Chapter 5 - Midnight Shipment
Gabriel stepped into the hallway before Chloe could stop him.
"Stay with my mother."
Chloe almost laughed.
"You think I'm letting you close that door?"
He looked back at her.
"Yes."
"Then tonight is full of disappointments."
Beatrice touched Chloe's elbow.
Wait.
Chloe looked at her.
Beatrice pointed toward the wall.
Listen.
The irony would have made Chloe smile under different circumstances.
Gabriel stood in the dark hallway facing Vincent Costello.
Vincent was taller than Chloe expected.
He wore a charcoal suit without a tie and carried himself with the ease of someone who had never been required to explain why he was in a room.
Two men stood behind him.
Neither was Rocco.
Vincent looked past Gabriel and saw Chloe.
His smile arrived slowly.
"So that's her."
Gabriel did not turn.
"Why are you here?"
"You stopped answering your phone."
"That usually means I don't want to talk."
Vincent spread his hands.
"Rocco vanished."
"I know."
"One of our trucks never reached the river warehouse."
Gabriel's expression stayed flat.
"I know that too."
"Then perhaps this is not the night to entertain a server who decided she belongs in family meetings."
Chloe stepped forward.
Gabriel raised one hand without looking at her.
She stopped only because Beatrice caught her sleeve.
Vincent noticed.
His eyes settled on Beatrice.
"Aunt Bea."
He smiled warmly.
"You all right?"
Beatrice stared at him.
Then she signed one word.
Liar.
Vincent's smile did not move.
He had no idea what she had said.
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
She said nothing.
Vincent chuckled.
"Already keeping secrets?"
Chloe met his eyes.
"Maybe she asked for bread."
Beatrice's shoulders shook with silent laughter.
Vincent's smile vanished.
Gabriel glanced at his mother.
Something almost like satisfaction crossed his face.
Then it was gone.
"What truck?" Gabriel asked.
Vincent pulled a folded manifest from his pocket.
"The midnight medical shipment."
Chloe frowned.
Gabriel noticed.
"We own a distribution company."
"I didn't ask."
"Your face did."
Vincent looked between them.
"This is exactly what I'm talking about."
Gabriel took the manifest.
"Where was it last tracked?"
"Route 16."
"Driver?"
"Matteo Russo."
Beatrice reacted.
It was tiny.
A quick tightening around her eyes.
Chloe saw it.
So did Gabriel.
He turned to his mother.
"You know Matteo?"
Beatrice signed.
He drove your father.
Years ago.
Chloe translated.
Vincent's gaze sharpened.
"What did she say?"
Gabriel folded the manifest.
"Nothing important."
Vincent stared at him.
For the first time, Chloe saw uncertainty in his face.
Gabriel had lied to him.
And Vincent knew it.
"I'm going to the warehouse," Gabriel said.
Vincent nodded.
"I'll come."
"No."
The answer landed like a slap.
Vincent's eyes hardened.
"Since when do you shut me out?"
Gabriel looked at his mother.
"Since I started wondering who benefits when I don't understand the people around me."
Vincent's face went still.
Beatrice looked at Gabriel with visible surprise.
Chloe almost missed the next sign.
Good.
He can learn.
Gabriel caught the movement.
"Was that about me?"
Chloe nodded.
"It was positive."
"Translate it."
"Don't get greedy."
Vincent took one step closer.
"Gabriel."
Gabriel's attention snapped back to him.
"Go home."
"You think Rocco did this?"
"I think someone did."
"And you think a waitress and Aunt Bea are going to solve it?"
Beatrice's hands rose.
Chloe saw the insult before she saw the words.
Vincent looked at her.
"What?"
Chloe gave him a pleasant smile.
"She says you should go home."
It was not the literal translation.
The literal translation would have ended the conversation less politely.
Gabriel turned away.
"We're leaving."
Vincent looked at Chloe as she passed.
"Be careful."
She stopped.
"Is that concern or a threat?"
His smile returned.
"Depends what you decide to hear."
Beatrice stepped between them.
She looked up at Vincent.
