Chapter 6 - The Signature Gabriel Could Not Deny
The man from Chloe's apartment escaped across three rooftops before Gabriel's guard lost him.
That was the first piece of bad news.
The second arrived before Chloe reached the mansion.
Matteo had found the archived red authorization.
Gabriel was waiting in the library when Chloe walked in.
He had changed nothing about himself except his expression.
His jacket was gone.
His sleeves were rolled to his forearms.
A single sheet of paper lay on the table between him and Beatrice.
Chloe knew what it was before anyone spoke.
"You found it."
Gabriel nodded.
Beatrice watched his face instead of the paper.
Chloe removed her coat.
Her hands were still shaking from the apartment.
"Tell me."
Gabriel pushed the page toward her.
The document was headed RED SECURITY AUTHORIZATION 417-B.
The date was two years and three days before Leo's death.
The subject line read DIGITAL PROPERTY LEAK - EXTERNAL CIVILIAN CONTACT.
No name appeared anywhere on the first page.
At the bottom was Gabriel Costello's signature.
It was not a copy.
It was not a forgery.
Gabriel had already confirmed that himself.
Chloe read the authorization twice.
Then she looked at him.
"What did this allow?"
"Surveillance."
"You already said that."
"It allowed a security team to identify the source of leaked files, recover company property, and stop further distribution."
"Stop how?"
Gabriel's eyes did not leave hers.
"Nonlethal pressure was the written policy."
"Written policy."
"Yes."
"And the unwritten policy?"
Gabriel said nothing.
Chloe's laugh was short and bitter.
"There it is."
"I did not order anyone to hurt Leo."
"You signed this."
"I signed an authorization tied to a case number."
"A case number that was my brother."
"I did not know that then."
"But somebody did."
"Dominic."
"Convenient."
Gabriel's face tightened.
"You think I am trying to hide behind him?"
"I think men like you build systems where you never have to see the person at the bottom."
The sentence stopped him.
Chloe pointed at the paper.
"You sign a line."
"Someone else follows a car."
"Someone else makes a threat."
"Someone else cleans up the mess."
"Then you can say you never knew the name."
Gabriel's voice dropped.
"You are right about one thing."
Chloe had expected anger.
The admission unsettled her more.
"I built distance into the way I ran things."
"I called it discipline."
"I called it structure."
"Maybe sometimes it was cowardice."
Beatrice's eyes softened.
Chloe did not.
"That does not bring Leo back."
"No."
"It does not erase your signature."
"No."
"Then do not ask me to forgive you because you suddenly discovered accountability at one in the morning."
Gabriel's jaw flexed.
"I did not ask you to forgive me."
"Good."
"I am asking you to stay alive long enough to learn what happened."
Chloe folded the authorization and placed it back on the table.
"The man in my apartment knew exactly when I arrived."
Gabriel's expression changed.
"Did my guards tell you that?"
"No."
"I told them to stay downstairs."
"The intruder was already inside."
"Which means somebody knew I was leaving here before I left."
Beatrice signed, "Someone inside the house."
Chloe translated.
Gabriel looked toward the library doors.
The realization made the mansion suddenly feel less secure.
"Who knew the plan?" Chloe asked.
"Me."
"Beatrice."
"The two guards."
"Matteo."
Gabriel paused.
"And the house security office."
Beatrice signed, "Dominic chose the head of security."
Gabriel closed his eyes for a moment.
"Frank D'Amato."
"How long has he worked here?" Chloe asked.
"Eleven years."
"Who hired him?"
"Dominic."
Chloe looked around the beautiful room.
"Your cousin seems to have hired half your life."
Gabriel did not argue.
He picked up his phone.
"Matteo."
"I want D'Amato removed from the security office."
He listened.
His expression darkened.
"When?"
He ended the call without saying goodbye.
Chloe waited.
"D'Amato left the property forty minutes ago."
"Before I came back?"
"Yes."
"Did he sign out?"
"No."
Beatrice rose slowly.
She signed, "Check my room."
Gabriel looked at Chloe for translation.
Chloe translated.
He turned toward his mother.
"Why?"
Beatrice pointed upstairs.
"The blue box."
"What blue box?"
Her hands moved faster.
"My medicine."
"D'Amato carries it to Dr. Rinaldi every Friday."
Gabriel's face went blank.
"Why would security carry your medication?"
