Chapter 7 - The Restaurant With No Cameras
By sunrise, Chloe had slept for nineteen minutes in a chair beside Beatrice's bed.
Dr. Elena Park arrived before two in the morning.
She took blood samples, photographed every pill, and asked Beatrice questions through Chloe instead of around her.
That alone changed the older woman's posture.
For once, the appointment belonged to her.
At 5:43 a.m., Dr. Park confirmed that one of the extra tablets appeared to be a sedating medication not listed in Beatrice's chart.
She refused to make a final accusation until the lab returned results.
Gabriel did not need one.
He locked Dr. Rinaldi out of the house system before breakfast.
Then Marco called.
Chloe answered because Gabriel was speaking with Matteo.
"Chloe?"
Marco sounded breathless.
"Are you all right?"
"Define all right."
"Please do not joke right now."
That frightened her.
"What happened?"
"Someone broke into Il Canto."
Chloe stood.
"What did they take?"
"Nothing from the register."
"Nothing from the wine room."
"They went straight to the office."
"The cameras?"
Marco was silent.
"Marco."
"The recorder is gone."
Chloe looked toward Gabriel.
He saw her face and ended his other conversation.
"Who is it?"
She covered the phone.
"Il Canto was broken into."
"The security recorder is missing."
Gabriel held out his hand.
Chloe ignored it and kept the phone.
"Marco, did anyone get hurt?"
"No."
Then he added, "Not yet."
"What does that mean?"
A long pause followed.
"There is an envelope on my desk."
"It has your name on it."
Chloe's stomach tightened.
"Do not touch it."
"I already did."
"Of course you did."
"I manage a restaurant, Chloe."
"My daily risk assessment is usually salmon temperature and angry anniversary couples."
"What is inside?"
Marco breathed out.
"A photograph of Leo."
Chloe stopped moving.
"What photograph?"
"I think it was taken outside the restaurant."
"He is looking through the front window."
"There is a date printed in the corner."
"Two years ago."
Chloe gripped the phone harder.
Leo had visited Il Canto twice when she worked lunch shifts.
He hated expensive restaurants and always made a joke about the size of the portions.
"Anything else?"
"A note."
"Read it."
"Chloe."
"Read it."
Marco swallowed audibly.
"SHE WAS WARNED ONCE."
"THERE WILL NOT BE A SECOND WARNING."
Gabriel took the phone from her this time.
Chloe almost protested.
Then she saw his expression.
"Marco, lock the doors."
"Do not let anyone inside."
"My people will arrive in ten minutes."
Marco said something Chloe could not hear.
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"No."
"You are not being arrested."
"You are being kept alive."
He ended the call.
Chloe glared at him.
"You really make protection sound charming."
"We are going to the restaurant."
"Beatrice stays here."
Beatrice, who had been watching them, immediately signed, "No."
Gabriel actually laughed once.
"I did not need a translator for that."
Beatrice pointed at herself and then toward the door.
"She is not staying," Chloe said.
"She is."
Beatrice signed something longer.
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
"She says if you leave her behind again while men discuss what she knows, she will call a taxi."
Gabriel stared at his mother.
Beatrice folded her arms.
"She is bluffing."
Beatrice pulled out her phone and opened a ride-share app.
Chloe smiled.
"She is not bluffing."
Twenty-five minutes later, all three were in the same SUV.
Matteo drove.
He was the first Costello man Chloe had met who did not seem interested in intimidating her.
He was in his early forties, compact, quiet, and visibly sleep-deprived.
"I searched Dominic's house," he said.
Gabriel looked up.
"Anything?"
"He was gone before our people arrived."
"Samuel?"
"Also gone."
"D'Amato?"
"Gone."
Chloe looked between them.
"Three men disappearing at the same time feels less like coincidence and more like a committee."
Matteo glanced at her in the mirror.
"I like her."
Gabriel did not react.
Beatrice signed, "Me too."
Matteo looked confused.
Chloe translated.
