Chapter 13 - A Traitor Inside the Fortress
Victor’s arrest should have made the mansion feel safer.
It did not.
Gabriel trusted the legal case.
He did not trust the silence that followed.
Aaron Cole disappeared.
Harker disappeared.
Two shell-company executives vanished before warrants reached them.
Someone had warned them.
Victor was in custody.
Therefore someone else was still coordinating the network.
Daniel’s damaged recording mattered more than ever.
Gabriel hired an audio-forensics laboratory.
They estimated forty-eight hours.
Until then, he refused to guess at the name.
Evelyn agreed.
“Daniel said Victor wasn’t the person Sophia feared most,” she said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean somebody higher.”
“What else could it mean?”
“Someone closer.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“That’s worse.”
“Yes.”
They reviewed the archive.
Sophia had labeled one folder FAMILY ACCESS.
Inside were photographs of estate entries.
Friends.
Relatives.
Business partners.
Employees.
Every person who had visited during the final three months of her life.
Gabriel scrolled.
Then stopped.
A photograph of his older cousin, Nicholas Marino.
Nicholas had never worked directly inside Gabriel’s companies.
He ran a chain of hotels in Florida.
They spoke perhaps twice a year.
Yet Sophia had photographed him entering the estate at 1:30 a.m. six weeks before her death.
“Why would Nicholas be here?”
Evelyn looked at the timestamp.
“You weren’t?”
“I was in New York.”
“Victor?”
“According to my calendar, with me.”
“So Sophia was here.”
Gabriel opened another file.
A note:
N.M. asked about inheritance structure. Said it was “family planning.” Why?
Gabriel’s stomach tightened.
If something happened to Gabriel and Leo while Leo was still a minor, the family trust structure became complicated.
Nicholas was not heir to Gabriel’s companies.
But under old trust documents, he could temporarily control certain family holdings if no direct adult beneficiary remained.
Gabriel had never considered it meaningful.
Sophia apparently had.
Evelyn asked, “Could Nicholas be connected to Victor?”
“I don’t know.”
“Would Victor take orders from him?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Victor takes orders from nobody.”
“Then maybe they had the same goal.”
“A partnership.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel searched financial records.
Nicholas’s hotels.
Payments.
Nothing.
Then Evelyn noticed an insurance provider.
Same broker used by the freight shell companies.
Gabriel sat straighter.
They traced it.
Three of Nicholas’s hotels had policies through the same network.
One company shared a director with a fraudulent Marino vendor.
There it was.
A financial bridge.
Gabriel called Nicholas.
His cousin answered cheerfully.
“Gabriel. Heard you’ve had excitement.”
“News travels.”
“Victor Dayne. Hard to believe.”
“Is it?”
A pause.
“Well, I suppose you know him better.”
“Do I?”
Nicholas laughed awkwardly.
“What can I do for you?”
“Come to Chicago.”
“Why?”
“Family issue.”
“What kind?”
“Inheritance.”
Silence.
Gabriel looked at Evelyn.
Nicholas answered carefully.
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“I’m in Miami.”
“You own airplanes.”
Another pause.
“I’ll see.”
Gabriel ended the call.
Evelyn exhaled.
“He knows.”
“He knows something.”
That afternoon, Leo asked to go outside.
It was the first request he had spoken voluntarily beyond immediate needs.
Gabriel almost said no.
Security concerns.
Unknown threats.
Then he realized fear had already kept Leo imprisoned long enough.
The estate garden was secured.
Gabriel went with him.
Evelyn walked several steps behind.
Leo held a small toy airplane.
At the fountain he stopped.
“Mom liked here.”
Gabriel looked around.
Sophia had planted the roses.
“Yes.”
Leo touched one leaf.
“Mom cried here.”
Gabriel’s heart tightened.
“When?”
The boy shrugged.
“Before.”
“Before she died?”
Leo nodded.
Evelyn approached.
Gabriel kept his voice gentle.
“Was anyone with her?”
Leo pointed toward an old garden bench.
“Man.”
“Victor?”
Leo shook his head.
“Aaron?”
No.
Gabriel waited.
Leo seemed frustrated.
Then he drew a circle in the dirt with his shoe.
Inside it, an M.
Gabriel frowned.
“Marino?”
Leo nodded.
Family.
Gabriel thought of Nicholas.
“Cousin Nick?”
Leo stared.
Then nodded.
Gabriel felt cold.
“What was he doing?”
“Mom say go away.”
“He was arguing with her?”
Leo nodded.
“About what?”
The child’s face tightened.
Evelyn tapped his hand.
Leo breathed.
Then whispered:
“Dad money.”
Gabriel looked at Evelyn.
Sophia and Nicholas had argued about Gabriel’s money.
Perhaps the trust.
Perhaps the companies.
“Did Nicholas come inside?”
Leo nodded.
“Did you see him the night Mom died?”
This time Leo did not answer.
His hand tightened around the toy plane.
Gabriel stopped asking.
That evening, the audio laboratory called.
“We recovered part of the name.”
Gabriel stood.
“What part?”
“The first syllable is definitely ‘Nick.’”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Nicholas.
Gabriel gripped the phone.
“Anything else?”
“Likely two or three syllables total. The speaker may be saying Nicholas.”
May.
Not certainty.
But the other evidence now pointed the same direction.
Gabriel walked toward the window.
His father had loved Nicholas.
Their families spent holidays together.
Nicholas had carried Gabriel on his shoulders when Gabriel was a child.
Another trusted face.
Another person Gabriel had never thought to question.
His phone vibrated.
Nicholas.
Can’t make Chicago. Let’s talk next week.
Gabriel typed:
Too late.
Then sent the photograph Sophia had taken of Nicholas entering the estate at 1:30 a.m.
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
No reply.
Ten minutes later Gabriel’s aviation contact called.
“Nicholas Marino’s jet filed a flight plan.”
“To Chicago?”
“No.”
“Where?”
“Cayman Islands.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Running.
He called federal contacts handling Victor’s case.
But Nicholas’s plane took off before they could obtain an order.
For twenty minutes Gabriel watched the tracking map.
Then something strange happened.
The aircraft changed direction.
Not southeast.
North.
Toward Canada.
Evelyn looked over his shoulder.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Gabriel received a message from an unknown number.
A photograph.
Nicholas sitting inside his own plane.
Across from him sat Aaron Cole.
Alive.
The message beneath it read:
You found the wrong traitor first.
Gabriel stared.
Another message arrived.
Bring Sophia’s archive to the freight yard tomorrow night. Come alone.
Then a final attachment.
A live photograph of Thomas Reed.
Evelyn’s family friend.
Hands tied.
Sitting inside a warehouse.
Evelyn went white.
Gabriel grabbed her before she fell.
The message continued:
One archive. One old man. No police.
Evelyn stared at Thomas’s image.
Gabriel looked at the freight yard location.
One of the same properties where nearly four million dollars had disappeared.
Victor had been the betrayal inside the house.
Nicholas was the betrayal inside the family.
And Aaron had been waiting between them.
The conspiracy was no longer hiding.
May you like
It was inviting Gabriel directly into its center.
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