Chapter 12 - The Warehouse Door
Beatrice pulled Chloe through the service door before Luca could reach them.
The passage beyond was barely wide enough for two people.
Old pipes ran along the ceiling.
Water from the sprinklers followed them down the steps.
Chloe heard shouting behind them.
Then Gabriel's voice.
"GO!"
Beatrice did not need to hear him.
She felt the vibration through the metal door when something slammed against it.
She pushed Chloe forward.
The passage ended at another door beneath the alley.
Chloe shoved it open.
Cold morning air hit her face.
A black SUV waited at the curb with one of Gabriel's drivers.
The driver saw them and opened the rear door.
"Mr. Costello said if anything happened, I take you to the river warehouse."
Chloe stopped.
"The same warehouse where someone shot at Matteo?"
"Different building."
"That is not reassuring."
Beatrice tugged her sleeve.
Go.
Chloe climbed inside.
The SUV pulled away before the door fully closed.
She looked back through the rear window.
No one followed.
Yet.
Beatrice pointed at Chloe's fist.
Only then did Chloe realize she was still holding the flash drive.
Her fingers were white around it.
She opened her hand.
"Marco said it's a decoy."
Beatrice signed.
Maybe he wanted Luca to think that.
Chloe frowned.
"Or maybe Luca wanted us to think Marco was helping us."
Beatrice nodded.
Good.
Doubt everyone.
Chloe looked at her.
"Including Gabriel?"
Beatrice did not hesitate.
Especially Gabriel when he is afraid.
Chloe absorbed that.
"You love him."
Beatrice smiled sadly.
That is why I know where he is weak.
The river warehouse was smaller than the first one.
No trucks waited outside.
Only a gray sedan and a single security guard stood near the door.
Inside, rows of office furniture filled the main floor.
The driver led them upstairs to a glass-walled office.
A laptop sat on the desk.
Chloe looked at it.
"Convenient."
The driver shrugged.
"Mr. Costello uses this place when he doesn't want meetings at home."
Chloe inserted the flash drive.
A single folder appeared.
LEO.
Her chest tightened.
She clicked it.
A password box opened.
No hint.
No recovery option.
Just a blinking cursor.
Beatrice leaned closer.
Chloe typed Leo's birthday.
Wrong.
Her birthday.
Wrong.
Their childhood address.
Wrong.
She tried the date their mother died.
Wrong.
The program flashed a warning.
TWO ATTEMPTS REMAIN.
Chloe pulled her hands from the keyboard.
"Great."
Beatrice touched her shoulder.
Think like him.
"He was annoying."
Beatrice smiled.
Then be annoying.
Chloe laughed despite herself.
She stared at the password field.
Leo had hated obvious passwords.
He liked things that could not be guessed from records.
Private jokes.
Gestures.
Phrases that existed only between them.
Chloe closed her eyes.
When they were children, Leo used to invent signs for people he did not like.
Their math teacher became angry chicken.
Their neighbor became tiny king.
Chloe's first boyfriend became wet sock.
She smiled.
Then she remembered another one.
Whenever Chloe got too serious, Leo signed the same phrase.
Breathe, bossy sister.
He had used it at her graduation.
At their mother's funeral.
The last time they ate pizza together.
Breathe, bossy sister.
Chloe typed BREATHEBOSSYSISTER.
The folder opened.
She covered her mouth.
Beatrice squeezed her shoulder.
Inside were dozens of files.
Photographs.
Scans.
Videos.
Audio clips Leo could not hear but had saved anyway.
One document was titled ANTHONY.
Another was titled VALENTI.
A third was titled IF I AM DEAD.
Chloe clicked the last one.
A video opened.
Leo sat in front of the camera wearing the green hoodie.
His hands moved quickly.
Chloe.
If you got this far, you remembered the password.
So first, congratulations on finally listening to me.
Chloe laughed and cried at the same time.
Beatrice watched her face.
Leo continued.
I am not trying to be a hero.
I found something by accident.
Beatrice is trying to protect her son.
Rocco is trying to protect Beatrice.
Matteo is scared but decent.
Do not trust Vincent.
Do not trust Luca.
And do not trust Gabriel until he tells you where he was on May eighteenth.
Chloe froze.
May eighteenth.
The date her name had been used to access the blue room.
Two years after Leo's death.
Gabriel had not mentioned that date.
Leo's recording was from two years earlier.
That made no sense.
Unless Leo meant May eighteenth before his death.
