Chapter 4 - THE DEAD WOMAN LEFT A TRAIL
Claire watched Lucy’s video twelve times.
Gabriel stopped her before the thirteenth.
“You’re hurting yourself.”
“My daughter is scared.”
“I know.”
“She thinks I’m coming.”
“You are.”
Claire turned on him.
“How?”
Gabriel did not answer immediately.
The digital clock on his office wall read 2:14 a.m.
Twenty-two hours remained before the kidnappers’ deadline.
Marco had every capable person Gabriel trusted tracking the video.
So far, nothing.
The walls were plain wood.
The chair generic.
No windows.
No identifiable sounds.
Professional.
Gabriel stood near his father’s old safe.
“We need to know what Crown is worth now.”
Arthur sat in the corner.
“At least eight hundred million.”
Claire stared.
Arthur continued.
“That’s liquid holdings, property, offshore accounts, commercial interests. Possibly more.”
“And Lucy owns it?”
“Legally, she may control it when paternity is confirmed.”
Claire shook her head.
“She’s seven.”
“Exactly.”
Gabriel looked at Arthur.
“Meaning Claire controls it for her.”
“Yes.”
Claire stared.
“So they need me too.”
Arthur hesitated.
“Eventually.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
Claire noticed.
“What?”
“You're leverage right now,” Gabriel said. “Once they secure Lucy’s legal identity, you're inconvenient.”
Claire understood.
They intended to kill her.
Gabriel turned to Marco.
“No one gets near Claire.”
Claire almost objected.
Then remembered Lucy’s empty bed.
She stayed quiet.
Gabriel took Vittorio’s papers from the safe and spread them across the desk.
Most were twenty or thirty years old.
Partnership agreements.
Property deeds.
Shipping records.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Richard Crowley.
Vanessa’s father.
Gabriel pointed to it.
“Where is Richard?”
Marco checked.
“New York.”
“Confirmed?”
“His plane landed yesterday morning.”
“That means nothing.”
Gabriel picked up his phone.
“Bring him here.”
Arthur looked alarmed.
“Gabriel.”
“What?”
“You can’t simply abduct Richard Crowley.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“They abducted a seven-year-old.”
Arthur said nothing.
Gabriel called another man.
“Find Richard.”
He disconnected.
Claire watched him.
“You think Vanessa’s father did this?”
“I think anyone who knew Crown existed is a suspect.”
“Including Arthur?”
Gabriel looked at his uncle.
“Yes.”
Arthur almost looked relieved by the honesty.
Claire sat down.
“What did Lucy mean when she said she saw Teresa?”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
Arthur answered.
“They may be together.”
“Then Vanessa took Teresa too.”
“Possibly.”
Claire frowned.
“Teresa called Gabriel before Lucy disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“She had access to a phone.”
Gabriel understood where Claire was going.
“She wasn’t being held at that moment.”
“Or whoever held her let her make the call.”
Arthur shook his head.
“Why?”
“To scare us.”
Claire looked toward the video monitor.
“What if Teresa wanted Lucy taken?”
Gabriel stared at her.
Claire immediately regretted saying it.
But Teresa’s warning came back.
Don’t trust the woman standing beside you.
“I'm not accusing her,” Claire said.
“She’s my mother.”
“I know.”
“You met her for three nights.”
“And during those three nights she lied to me.”
Gabriel’s expression sharpened.
“How?”
“She told me she didn’t know where Vanessa got the pills.”
Claire stood.
“But Vanessa knew the pills were on my tray before Gabriel showed them.”
Arthur frowned.
Claire continued.
“I assumed Vanessa had put them there.”
“So did I,” Gabriel said.
“But what if Teresa gave them to me deliberately?”
“For what purpose?”
“To make us test them.”
Gabriel stared.
Claire’s thoughts accelerated.
“The first night I found Teresa, she begged me not to call anyone. The second night, she asked questions about you.”
“What questions?”
“Whether you still used the west garage. Whether Arthur still came on Thursdays. Whether Vanessa lived here.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“She was collecting information.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t mention this?”
“At the time she looked like a frightened old woman.”
Arthur slowly stood.
“Teresa was never helpless.”
Gabriel looked at him.
Arthur gave a bitter smile.
“Your mother survived Vittorio.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means your father loved her.”
Arthur paused.
“And feared her.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Arthur continued.
“Teresa knew business better than half the men in Crown. When Vittorio realized money was disappearing, Teresa was the one who followed it.”
Claire looked toward the old photograph.
“Then perhaps she arranged all of this.”
Gabriel’s voice hardened.
“No.”
Claire faced him.
“You want the truth or the version that hurts less?”
That landed.
Arthur looked down.
Gabriel walked toward Claire.
Marco instinctively shifted, but Gabriel raised one hand.
“Say it.”
Claire swallowed.
