Chapter 4 - The Name on the Napkin
Gabriel did not touch the brass key.
He looked at it as if it had been placed in Chloe's hand by a ghost.
"What truth?"
Beatrice did not answer him.
Instead, she looked at Chloe.
The older woman signed slowly enough that every movement felt deliberate.
Not here.
Not in this building.
Chloe translated.
Gabriel's gaze moved toward the shattered pantry door.
The red emergency lights still pulsed over shelves of flour, oil, and canned tomatoes.
"Where?"
Beatrice lifted one finger.
Home.
Gabriel shook his head.
"No."
His mother raised an eyebrow.
"If Rocco knew enough to bring Leo's pendant here, the house could be compromised too."
Beatrice signed again.
Blue room.
Gabriel's expression changed.
"That room has been locked since Dad died."
Beatrice nodded.
Chloe looked from one of them to the other.
"Then I assume the key matters."
Gabriel finally reached for it.
Chloe closed her fist.
He looked at her hand.
"Give it to me."
"It was in my brother's pendant."
"It belongs to my family."
"So did whatever happened to Leo?"
Gabriel's eyes lifted to hers.
The question hung between them.
Marco stood in the pantry doorway pretending not to listen.
Beatrice stepped between Chloe and Gabriel.
She placed one palm against Chloe's closed fist.
Then she placed the other against Gabriel's chest.
Together.
Chloe swallowed.
"She says we go together."
Gabriel looked at his mother.
Beatrice held his gaze.
He nodded once.
"Fine."
He turned toward Marco.
"Lock the restaurant."
Marco blinked.
"There are forty customers out there."
"Comp their dinner and send them home."
"The power is still out."
"Then give them candles and apologize."
Marco hesitated.
Gabriel's voice lowered.
"And Marco?"
"Yes?"
"If Rocco calls, you don't know where we went."
Marco looked offended.
"I already don't know where you're going."
"Good."
Gabriel took out his phone.
"Keep it that way."
Ten minutes later, Chloe was sitting in the back of a black sedan beside Beatrice.
Gabriel sat across from them in the rear-facing seat.
A driver Chloe had never seen before kept his eyes on the road.
Two more cars followed behind.
Chloe noticed.
"I thought you didn't trust anyone."
Gabriel looked out the window.
"I don't."
"Then who are they?"
"People I distrust less than the others."
"Comforting."
Beatrice tapped Chloe's arm.
He was worse as a child.
Chloe smiled.
"She says you were charming as a boy."
Beatrice smacked her knee and laughed silently.
Gabriel narrowed his eyes.
"That wasn't what she said."
"You're learning."
His eyes shifted toward his mother's hands.
For a moment, he seemed embarrassed.
Then his phone rang.
He glanced at the name.
Vincent.
Chloe saw it before he turned the screen away.
Gabriel answered.
"What?"
A man's voice spoke rapidly through the phone.
Chloe could not make out the words.
Gabriel looked at her.
"No."
He listened.
"Rocco is missing."
Another pause.
"Find him before he finds us."
He ended the call.
Beatrice had watched his mouth carefully.
She signed to Chloe.
Vincent asked about me?
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
"Did Vincent ask where your mother was?"
Gabriel's eyes sharpened.
"Why?"
"Because she wants to know."
He hesitated.
"Yes."
Beatrice's face hardened.
She signed again.
He always asks after the door is opened.
Chloe translated.
Gabriel leaned forward.
"What door?"
Beatrice looked out the window.
She refused to answer.
The Costello house stood behind iron gates on a hill overlooking the city.
It was less a house than a stone fortress pretending to be a home.
Tall cypress trees lined the drive.
Security lights flooded the walls.
Men in dark coats moved through the grounds.
Chloe stepped out of the car and immediately regretted every life choice that had brought her there.
"This is subtle."
Gabriel ignored the comment.
He walked beside his mother toward the front steps.
Beatrice stopped halfway up.
She looked at Chloe.
Come.
Chloe followed.
Inside, the house was almost unnaturally quiet.
No television played.
No music drifted from another room.
Even the staff seemed to move carefully.
Beatrice took the lead.
