Chapter 13 - Leo's Last Message
Chloe stared at the instruction on the screen.
SHOW BEATRICE THE SIGN YOU PROMISED NEVER TO USE AGAIN.
The warehouse office disappeared around her.
She was back in her apartment two years earlier.
Leo was standing by the door.
He was angry.
She was angrier.
They had fought about money.
About his strange behavior.
About the fact that he refused to tell her why he kept looking over his shoulder.
Chloe had accused him of getting involved with people he could not handle.
Leo had signed that she treated him like a child.
She had answered with a gesture from their childhood.
A flat hand tapped twice against the heart, then turned outward with two fingers crossed.
It meant one thing between them.
I trust you even when I don't understand.
They had invented it after their mother died.
It had been too private for anyone else.
When they became teenagers, Leo called it embarrassing.
He made Chloe promise never to use it in public.
She had used it that night because she wanted him to know her anger did not erase her trust.
He had smiled.
Then he had left.
He never came back.
Chloe's hands trembled.
Beatrice watched her.
Chloe raised one flat hand.
She tapped her heart twice.
Then she turned the hand outward and crossed two fingers.
Beatrice's face changed instantly.
She knew it.
Chloe stopped breathing.
"You have seen that before."
Beatrice nodded.
Her eyes filled.
Leo showed me.
The night he came to Il Canto.
He said only you would know it.
Chloe sank into the chair.
"What did he tell you?"
Beatrice signed slowly.
If I ever show you this, he said, it means Chloe has to know everything.
Gabriel stood near the desk, silent.
For once, he did not ask Chloe to translate immediately.
He watched his mother's face instead.
Beatrice continued.
Leo gave me an envelope.
He said not to open it unless you showed me that sign.
Chloe looked up.
"Where is it?"
Beatrice's expression hardened.
Safe place.
"Where?"
Beatrice looked at Gabriel.
Not in his house.
Rocco almost smiled.
Gabriel did not.
"Where, Ma?"
Beatrice signed.
Church.
"What church?"
Saint Jude.
Rocco straightened.
"Your family's old chapel?"
Beatrice nodded.
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
"It's been closed for years."
"Then Luca may not think to search it."
Rocco shook his head.
"Luca grew up with Gabriel."
"He knows every family property."
Beatrice signed.
Not where I hid it.
Chloe translated.
Gabriel looked at his mother.
"You planned all of this?"
Beatrice gave him a look that answered before her hands did.
For years.
He fell silent.
The trip to Saint Jude took forty minutes.
The chapel stood at the edge of an old cemetery beyond the city.
Its stone walls were dark with age.
Vines covered one side.
A rusted chain hung from the front gate.
Gabriel cut it with bolt cutters from the SUV.
Chloe looked at him.
"Do you carry those everywhere?"
"No."
Rocco walked past them.
"He has people who carry them everywhere."
Inside, dust covered the pews.
Morning light came through stained glass windows in faded colors.
Beatrice walked toward the altar.
She did not hesitate.
Behind a carved statue was a narrow cabinet.
She removed one pearl earring.
The post fit into a tiny hole in the wood.
A latch clicked.
Chloe stared.
"Do all your jewelry pieces open secret compartments?"
Beatrice smiled.
Some.
Gabriel looked offended.
"How many?"
Beatrice ignored him.
Inside the cabinet was a small metal box.
Beatrice took it out.
She handed it to Chloe.
No key.
No lock.
Just a lid sealed with old tape.
Chloe peeled it open.
Inside was an envelope with her name.
Her legs nearly failed.
Leo's handwriting.
She sat in the nearest pew.
Gabriel and Rocco stayed several feet away.
Beatrice sat beside her.
Chloe opened the envelope.
There was a printed photograph.
The same one from the hollow Bible.
Luca stood beside a man in a gray coat.
The man's face was visible now.
Rocco recognized him.
"Special Agent Daniel Price."
Gabriel looked at him.
"The federal investigator who led the Valenti case."
Rocco nodded.
Chloe turned over the photograph.
Leo had written a date.
One week before Anthony Costello's fatal crash.
