your mother knew my brother."
"Dominic knew his name."
"Which is exactly why I would prefer to be somewhere your family is not."
Beatrice tapped Chloe's arm.
"He is bad at asking."
Chloe signed, "He is excellent at ordering."
Beatrice smiled.
Gabriel watched their hands.
"I know you're talking about me."
"Progress," Chloe said.
"You recognized the subject."
Gabriel leaned back.
"You are remarkably comfortable irritating dangerous people."
"I'm exhausted."
"Fear requires energy."
Beatrice laughed silently.
Gabriel's mouth almost moved.
Then the car stopped.
Inside the mansion, the entry hall rose two stories beneath a painted ceiling.
Beatrice walked past it without looking up.
She led them through a library lined with dark bookshelves.
The house was quiet enough that Chloe heard the ticking of a grandfather clock from another room.
Gabriel sent two men to secure the grounds.
Samuel Greco had been taken somewhere else for questioning.
Marco had been sent home with a warning not to discuss the dinner.
Chloe had disliked that arrangement too.
"Where is the chapel?" Gabriel asked.
Beatrice did not answer because she was not looking at him.
Gabriel started to repeat himself.
Then he stopped.
He moved into her line of sight.
His right hand rose uncertainly.
He shaped a sign.
It was clumsy but recognizable.
"Where?"
Beatrice stared at him.
For a long moment, she forgot the chapel entirely.
Then she pointed toward a narrow hallway.
Chloe followed behind them.
The chapel was small by mansion standards and enormous by any normal standard.
A carved wooden altar faced four rows of pews.
A marble statue of Saint Michael stood in an alcove beside a stained-glass window.
Gabriel removed the brass key from his pocket.
Beatrice pointed behind the statue.
A small lock was hidden in the wood paneling.
Gabriel inserted the key.
It turned.
Nothing happened.
He tried the panel.
It would not move.
Beatrice shook her head.
She signed, "Press the shield."
Chloe translated.
Gabriel pressed the carved shield beneath Saint Michael's hand.
A narrow section of wall clicked open.
Behind it sat a metal document box.
Dust covered the lid.
Gabriel looked at Beatrice.
"How long has this been here?"
She signed, "Since your father was alive."
Gabriel's face became unreadable.
Chloe knew almost nothing about the Costello family beyond newspaper fragments and restaurant gossip.
She knew Gabriel's father, Antonio Costello, had died twelve years earlier.
She knew people spoke his name in a lower voice than Gabriel's.
She also knew Gabriel had inherited everything after his father's death.
Beatrice sat on the nearest pew.
Her hands rested in her lap.
Gabriel lifted the box onto a bench.
The brass key opened that lock too.
Inside were old property deeds, photographs, three notebooks, and a black flash drive.
There was also a sealed envelope with GABRIEL written across the front.
The handwriting was Beatrice's.
Gabriel looked at her.
She nodded.
He opened it.
Inside was a single page.
He read silently.
Then he handed it to Chloe.
The page contained only seven lines.
If Gabriel is reading this, I failed to make him understand me.
Dominic has access to the company books.
Samuel follows Dominic, not Gabriel.
Dr. Rinaldi is lying about my memory.
Find the records from the Mercer Freight accident.
Leo Bennett saw the second car.
Do not let Dominic know I remembered the license plate.
Chloe read the final line twice.
Her hands began to shake.
"Mercer Freight."
Gabriel looked at her.
"That was the truck company involved in Leo's crash."
Chloe folded the page carefully because she needed her hands to do something.
"The police said the driver was drunk."
"His name was Paul Mercer."
"He crossed the center line."
"Leo died at the scene."
Beatrice watched her.
Chloe turned to her.
"What second car?"
Beatrice's face tightened.
"A black sedan."
"It followed the truck."
"Leo sent me a photograph before the crash."
"He thought someone was following him."
Chloe stared.
"He sent you a photograph?"
"Why would Leo send you anything?"
Beatrice reached into the document box.
She removed an old photograph folded in half.
Chloe recognized Leo before she fully opened it.
He was standing outside a community center in Queens.
He was twenty-four, lanky, smiling, and holding a coffee in one hand.
Beatrice stood beside him.
Both of them were signing toward the camera.
Chloe's vision blurred.
"When was this?"
Beatrice signed, "Four days before he died."
Chloe sat down hard on the pew.
Gabriel stayed standing.