She walked past the formal dining room and down a narrow hallway lined with family photographs.
Chloe noticed Gabriel at ten.
Gabriel at sixteen.
Gabriel beside a stern older man whose eyes looked remarkably like his.
His father.
Then she saw a photograph of another boy.
Same age as Gabriel.
Lighter hair.
Wider smile.
Chloe slowed.
"Who's that?"
Gabriel did not look at the picture.
"Vincent."
"Your brother?"
"Cousin."
Beatrice stopped.
She pointed at the photograph.
Then she signed.
He lived here after his parents died.
Like a son.
Chloe translated.
Gabriel said nothing.
They continued until the hallway ended at a blue-painted door.
It was the only door in the house that looked old.
The brass lock was tarnished.
Beatrice touched it with two fingers.
Blue room.
Chloe held up Leo's key.
Gabriel frowned.
"That can't fit."
It did not.
The key was too small.
Chloe tried anyway.
Nothing.
Gabriel looked at his mother.
"You brought us here for a key that doesn't open the door?"
Beatrice rolled her eyes.
Then she reached up and removed the pearl brooch from her collar.
The pin slid into a tiny hole in the wall molding beside the door.
A wooden panel clicked open.
Inside was a small steel box.
Chloe stared at it.
"Of course."
Beatrice pointed to the brass key.
Chloe inserted it.
The box opened.
Inside lay a folded napkin from Il Canto.
Nothing else.
Gabriel laughed without humor.
"This is the truth Dad buried?"
Beatrice's eyes remained fixed on the napkin.
Chloe unfolded it carefully.
Three names were written in faded black ink.
Rocco Bellini.
Vincent Costello.
Leo Bennett.
Beside Leo's name was a date.
Two days before he died.
Beneath the names was a sentence.
THE BOY SAW THE LEDGER.
Chloe felt the room contract around her.
"What ledger?"
Beatrice's hands moved.
Your brother came to the restaurant because he had found a book in a car.
Chloe shook her head.
"What car?"
Beatrice continued.
A black sedan left running behind the university auditorium.
Leo thought someone had dropped a wallet.
He opened the rear door.
He found a leather ledger on the seat.
Chloe translated each sentence while Gabriel's face grew harder.
Beatrice signed faster.
Leo did not understand the numbers.
But he understood names.
He saw Vincent.
He saw Rocco.
He saw your father's name.
Gabriel stepped back.
"My father?"
Beatrice nodded.
Chloe's stomach twisted.
"Did Leo steal it?"
No.
He photographed pages.
Then someone came back.
He ran.
"How did he know you?"
Beatrice's hands slowed.
He saw me at Il Canto one week earlier.
I was signing with a deaf friend.
He remembered me.
He came back because he was afraid to speak where people could hear.
Chloe pressed both hands against the table to steady herself.
"What did he tell you?"
That the men in the ledger were moving money through companies they did not own.
That someone called V was taking from Gabriel.
That someone had followed him from campus.
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Beatrice turned on him with sudden fury.
Her hands moved so fast Chloe nearly missed words.
I tried.
For two years, I tried.
You told me to rest.
You brought doctors.
You told people I was confused.
Every time I signed Rocco or Vincent, you thought I wanted them to visit.
You never learned enough to know the difference.
Chloe's voice cracked as she translated.
Gabriel went pale.
Beatrice was not finished.
The night Leo died, I called you twelve times.
You sent Vincent to check on me.
Chloe stopped translating.
She looked at Beatrice.
"Vincent came here that night?"
Beatrice nodded.
Then she signed one final sentence.
And the next morning, the napkin was gone from my purse.
Gabriel stared at the one in Chloe's hand.
"Then how is this here?"
Beatrice reached for the napkin.
She turned it over.
On the back was handwriting Chloe knew instantly.
Leo's.
He had written only five words.
IF I DISAPPEAR, ASK HER.
Chloe's vision blurred.
Before she could speak, a loud crack came from the hallway.
Gabriel moved toward the door.
The lights went out.
Not the house lights.
Only the lights in the blue room corridor.
Then a man's voice came through the darkness.
"Gabriel."
Vincent.
May you like
"We need to talk before that waitress destroys this family."