Beneath the photo was a memory card.
And beneath that was a letter.
Not from Leo.
From Anthony Costello.
Gabriel recognized the handwriting.
His face changed.
Chloe looked at Beatrice.
"Can I read it?"
Beatrice nodded.
It was addressed to her.
BEA.
Chloe read aloud.
"If you are reading this, then I was right to be afraid."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Chloe continued.
"Luca has been feeding information to Price for years."
"He uses Vincent to move money through Valenti, then gives Price enough small arrests to make himself valuable."
"I confronted him."
"He denied everything until I showed him the photograph."
"He begged me not to tell Gabriel."
"He said Gabriel would destroy him."
Gabriel laughed once, bitterly.
Chloe continued.
"I told him Gabriel deserved the truth."
"That was when Luca stopped begging."
Rocco looked toward the chapel doors.
Chloe read the next line.
"If something happens to me, do not trust Vincent to interpret for you."
Beatrice's eyes filled.
"Do not trust doctors Luca chooses."
"Do not trust anyone who tells you that silence means confusion."
Chloe's voice broke.
She forced herself to continue.
"And tell our son that a man can inherit power without inheriting wisdom."
Gabriel looked down.
"Wisdom is learned by listening to people who cannot benefit him."
"I hope he learns before it costs him you."
The letter ended there.
No signature was necessary.
Everyone knew the hand.
Gabriel sat in the pew behind Chloe.
For several seconds, he stared at the floor.
Then he looked at his mother.
His hands rose awkwardly.
He signed two words he had practiced in the car.
I failed.
Beatrice's eyes widened.
His handshape was imperfect.
The grammar was clumsy.
But she understood.
She answered.
Yes.
Gabriel nodded.
He signed again.
Learning.
Beatrice's face softened.
Not enough yet.
But softer.
Chloe looked down at the memory card.
"We still have this."
Rocco took a small reader from his pocket.
Chloe stared at him.
"Do you carry everything?"
"Almost."
They inserted the memory card into a tablet.
One video appeared.
Leo again.
This time he was outdoors.
The image shook as if the phone were hidden beneath a jacket.
He filmed three men in a parking garage.
Luca.
Vincent.
And Special Agent Price.
The audio was faint.
Chloe could not follow most of it.
But Leo had added subtitles from lip-reading what he could.
Luca handed Price an envelope.
Vincent looked angry.
Price said something.
Then Luca turned toward Vincent.
The subtitle appeared.
THE OLD WOMAN CAN'T TELL GABRIEL ANYTHING.
Vincent replied.
SHE KEEPS TRYING.
Luca smiled.
Then make sure he keeps thinking she is confused.
Gabriel's face went white.
The video continued.
Price walked away.
Vincent turned on Luca.
The subtitle read.
YOU SAID ANTHONY'S DEATH WOULD END THIS.
Luca moved closer.
IT DID.
UNTIL THE DEAF KID FOUND THE BOOK.
Chloe stopped the video.
Her hands went numb.
No one breathed.
She pressed play again.
Vincent said something else.
Leo had zoomed in.
The subtitle appeared.
WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT HIM?
Luca looked directly toward the camera's direction.
For one terrifying second, it seemed as if he could see Leo across time.
Then the subtitle appeared.
NOTHING YET.
FIRST FIND OUT WHO HE TOLD.
The video ended.
Chloe's eyes burned.
"He knew."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Leo knew they were coming for him."
Beatrice held Chloe's hand.
Rocco looked at the chapel doors again.
"We need to leave."
Gabriel stood.
"Why?"
Rocco held up his phone.
No signal.
"Because I had service when we came in."
A car engine started outside.
Then another.
Gabriel moved toward the stained glass window.
Three black SUVs had pulled across the cemetery road.
The chapel was surrounded.
A message appeared on Chloe's phone despite the weak signal.
Unknown number.
She opened it.
One sentence.
YOU FINALLY FOUND LEO'S LAST MESSAGE.
A second message arrived.
May you like
NOW LET'S SEE WHAT YOU'RE WILLING TO LOSE FOR IT.