Then she signed carefully, knowing he could not understand a word.
Leo heard enough.
That is why you killed him.
Chloe's blood went cold.
Vincent smiled at Beatrice because he thought she had said nothing that mattered.
Chloe realized in that instant how dangerous ignorance could be.
Twenty minutes later, Gabriel's convoy was moving through the industrial district.
Chloe sat beside Beatrice again.
"You think Vincent killed Leo."
Gabriel looked up sharply.
"She said that?"
Beatrice nodded before Chloe could answer.
Gabriel leaned forward.
"Based on what?"
Beatrice signed.
His shoes.
Chloe frowned.
"His shoes?"
Beatrice nodded.
The night Leo died, Vincent came to the house after midnight.
His shoes were wet.
Mud on the heels.
He said he had been at a club downtown.
But it had not rained downtown.
It had rained near the university.
Gabriel stared at her.
"Why didn't you tell the police?"
Beatrice's expression became bitter.
I did.
They brought an interpreter the next day.
Vincent arrived before the interpreter.
He told them I was grieving and confused.
When the interpreter came, the detective had already decided it was nothing.
Chloe translated slowly.
Her anger grew with every sentence.
Gabriel looked away.
"I didn't know."
Beatrice signed immediately.
You did not want to know.
Chloe hesitated.
Gabriel looked at her.
"Say it."
"She says you didn't want to know."
He absorbed the words without arguing.
The warehouse appeared ahead.
One of the rolling steel doors stood open.
No guards were visible.
Gabriel reached for the handle.
Chloe caught his sleeve.
"You're just going in?"
"Yes."
"That seems stupid."
"People tell me that less often than they should."
Beatrice signed.
I like her.
Gabriel saw it.
"I know that one."
Chloe looked at him.
"Which part?"
"Like."
Beatrice smiled.
It was the first sign he had correctly recognized all night.
The moment lasted less than a second.
Then a gunshot cracked from inside the warehouse.
Gabriel shoved the car door closed.
"Stay down."
His security team moved around them.
A second shot echoed.
Then silence.
Chloe's heart hammered.
Beatrice grabbed her arm and pointed toward a side window.
A man was moving behind the glass.
He stumbled.
He pressed one hand against the window.
Matteo Russo.
Chloe had never met him, but she knew from the way Gabriel reacted.
"Matteo!"
Gabriel ran toward the side entrance with two guards.
Chloe started after him.
Beatrice pulled her back.
No.
Then Beatrice pointed toward the open loading bay.
Something lay on the concrete just inside.
A green hoodie.
Leo's hoodie.
Again.
Chloe's fear turned to fury.
"I'm done being baited."
She walked toward it before Beatrice could stop her.
The warehouse smelled of cold metal and diesel.
Rows of pallets stretched into darkness.
The green hoodie lay beneath a hanging work light.
Chloe approached slowly.
A phone rested on top of it.
The screen was lit.
There was a video paused at the first frame.
Leo's face filled the screen.
Chloe stopped so abruptly her shoe scraped the concrete.
Her brother looked younger.
Alive.
Terrified.
His hands were raised in front of the camera.
He was signing.
Chloe touched the play button.
Leo moved immediately.
If you're watching this, I was right to be scared.
Chloe's knees weakened.
The video continued.
The man in the ledger is not the one Beatrice thinks.
There are two V names.
One is Vincent.
The other is hidden.
Leo looked over his shoulder in the recording.
Then he signed faster.
Do not trust the man Gabriel calls family.
The video cut to black.
Chloe stared at the screen.
Behind her, footsteps approached.
She turned.
A man stood between the pallets.
Rocco.
He raised both hands where she could see them.
"Don't scream."
Chloe's grip tightened around the phone.
"You have ten seconds to explain why you have my dead brother's clothes."
Rocco looked at the phone.
Then at her.
"Because I've spent two years trying to keep Vincent from finding that video."
Chloe heard Gabriel shouting her name somewhere deeper in the warehouse.
Rocco stepped closer.
May you like
"And if Gabriel sees the rest before we find the second V, his mother dies tonight."