Chloe checked the year on the video metadata.
He had recorded it six months before he died.
She looked at Beatrice.
"He knew Gabriel had done something on May eighteenth before Leo died."
Beatrice frowned.
Chloe replayed the sign sequence.
Then she clicked another file.
A scanned photograph filled the screen.
Luca stood beside a black Valenti truck.
Vincent stood with him.
Between them was Gabriel.
The date stamp read May 18.
Three years before Leo died.
Chloe's stomach tightened.
"Gabriel was with them."
Beatrice stared at the image.
Her face changed.
She signed.
I have never seen this.
Chloe zoomed in.
Gabriel was younger.
His expression was hard.
A sealed crate sat at his feet.
The blue Valenti crest was visible on the side.
A caption in Leo's notes read: WHO ORDERED THE TRANSFER?
Beatrice signed.
What transfer?
"I don't know."
The office door opened.
Chloe snapped the laptop shut.
Gabriel entered with Rocco and two men.
His shirt cuff was torn.
A cut marked his cheek.
"Marco?" Chloe asked.
"Alive."
"Luca?"
"Gone."
"How?"
Gabriel looked angry with himself.
"He had people at both exits."
Rocco closed the door.
"He wanted the drive more than he wanted us."
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
"Maybe because the drive has this."
She opened the laptop again.
The photograph appeared.
Gabriel went silent.
Rocco looked at him.
"May eighteenth."
Gabriel stared at the image.
"Where did you get this?"
"Leo."
"That's impossible."
"Apparently not."
Chloe stood.
"What is in the crate?"
Gabriel's eyes stayed on the photograph.
"I don't remember."
"Try harder."
"It was years ago."
"Leo thought it mattered enough to leave me a warning about you."
Gabriel looked at her sharply.
"What warning?"
She replayed the video.
He watched Leo sign.
He could not understand the hands.
Chloe translated every word.
When she reached the line about May eighteenth, Gabriel sat down.
"I know what this is."
Chloe waited.
"It was the first time my father let me oversee a Valenti transfer."
"Transfer of what?"
"Cash records."
Rocco frowned.
"Why would Luca and Vincent both be there?"
"Because Dad told me they were training me."
Gabriel looked at the crate.
"I signed the manifest."
Chloe's voice went cold.
"Without checking it?"
"I was twenty-four."
"That is not an answer."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"No."
He opened them.
"I didn't check it."
Rocco swore.
"If that crate held the original ledger or records tied to Luca, your signature gave them cover."
Gabriel's face hardened.
"My father arranged the transfer."
Beatrice began signing furiously.
Chloe watched.
"No."
Gabriel looked at her.
"What?"
"She says your father did not arrange it."
Beatrice continued.
Anthony was in Boston that week.
He came home furious because you had moved something from the private archive.
Gabriel stared at her.
"Luca told me Dad ordered it."
Beatrice nodded bitterly.
Of course he did.
Rocco leaned over the laptop.
"So Luca used Gabriel's signature to remove evidence from Anthony's archive."
Chloe looked at the photo again.
"And Leo somehow found a copy years later."
Gabriel's phone rang.
He answered.
"Yes."
His expression changed.
"Where?"
He stood.
"Keep him there."
He ended the call.
"Marco woke up."
Chloe exhaled.
"Good."
"He says Luca wasn't the one who told him the real file was with you."
Chloe frowned.
"Who did?"
Gabriel looked at Rocco.
"Leo did."
"When?"
"The night he worked the banquet."
Chloe looked at the open folder on the screen.
Rocco asked the question first.
"What exactly did Leo tell him?"
Gabriel's face was unreadable.
"He said, 'My sister has the key, but she doesn't know it yet.'"
Chloe looked down at her hands.
Beatrice touched her wrist.
Chloe shook her head.
"The password wasn't the key."
Gabriel frowned.
"How do you know?"
Chloe looked at the folder list.
There was one file they had not opened.
A file named CHLOE'S HANDS.
She clicked it.
The screen went black.
Then white letters appeared.
SHOW BEATRICE THE SIGN YOU PROMISED NEVER TO USE AGAIN.
Chloe's face drained of color.
Beatrice watched her.
What sign?
Chloe could not answer.
Because there was only one sign Leo had ever made her promise never to use again.
It was not ASL.
It was a private gesture they invented as children.
May you like
And the last time Chloe had used it was five minutes before Leo walked out of her apartment on the night he died.