He smiled.
Il Canto looked almost normal from the street.
The front windows reflected gray morning light.
The brass sign still shone.
Inside, chairs remained upside down on tables.
Marco stood in the center of the dining room with a police-sized cup of coffee and the expression of a man reconsidering every career decision he had ever made.
He hugged Chloe before remembering Gabriel Costello was watching.
Then he stepped back quickly.
"Sorry."
Gabriel looked at him.
"For hugging your employee?"
"For existing loudly near you."
Chloe took the envelope from the office.
The photograph showed Leo exactly as Marco described.
He stood on the sidewalk outside Il Canto.
His face was turned toward the window.
Behind him, half visible at the curb, was a black sedan.
The same model from Beatrice's photographs.
Chloe flipped the picture over.
Nothing was written on the back.
Gabriel examined the note.
"Printed."
"No fingerprints," Matteo said.
"They wiped the envelope too."
Marco pointed toward the ceiling.
"And the recorder is gone."
Gabriel looked at the camera above the office door.
"Where was the backup?"
Marco hesitated.
"There was not one."
"A restaurant like this has no cloud backup?"
"We did until six months ago."
"The security company replaced the system."
Gabriel's gaze sharpened.
"Which company?"
Marco went to the filing cabinet.
He returned with an invoice.
COSTELLO STRATEGIC SECURITY.
Chloe stared at Gabriel.
"Of course."
Marco looked confused.
"Mr. Dominic offered the upgrade at cost."
Gabriel's face became dangerously still.
"Who at the restaurant had access to the new system?"
"Me."
"The owner."
"Dominic's technician."
"Name?"
"Frank D'Amato."
The room went quiet.
Matteo cursed softly.
Chloe walked to the camera mounted above the office door.
"So D'Amato installed cameras he could access."
"He knew when I worked."
"He knew when Gabriel came here."
"He knew what Marco said in the kitchen last night."
Marco's face changed.
"What did I say?"
"That I get funny when I'm nervous."
"Dominic repeated it to me."
Marco looked toward the camera.
"The cameras have microphones."
Gabriel turned to Matteo.
"Pull every unit."
"Now."
Matteo called two men inside.
They began removing cameras from the dining room and kitchen.
Beatrice stood beneath one near the VIP room.
She stared at it.
Then she signed to Chloe.
"The red light is off."
Chloe looked up.
"The camera?"
Beatrice nodded.
Marco glanced over.
"That one never had a red light."
Beatrice shook her head.
"Last night it did."
Chloe translated.
Marco frowned.
"Impossible."
"That model has no visible recording indicator."
Matteo climbed onto a chair and unscrewed the unit.
He held it in his palm.
Then his expression changed.
"This is not the same camera."
Marco stared.
"It looks exactly the same."
"Housing is the same."
"Internal board is different."
Gabriel stepped closer.
Matteo removed a tiny memory card.
"Local storage."
"Someone replaced this camera after the break-in."
Chloe's pulse increased.
"Why steal the recorder and leave a card?"
Matteo inserted the card into his laptop.
There was only one video file.
The timestamp showed 3:12 a.m.
The empty VIP room appeared on the screen.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then Dominic walked into frame.
Marco grabbed the edge of the desk.
"He was here?"
Dominic looked directly into the camera.
He knew it was recording.
Then he held up a white card with four words printed in black.
ASK BEATRICE ABOUT VINCENT.
Beatrice's face drained of color.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
Chloe looked from mother to son.
"Who is Vincent?"
Gabriel answered without looking at her.
"My brother."
"Where is he?"
Beatrice closed her eyes.
Gabriel's voice turned rough.
"He died six years ago."
The video continued.
Dominic lowered the card.
Then he spoke to the camera.
There was no sound because the microphone had been removed.
But Beatrice watched his mouth.
Her hands began to shake.
Chloe touched her arm.
"What did he say?"
Beatrice signed one sentence.
May you like
"He said Vincent learned the truth before Leo did."
