Chapter 4 - The Dead Man Who Called Her Name
Camille stared at Voss.
“What did you say?”
“Thomas survived.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask Teresa.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
Voss continued.
“Thomas disappeared because it was the only way to keep you alive.”
Camille stepped toward him.
“Where is he?”
Voss smiled.
“I’ll trade that information for the pendants.”
“No,” Gabriel said.
Camille looked at him.
“My father—”
“May be alive. That doesn’t mean Voss knows where he is.”
Voss chuckled.
“He always was clever.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“Marco.”
Marco stepped forward.
Voss raised his hands.
“I wouldn’t waste time interrogating me. Thomas has been hiding for fifteen years. But tonight’s surveillance breach?”
Camille froze.
Voss smiled.
“That wasn’t me.”
Gabriel looked toward Marco.
Marco checked his tablet.
“He’s telling the truth.”
Camille’s heartbeat quickened.
“Then who used my father’s credentials?”
Marco looked up.
“Thomas Carter.”
Silence.
Camille’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Gabriel nodded.
She answered.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
Then—
“Millie?”
Camille nearly dropped the phone.
Nobody had called her that since childhood.
“Dad?”
Gabriel watched her face.
The voice trembled.
“I’m sorry.”
Camille sat down.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Fifteen years.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let Grandma tell me you were dead.”
“She saved your life.”
Camille’s voice broke with anger rather than grief.
“You don’t get to disappear for fifteen years and call me like you missed a flight.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that!”
Gabriel crouched beside her but didn’t touch her.
Thomas spoke quietly.
“Daniel is not the real threat.”
Camille looked at Voss.
Voss’s expression had changed.
“Then who is?”
“The archive created enemies. Daniel wanted to control them. I wanted to expose them.”
“Dad, who?”
Thomas paused.
“Someone inside the Moretti family has protected the archive for fifteen years.”
Gabriel went completely still.
“Name them,” he said.
Thomas recognized his voice.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“You kept your half.”
Gabriel touched the chain.
“Always.”
Thomas exhaled.
“Then finish what I couldn’t.”
The call ended.
Marco immediately said, “Trace failed.”
Camille stood.
Gabriel looked at Voss.
“Who inside my family?”
For the first time, Voss appeared genuinely uneasy.
“I don’t know.”
Camille said, “You expect us to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever it is tried to kill me twice.”
Gabriel exchanged a glance with Marco.
Then his phone buzzed.
A security alert.
Moretti estate.
Gabriel opened the camera feed.
His mother’s study was empty.
The safe stood open.
Teresa was gone.
On her desk rested a single photograph.
Gabriel enlarged it.
Camille recognized herself as a twelve-year-old girl.
Beside her stood seventeen-year-old Gabriel.
Written across the photograph:
BRING BOTH HALVES.
Camille looked at Gabriel.
“They have your mother.”
His jaw tightened.
Marco asked, “What do we do?”
Gabriel looked at Camille.
“We stop following their rules.”
“How?”
Camille picked up both silver pieces.
“We find out what these actually open.”
She connected them.
Click.
The two pieces formed a complete oval.
Tiny engraved numbers appeared along the edge.
42.3601.
71.0589.
Marco entered them.
“Coordinates.”
“Where?”
His expression changed.
“Downtown Boston.”
Gabriel already knew.
“The Grand Hotel.”
Camille stared at him.
“The gala.”
May you like
Gabriel nodded.
“This started exactly where Thomas intended it to end.”
