Chapter 3 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
By midnight, Gabriel’s penthouse resembled a command center.
Security footage covered 4 monitors.
Marco Bellini, Gabriel’s oldest friend and head of security, stood beside the dining table with a laptop.
Nora remained near the windows.
The ring was still on her finger.
Gabriel had stopped asking her to remove it.
Now he wanted it exactly where it was.
Evidence.
Marco enlarged a grainy frame.
“There.”
A delivery man wearing a baseball cap entered the building at 2:13 the previous afternoon.
“Face?” Gabriel asked.
“Hidden.”
“Vehicle?”
“Stolen.”
“Prints?”
“Nothing useful.”
Gabriel paced once.
Nora watched him.
“Someone planned this carefully.”
Gabriel stopped.
“Yes.”
Marco hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
He turned the laptop.
A photograph appeared.
Nora’s stomach dropped.
Colin Mercer.
Older than she remembered.
Thinner.
Standing outside a coffee shop 6 blocks from the penthouse.
Timestamp: yesterday.
Nora whispered, “No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“You said you haven't seen him in 5 years.”
“I haven't.”
“He’s in Chicago.”
“I can see that.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Nora immediately recognized the suspicion returning.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Look at me like I invited him.”
“I’m looking at you because a man from your past appears in my city the same day his ring arrives inside my home.”
“Your city?”
Marco wisely looked down.
Gabriel ignored the correction.
“Did he contact you?”
“No.”
“Call?”
“No.”
“Email?”
“No.”
“Anything?”
“No.”
Gabriel studied her face.
Nora stepped closer.
“If you don't believe me, say it.”
Silence.
That was worse.
Nora nodded slowly.
“Fine.”
She pulled the ring from her finger.
Gabriel watched.
She placed it on the table.
Then she walked toward the hallway.
“Nora.”
She kept moving.
“Nora.”
This time she stopped.
Gabriel's voice softened.
“I believe you.”
She looked over her shoulder.
“Eventually.”
Then she disappeared into her room.
Marco waited until the door closed.
“You handled that beautifully.”
Gabriel stared at him.
Marco lifted both hands.
“I’m just saying.”
“Find Colin.”
“We already did.”
Gabriel turned.
Marco placed an address on the screen.
An abandoned printing warehouse on West Carroll Avenue.
Gabriel reached for his coat.
Twenty-five minutes later, 3 black SUVs stopped outside the building.
Gabriel entered with Marco and 4 men.
The warehouse was dark.
Water dripped somewhere beyond the old machinery.
Then Marco’s flashlight found blood.
Fresh.
They followed it.
Colin Mercer sat tied to a metal chair.
His face was bruised.
His shirt was soaked dark across one shoulder.
His eyes opened when Gabriel approached.
“You.”
Gabriel stopped.
“You know who I am?”
Colin laughed weakly.
“Everybody knows who you are.”
“Did you send Nora the ring?”
Colin’s expression changed.
“What ring?”
Gabriel crouched.
“The silver ring you gave her.”
Confusion became fear.
“I haven't spoken to Nora in years.”
Gabriel watched him carefully.
“Why are you in Chicago?”
Colin swallowed.
“Because someone contacted me.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“What did they want?”
Colin looked toward the shadows.
“They asked questions about Nora.”
Gabriel became completely still.
“What questions?”
“Her family. Childhood. Relationships.”
“Why?”
“I didn't understand until they showed me a photograph.”
Colin struggled against the rope.
“They had pictures of her leaving your building.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“What did you tell them?”
“Nothing important.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I swear.”
Colin's breathing quickened.
“I told them about the ring. That’s all. They asked whether I'd ever given Nora something sentimental.”
Gabriel's eyes darkened.
“So they recreated it.”
“No.”
Colin shook his head.
“They didn't recreate anything.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Colin stared at him.
“That ring disappeared the night Nora's mother died.”
Silence.
Gabriel felt the room change.
“Explain.”
Colin swallowed.
“Nora thought she'd lost it.”
A sound came from the darkness.
Marco turned.
Too late.
The warehouse lights died.
Gunfire exploded.
Gabriel dropped behind a steel press as bullets shattered glass.
“MOVE!”
Marco returned fire.
A vehicle roared somewhere behind the warehouse.
Seconds later, silence returned.
Gabriel stood.
“Colin!”
Marco reached the chair first.
Colin remained alive.
Barely.
Blood spread across his chest.
Gabriel crouched beside him.
“Who did this?”
Colin's lips moved.
Gabriel leaned closer.
“Say it again.”
Colin whispered 2 words.
Gabriel's face lost color.
“Your father.”
Then Colin’s head fell forward.
Gabriel stared at him.
Impossible.
His father, Vittorio Rossi, had been dead for 18 years.
Yet when Gabriel returned to the penthouse at 2:40 in the morning, Nora was standing in the living room holding something.
An old photograph.
She looked shaken.
“Gabriel.”
He closed the door.
“What happened?”
“I found this underneath the lining of the ring box.”
She handed him the photograph.
Gabriel looked down.
His father stood beside Nora’s mother.
Young.
Smiling.
Together.
May you like
On the back were 6 handwritten words.
ASK GABRIEL WHO KILLED YOUR MOTHER.