"Why did you know him?"
Beatrice looked at her son.
Then she looked around the chapel.
Her hands moved slowly.
"After Antonio died, I stopped coming to family meetings."
"Everyone said the business was too complicated."
"Everyone said I should rest."
"Dominic started handling my mail."
"Dr. Rinaldi started giving Gabriel reports about me."
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
Beatrice continued.
"I began volunteering at the Queens Deaf Community Center because it was the only place people talked to me instead of around me."
Chloe looked down at the photograph.
"Leo volunteered there every Thursday."
Her voice sounded small in the chapel.
Beatrice nodded.
"He fixed computers."
Chloe laughed through sudden tears.
"He fixed everything."
"Even things that were not broken."
Beatrice smiled.
"Yes."
Then her expression became serious.
"One day I brought an old laptop from this house."
"Leo recovered deleted files."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"What files?"
"Shipping records."
"Payments."
"Photographs."
"Your father's notes."
Gabriel's eyes moved to the flash drive.
Beatrice pointed at it.
"Leo copied everything there."
Chloe picked up the drive.
"Why didn't he tell me?"
Beatrice's answer hurt more than Chloe expected.
"He said you worried too much."
Chloe closed her eyes.
That sounded exactly like him.
"He said if it was nothing, he did not want to frighten you."
"If it was something, he wanted proof first."
Gabriel took a laptop from a cabinet in the sacristy.
He powered it on.
Chloe watched him insert the flash drive.
The screen displayed six folders.
ACCOUNTS.
PIER 12.
RINALDI.
ANTONIO.
MERCER.
BENNETT.
Chloe stopped breathing when she saw the last one.
Gabriel clicked it.
The folder contained three images and one video file.
The first image showed a black sedan parked across from the Queens community center.
The second showed the same sedan outside Leo's apartment building.
The third was a close-up of its license plate.
Gabriel whispered the plate number.
Beatrice nodded.
"I remembered it."
Gabriel opened a company database on another screen.
He entered the number.
The result appeared almost instantly.
The black sedan had belonged to Costello Strategic Security.
The authorized driver was Dominic Costello.
Chloe stood.
The room tilted beneath her.
"No."
Gabriel stared at the screen.
"That doesn't prove he was driving."
Chloe turned on him.
"Your cousin's car followed my brother for four days."
"Three days later Leo died."
"And your mother wrote that he saw a second car."
"I said it doesn't prove who was driving."
"Why are you defending him?"
"I'm not."
"It sounds exactly like you are."
Gabriel's voice sharpened.
"I am trying not to accuse someone of murder based on a registration record."
Chloe flinched at the word murder.
Beatrice stood between them.
She signed directly at Gabriel.
This time he forced himself to watch.
He caught almost none of it.
Chloe translated.
"She says you always demand perfect proof when the truth frightens you."
Gabriel's face hardened.
Beatrice kept signing.
"But when Dominic brought you papers about me, you believed him without asking for an interpreter."
The sentence struck him silent.
Chloe looked away.
Beatrice reached for her.
"Watch Leo's video."
Chloe did not want to.
She pressed play anyway.
Leo appeared on the screen.
He was sitting in his car.
His hands moved quickly in ASL.
Chloe's knees weakened at the sight of him alive.
The timestamp showed 10:41 p.m., three nights before his death.
Leo signed, "Chloe, if you ever see this, I was right about something I wish I was wrong about."
Chloe covered her mouth.
Gabriel looked at her.
"Translate?"
She shook her head.
Beatrice stepped beside her and signed the words as Leo continued.
Chloe forced herself to speak them aloud.
"The files on Mrs. Costello's computer are real."
"Someone inside her family is stealing from Gabriel."
"Someone is also paying Mercer Freight to move cargo that never appears in the books."
Leo looked over his shoulder in the video.
Then he continued.
"A black car has followed me since yesterday."
"If something happens, do not believe it was random."
Chloe's voice broke.
Leo signed one final sentence.
"The person I am afraid of is not Gabriel Costello."
He leaned closer to the camera.
"It is the man Gabriel trusts most."
The video ended.
No one moved.
Gabriel stared at the frozen image of Leo's face.
Chloe wiped tears angrily from her cheeks.
"Who did you trust most two years ago?"
Gabriel did not answer.
He did not have to.
Beatrice looked at him.
Gabriel finally said the name.
May you like
"Dominic."
