Chapter 8 - Evelyn's Clear Hour
For months afterward, Chloe would remember that night in fragments.
Mia's bare feet on the polished floor.
The flash drive clutched between her tiny fingers.
Smoke drifting past the windows.
Gabriel's voice on the phone telling her to breathe.
Men running through hallways.
And the certainty that her mother had knowingly walked outside.
“Where did Grandma go?” Mia asked.
Chloe crouched.
“What did she tell you?”
“She said hide this.”
“Anything else?”
Mia nodded.
“She said tell Mr. Scary that she remembers.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“What does she remember?”
“She didn't say.”
Gabriel arrived seventeen minutes later.
The attack had been a diversion.
Two guards were injured.
None killed.
Security cameras showed Evelyn walking voluntarily toward a black sedan that had entered behind a delivery van.
Vincent's people hadn't dragged her.
She had gone to them.
“She knew they were coming,” Gabriel said.
Chloe stared at the screen.
“Why would she go?”
“To protect Mia.”
“Or me.”
“Both.”
Dean enlarged the video.
Before entering the sedan, Evelyn turned toward a camera.
She raised her right hand.
Four fingers.
Then two.
Then one.
Dean replayed it.
“Four-two-one.”
“Address?” Chloe asked.
Gabriel shook his head.
“Code.”
Mia tugged Chloe's sleeve.
“Grandma counts songs.”
Everyone turned.
Blue Moon.
Numbers hidden in music.
Dean opened Thomas's ledger.
Page 421 contained one entry.
Lake Street Cold Storage — V.M.
Gabriel grabbed his coat.
“Found her.”
Chloe followed.
“No.”
“Don't start.”
“Gabriel—”
“She is my mother.”
“And you're Leo's daughter. Vincent knows that now.”
“That is exactly why I'm going.”
He stared at her.
Thomas, pale from surgery but conscious, spoke from the doorway.
“Take her.”
Everyone turned.
He had insisted on being moved from the hospital after the attack.
His left arm rested in a sling.
Gabriel frowned.
“You should be in bed.”
Thomas ignored him.
“Vincent expects Chloe to hide. Evelyn knows that.”
Chloe looked at him.
“You think Mom wants me there?”
“I think Evelyn never does anything without three reasons.”
“She has dementia.”
Thomas's face softened.
“She also has moments where she remembers every detail we wish she would forget.”
He looked at Chloe.
“Your mother has been fighting longer than any of us.”
They drove to the warehouse near Lake Street.
Police were not called.
Chloe hated that.
Gabriel explained Vincent had people inside law enforcement.
She hated that more.
Thomas remained behind with Mia.
For once, Chloe agreed.
At the warehouse, Gabriel's team entered through three access points.
Chloe stayed inside an armored vehicle until Dean signaled.
Then she walked in.
Evelyn sat at a table in the middle of the empty warehouse.
Vincent stood behind her.
He held no gun.
That frightened Chloe more.
Gabriel entered from the opposite side.
“Let her go.”
Vincent smiled.
“Family reunion.”
Gabriel's face remained blank.
“You killed Leo.”
Vincent sighed.
“So we're skipping conversation.”
“The recording exists.”
“Old men say many things on tapes.”
“The bomb maker is alive.”
Vincent's smile weakened.
Gabriel continued.
“He's talking.”
“People talk when they're frightened.”
“So do guilty men.”
Vincent looked at Chloe.
“You have Leo's mouth.”
She felt sick.
“Don't talk about him.”
“Your father was sentimental.”
“He was better than you.”
“You never met him.”
“I don't need to meet garbage to know what it smells like either.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Vincent didn't.
“You think you're brave because Gabriel protects you?”
“No.”
Chloe looked at Evelyn.
“I learned it from her.”
Vincent placed a hand on Evelyn's shoulder.
Chloe's body tensed.
“Where is the drive?”
Evelyn smiled.
“Which one?”
Vincent's expression changed.
“The ownership records.”
“Oh.”
“You know.”
“I forget things.”
He gripped her shoulder.
Gabriel took one step forward.
Vincent's men raised weapons.
Gabriel stopped.
Evelyn looked almost amused.
“Sometimes dementia is useful.”
Chloe stared at her mother.
She was perfectly lucid.
Vincent leaned closer.
“Do not play with me.”
“I've been playing with you since 1999.”
His face changed.
Evelyn continued.
“You thought Thomas kept the records.”
“He did.”
“Copies.”
“You?”
“Women become invisible around men like you.”
Her voice strengthened.
“You talked in kitchens. Hallways. Cars. You never noticed the waitress, the wife, the pregnant woman.”
Chloe felt tears rise.
Evelyn looked at her.
“I noticed.”
Vincent stepped backward.
“What did you do?”
“I kept everything.”
“Where?”
She smiled.
“With the one person you never considered dangerous.”
Vincent looked toward Chloe.
“No.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Not Chloe.”
Then Chloe understood.
“Mia.”
Vincent's face drained.
At the safe house, the flash drive wasn't merely stored in Mia's room.
Evelyn had sewn a tiny memory card into the lining of Mia's stuffed rabbit months ago.
Thomas had apparently contacted Evelyn before his recent transfer.
They had prepared for this.
Vincent grabbed Evelyn by the hair.
Gabriel's gun rose instantly.
“Touch her again.”
Vincent laughed.
“You won't shoot.”
“Try me.”
“Your niece is standing six feet away.”
Gabriel's eyes became empty.
Chloe recognized the expression.
The feared man everyone whispered about had finally arrived.
“You misunderstand,” Gabriel said softly.
“I don't need to shoot you.”
A side door opened.
Police entered.
Not Vincent's officers.
Federal agents.
Chloe stared.
Dean smiled.
Gabriel looked at her.
“You wanted law enforcement.”
She blinked.
“You called the FBI?”
“Thomas did.”
Vincent looked toward Evelyn.
She smiled.
“You always underestimated everybody.”
Agents surrounded the warehouse.
For one impossible second, Chloe believed it was over.
Then Vincent pulled a small pistol from an ankle holster.
He pointed it at Chloe.
Evelyn moved first.
She knocked his arm aside.
The gun fired.
Gabriel tackled Vincent.
Agents rushed forward.
Chloe ran to Evelyn.
“Mom!”
Evelyn looked down.
No blood.
The bullet had missed.
Chloe hugged her.
“You scared me.”
Evelyn whispered, “Good.”
Chloe laughed and cried at the same time.
Gabriel stood several feet away while agents handcuffed Vincent.
Vincent looked at him.
“You think this ends because I go to prison?”
Gabriel said nothing.
Vincent smiled.
“Ask Thomas who really ordered Leo's death.”
Gabriel froze.
Vincent was dragged away.
Chloe looked at Thomas's old records on Dean's laptop.
There was only one person whose authorization appeared above Vincent's on the night of the bombing.
Antonio Costa.
Gabriel's father.
And although Antonio had been dead for years, one question now threatened to destroy everything they thought they understood.
Had Gabriel's father tried to stop Leo's murder?
May you like
Or had he ordered it?
---
