Chapter 3 - The Man Sitting at Gabriel's Table
Gabriel did not accuse Leo.
That frightened Leo more than an accusation would have.
For sixteen years, Leo had been Gabriel's shield.
Now Gabriel simply handed him the photograph.
"Explain."
Leo studied it.
His father, Antonio Marino, stood beside Gabriel's father.
Victor Hayes stood behind them.
Paulie Moretti was younger, perhaps twenty.
"I've never seen this."
"Your father never mentioned it?"
"My father barely mentioned anything from those years."
Gabriel opened the metal box further.
There were bank records.
Property deeds.
Old newspaper clippings.
And one cassette labeled:
FOR GABRIEL — PLAY ALONE.
Norah noticed another photograph beneath it.
She pulled it out.
Rosa stood outside Apartment 4B.
Beside her was a young woman.
Norah's breath caught.
"That's my mother."
Gabriel looked.
"You sure?"
"Yes."
Norah had only a few photographs of her mother at that age.
But there was no mistake.
Evelyn Bennett.
Gabriel turned the photograph over.
Rosa's handwriting:
Evelyn kept my secret. I promised to keep hers.
Norah felt cold.
"My mother knew Rosa?"
"Apparently."
"She never told me."
Gabriel watched her.
"Seems to be a family tradition."
They took the box to a secure office Gabriel maintained downtown.
The cassette recorder was ancient, but Leo found equipment to play it.
Gabriel asked Norah to stay.
The tape crackled.
Then Rosa's voice filled the room.
"Gabriel, if you are hearing this, I am probably gone for real this time."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
He remembered that voice.
Older.
Weaker.
But hers.
"I need you to understand something. Your father did terrible things, but the story you were told about his death was a lie."
Gabriel had been sixteen when Michael Hayes died.
The official underworld story said a rival family ordered the killing.
Gabriel had spent twelve years destroying that organization.
Rosa continued.
"Your father discovered that Victor was stealing from the organization. Not thousands. Millions. Victor had Paulie helping him. Antonio Marino discovered it too."
Leo's jaw tightened.
"Michael planned to remove Victor peacefully. He wanted to leave the business. He wanted to take you and me somewhere else."
Gabriel stared at the recorder.
"Victor found out."
The tape hissed.
"On October seventeenth, Victor arranged the meeting where your father was killed."
Gabriel stood abruptly.
The chair hit the wall.
Norah flinched.
Leo remained still.
Rosa's voice continued.
"But Victor did not kill Michael."
Gabriel froze.
"The person who pulled the trigger was someone Michael trusted enough to turn his back on."
The recording distorted.
Then stopped.
"What?"
Gabriel grabbed the recorder.
Leo checked the cassette.
"The tape's damaged."
Gabriel slammed his palm against the desk.
Norah approached cautiously.
"There may be another copy."
Gabriel turned.
"Where?"
She pointed toward the documents.
"Rosa didn't leave all this without organizing it."
They searched.
Norah noticed small handwritten numbers in the corners of several papers.
317.
418.
923.
"They're addresses," she said.
Gabriel frowned.
"317 was the locker."
"418 was our building."
Norah pointed to 923.
"What's 923?"
Leo searched the property records.
His face changed.
"Nine twenty-three West Mercer."
Gabriel knew it.
"That's Saint Catherine's."
An abandoned Catholic hospital.
Rosa had worked there as a cleaner before Gabriel was born.
They arrived shortly after sunset.
The building had been closed for years.
Inside, dust covered everything.
They found room 923 on the ninth floor.
There was no bed.
Only an old cabinet bolted to the wall.
Inside sat another envelope.
Norah opened it.
Her name was written across the front.
NORAH BENNETT.
"Why me?"
Gabriel said nothing.
Norah opened it.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Her birth certificate.
Mother: Evelyn Bennett.
Father:
Norah stopped breathing.
The space was not blank.
A name had been typed there.
Daniel Hayes.
Gabriel took the document.
His face changed.
"Daniel was my father's younger brother."
Norah stared at him.
"No."
"He disappeared twenty-five years ago."
"No."
"My family believed he was dead."
Norah backed away.
"My father was Thomas Bennett."
"Was he?"
"Yes."
"Did you ever meet him?"
"He died before I was born."
Gabriel's eyes softened.
"So you were told."
Norah looked again at the birth certificate.
Daniel Hayes.
The room seemed to tilt.
"If this is real..."
Gabriel finished the thought.
"You're my cousin."
Norah sank into the old chair.
The waitress who had walked into Benny's expecting to finish a shift had somehow become part of the Hayes family.
But Leo had found something else.
Another paper.
"Gabriel."
He handed it over.
A handwritten note.
Rosa had written only two sentences:
Daniel is alive.
May you like
And Victor knows exactly where he is.
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