Beatrice gave him a look that needed no translation.
Gabriel stood.
They went upstairs together.
Beatrice's suite occupied the east side of the second floor.
It was elegant, bright, and strangely impersonal.
There were framed family photographs on the walls.
None showed anyone signing.
Chloe noticed that immediately.
Beatrice crossed to a dressing table.
She opened the second drawer.
It was empty.
Her expression hardened.
"The box is gone."
Gabriel began searching the room.
Chloe looked at the nightstand.
A weekly pill organizer sat beside a glass of water.
Monday through Thursday were empty.
Friday contained three tablets.
Chloe pointed.
"Are these normal?"
Beatrice frowned.
She signed, "One white."
"One small yellow."
"Not three."
Gabriel picked up the organizer.
"What is the third?"
Beatrice shook her head.
Chloe took a photograph of the pills with her phone.
"Do you feel different after taking them?"
Beatrice thought for several seconds.
Then she signed.
"Sleepy."
"Slow."
"Hands heavy."
"Sometimes I cannot focus my eyes."
Chloe translated.
Gabriel sat on the edge of the bed.
He looked as if someone had struck him.
"How long?"
Beatrice signed, "Eight months."
"Since Dr. Rinaldi changed the prescription."
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
"Dominic told me the sleepiness was part of her decline."
Chloe did not soften the answer.
"Maybe the decline was part of the prescription."
Gabriel called a private physician named Dr. Elena Park.
He told her to come immediately.
Then he ordered every medication in the room bagged and secured.
Beatrice watched him move around her bedroom.
When he finished, she touched his sleeve.
She signed very slowly.
Gabriel watched.
He recognized none of it.
Chloe translated.
"She says she tried to tell you the pills made her feel wrong."
Gabriel looked at the floor.
Beatrice continued.
"You told her Dr. Rinaldi knew best."
Gabriel's face tightened.
"I remember."
Beatrice nodded.
"I know."
The two words were gentle.
That made them worse.
Gabriel left the room without speaking.
Chloe found him in the hallway ten seconds later.
He stood beside a window with both hands braced against the frame.
"You can hate me later," he said.
"I'm busy now."
"I don't hate you."
He looked at her.
"That sounded almost disappointing."
"I do not know you well enough to hate you."
"I am furious with you."
"That is different."
"Thank you for the distinction."
Chloe crossed her arms.
"Your mother was being drugged."
"We do not know that yet."
"There is the careful sentence again."
Gabriel looked toward Beatrice's room.
"If I say it before I know, I might kill the wrong man."
Chloe studied him.
"And if you wait too long, the right man might kill someone else."
Gabriel's phone rang.
Matteo.
He answered immediately.
"Tell me."
His face changed as he listened.
"Where did you find it?"
He turned slowly toward Chloe.
"Send me the image."
A second later his phone vibrated.
He opened a photograph.
Then he handed the phone to Chloe.
It showed the reverse side of authorization 417-B.
The page listed the internal sponsor who had submitted the case for Gabriel's signature.
DOMINIC COSTELLO.
Below that was a handwritten note.
EXTERNAL CONTACT IS DEAF.
USE VISUAL SURVEILLANCE.
DO NOT APPROACH SISTER.
Chloe's blood turned cold.
"He knew I existed."
Gabriel nodded.
"Before Leo died."
"Yes."
"Then Dominic did not learn my name tonight."
"No."
Chloe stared at the note.
The final instruction was somehow the worst part.
DO NOT APPROACH SISTER.
Someone had written it as if Chloe were a line item in a plan.
Beatrice appeared in the doorway behind them.
She saw the image on the phone.
Then she signed one sentence.
"That note was not written by Dominic."
Chloe looked up.
"Whose handwriting is it?"
Beatrice's eyes moved to Gabriel.
"It is Samuel Greco's."
Gabriel went very still.
Then Beatrice added another sign.
"And Samuel never protected anyone unless he was told to."
"Who told him?" Chloe asked.
Beatrice's hands lowered.
She looked afraid again.
"Antonio."
Gabriel's dead father had been gone for twelve years.
Leo had died only two years ago.
The dates did not make sense.
Gabriel said exactly that.
Beatrice shook her head.
Then she pointed toward the old notebooks from the chapel.
"Not your father."
"His code."
May you like
"Someone is still using Antonio's orders."
