Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE THEM
“Colin Mercer didn't disappear,” Gabriel said. “He ran.”
He stood at the foot of my bed, holding the photographs from Elena's accident.
It was nearly midnight.
Neither of us had slept.
Pierce had spent the evening checking employment records, fuel receipts, and the addresses Colin had listed during his years with Rossi Logistics.
Three years earlier, Colin had driven delivery trucks.
Eighteen months ago, Victor had transferred him into facilities management, where he maintained security terminals and warehouse access systems.
The connection was too convenient to ignore.
“His apartment is empty,” Gabriel continued. “But his mother's nursing home is still receiving payments.”
“From Colin?”
“Through an account Victor controls.”
I stared at him.
“That doesn't prove he's guilty.”
“No. But it tells me Victor has leverage.”
Gabriel picked up his coat.
“I'm going to find him.”
“Gabriel.”
He stopped.
“Don't hurt him.”
His expression hardened.
“He helped three armed men reach my son.”
“Maybe. But if he knows what happened to Elena, you need him alive.”
Gabriel looked at the scarred skin around my shoulder.
“You're asking me to show mercy to a man who nearly got you killed.”
“I'm asking you to find out the truth before you decide what he deserves.”
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then he nodded once.
“I'll bring him back.”
By morning, Pierce had found Colin.
He hadn't been hiding in a motel or escaping across the border.
He had been sitting beside his elderly mother's bed at a nursing facility near Albany.
He was forty-one, thin, exhausted, and trembling when Pierce brought him into the medical facility.
Gabriel wanted the conversation held in his private office.
I insisted on being present.
Dr. Keene objected.
Gabriel found a wheelchair.
And somehow, despite the pain, I ended up sitting across from the man whose actions had opened the gate to the gunmen.
Colin wouldn't look at me.
“I didn't know they were going to shoot anyone,” he whispered.
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Then tell me what you knew.”
Colin rubbed his hands together.
“Mr. Sloane said there was a security test. He told me Elena's old access permissions needed temporary restoration to check the family-office system.”
“Why use her account?”
“He said it was part of an old emergency override.”
Pierce frowned.
“You knew that wasn't standard procedure.”
Colin nodded.
“I'm not proud of it.”
“Why did you do it?”
Colin looked down.
“My mother has dementia. Mr. Sloane pays the part the insurance doesn't cover. He said the arrangement would end if I refused.”
Gabriel's face remained unreadable.
“And Mrs. Gable?”
Colin closed his eyes.
“He made me deliver the notice about her husband's appointment. I thought he wanted the nanny gone so Leo could be moved to another house.”
“Why?”
“He said there was a threat against the family.”
I felt anger rise through the pain.
“You knew someone was coming for a little boy, and you said nothing?”
Colin finally looked at me.
“I thought they were going to take him someplace safe.”
“And when you heard the shooting?”
“I ran.”
His answer was so small that nobody spoke for a moment.
Gabriel stood.
“Three years ago. Route 9. Elena's car.”
Colin's expression changed immediately.
“I was told not to talk about that.”
“By Victor?”
He nodded.
“Then start talking.”
Colin began to cry.
He explained that Victor had ordered him to park a blue maintenance truck near an isolated curve on Route 9.
He'd been told Elena was driving through a dangerous area and might need help.
“When I got there, Mr. Sloane was already waiting farther down the road,” Colin said.
Gabriel gripped the chair.
“Waiting?”
“Yes.”
“Before the accident?”
Colin nodded.
The room went silent.
“I heard tires screech,” he continued. “Then the crash. I ran toward the car, but Mr. Sloane got there first.”
“Did he pull Leo out?”
“Yes. The little boy was crying. Elena was still in the front.”
Gabriel's voice lowered.
“What happened to my wife?”
Colin pressed his hands against his face.
“I don't know. Mr. Sloane told me to take the child away from the vehicle. I did. Then I heard a sound like something bursting.”
“The fire?”
Colin nodded.
“When I turned around, the car was burning.”
Gabriel's hands began to shake.
“Why didn't you tell the police?”
“Victor said I'd be blamed for leaving a woman behind. He said he'd make sure I never saw my mother again.”
I looked at Colin.
His fear was real.
So was his guilt.
“Did you see anything else?” I asked.
He hesitated.
“Something about the truck bothered me.”
“What?”
“The company had removed that vehicle from service a week earlier. Victor made me use it anyway.”
“Why?”
“I never knew.”
Pierce made a note.
Gabriel slowly sat down.
For the first time, the possibility that Elena's death had been arranged was no longer just a terrible suspicion.
Someone had positioned a truck and a trusted family associate at the exact place she would crash.
Colin had seen it.
But he hadn't understood what he was witnessing.
Or hadn't wanted to.
Gabriel looked at Pierce.
“Get Colin somewhere safe. Contact the state investigator we discussed. He gives a recorded statement with counsel present.”
Colin looked startled.
“You're letting me leave?”
“You're not free of responsibility,” Gabriel answered. “But you're going to tell the truth.”
Colin began crying again.
After they left, Gabriel stayed beside my wheelchair.
“She's been dead three years,” he said. “Three years, and I never asked the right questions.”
I reached toward him.
He took my hand.
His palm was warm and rough.
“I trusted the man who carried my son out of that car,” he whispered.
“You trusted someone who knew exactly how to make you need him.”
Gabriel looked at me.
For one brief moment, all the distance between the feared mafia boss and his housekeeper seemed to disappear.
Then footsteps hurried down the hallway.
Dr. Keene appeared.
“Gabriel, there's a problem.”
He immediately released my hand.
“What happened?”
“A transportation team arrived at the south entrance. They have authorization to move Leo to another facility.”
Gabriel frowned.
“I didn't authorize that.”
“They have your signature.”
Pierce appeared behind her, speaking into his radio.
“Lock down the south wing.”
I felt my stomach turn.
“Where's Leo?”
Dr. Keene looked at me.
“He was with Mrs. Gable ten minutes ago.”
Gabriel moved toward the door.
His voice became terrifyingly quiet.
“Find my son.”
Pierce pressed his earpiece.
A guard answered.
Then another.
Something was wrong.
Pierce's face drained.
“The transport team used valid medical credentials. One of them told Mrs. Gable the boy needed a routine examination.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“Where is he?”
Pierce listened.
Then he lowered his hand.
“The security team just found Mrs. Gable unconscious beside the service elevator.”
I gripped the armrests of my wheelchair.
“Leo?”
May you like
Pierce looked straight at Gabriel.
“His wheelchair transport is gone.”