“What if she let herself be found?”
“Why?”
“So I would bring you the ring.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“What if the ring wasn't proof for me?”
Claire pointed toward him.
“What if it was bait for you?”
The room became silent.
Arthur whispered, “Dear God.”
Gabriel looked at him.
Arthur sat again.
“There was one thing Teresa always believed.”
“What?”
“That Gabriel would never reopen Vittorio’s death unless something made it personal.”
Gabriel stared.
“My mother staged her discovery.”
Arthur slowly nodded.
“It’s possible.”
Claire felt sick.
“Then Vanessa’s speech?”
“Could have been part of it.”
Gabriel’s phone rang.
Marco answered first.
“Found Richard.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
“At a private club in Manhattan.”
Gabriel frowned.
“He’s sitting at a poker table.”
Claire blinked.
“If his daughter kidnapped Lucy, he’s playing cards?”
“Either he doesn't know,” Marco said, “or he wants us to think he doesn’t.”
Gabriel’s phone received an incoming call.
Unknown number.
He answered immediately.
“Mom?”
Teresa’s voice came through.
“You always were impatient.”
Gabriel closed his eyes briefly.
“Where is Lucy?”
“Safe.”
Claire rushed toward the phone.
“Let me speak to her.”
Teresa ignored her.
Gabriel’s voice became ice.
“If anything happens to that child—”
“Stop pretending threats will help.”
“Then help me.”
“I am.”
Gabriel stared at the phone.
“By kidnapping a seven-year-old?”
“I didn't take Lucy.”
“Who did?”
Teresa breathed slowly.
“I tried to stop them.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t say.”
“Why?”
“Because one of the people in that room is still reporting to them.”
Gabriel looked around.
Claire.
Arthur.
Marco.
Three possibilities.
Teresa continued.
“Vittorio left two ledgers.”
Arthur stood.
“No.”
Teresa heard him.
“So Arthur is there.”
Gabriel looked toward his uncle.
Teresa continued.
“Ask him why he only showed you one safe.”
Gabriel’s eyes sharpened.
Arthur backed up.
“Teresa, don’t.”
“Eleven years, Arthur.”
Her voice broke for the first time.
“You had eleven years to tell him.”
Gabriel walked toward his uncle.
“What second safe?”
Arthur shook his head.
“Gabriel…”
Teresa spoke.
“Your father kept it somewhere only you would know.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“Only you know.”
Gabriel frowned.
“I was thirty-one when he died.”
“No.”
Teresa’s voice softened.
“The hiding place was chosen when you were nine.”
Gabriel stared at the floor.
Then something moved behind his eyes.
Memory.
A summer afternoon.
His father laughing.
A wooden boat.
A lake.
Gabriel looked at Arthur.
“The boathouse.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Gabriel ended the call without warning.
They left immediately.
The Moretti property bordered an old private lake.
The boathouse had not been used for years.
Gabriel entered first.
Claire followed despite his protests.
Dust covered everything.
Old fishing poles.
Ropes.
A red wooden canoe.
Gabriel walked toward the far wall.
He touched a carved mark near the floor.
G + V.
Gabriel and Vittorio.
“My father made me hide coins behind this wall.”
He removed two boards.
Nothing.
Then Claire noticed scratches near a support beam.
“Here.”
Marco pried it loose.
Behind it sat a waterproof metal box.
Gabriel opened it.
Inside was a ledger.
A flash drive.
And a letter addressed:
TO GABRIEL AND CLAIRE.
Claire’s hands trembled.
Gabriel opened it.
Vittorio’s handwriting covered four pages.
They read silently.
He confessed the affair.
Claire’s birth.
The Crown trust.
Then Gabriel reached the final paragraph.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Claire took the letter.
The final lines read:
If Crown ever turns against our children, remember this:
Arthur is not the traitor.
Teresa is not the traitor.
Elaine was not the traitor.
The betrayal came from the man who called me brother.
Gabriel looked at Arthur.
“My father only called one man his brother besides you.”
Arthur slowly nodded.
Claire asked, “Who?”
A gunshot exploded outside.
Marco pushed Claire down.
Gabriel drew his weapon.
Another shot hit the wooden wall.
Security shouted from outside.
Then came tires on gravel.
Gabriel rushed to the door.
A black vehicle disappeared down the road.
One of his guards lay wounded but alive.
On the ground beside him sat a cardboard box.
Gabriel approached carefully.
Inside was Lucy’s stuffed rabbit.
Claire fell to her knees.
Pinned to it was a note.
Gabriel read it.
MIDNIGHT IS TOO LATE.
YOU HAVE SIX HOURS.
COME TO VITTORIO’S GRAVE ALONE.
And underneath, in handwriting Gabriel instantly recognized, was a name.
May you like
SALVATORE BELLINI.
The man Vittorio Moretti had called his brother.
