Chapter 10 - The Borrowed Signature

Gabriel insisted he had not accessed the system. A technician confirmed that someone had used his credentials from an office terminal while he was out of town. Margaret had the code to that office. She denied using it, but refused to surrender her phone without a warrant.

At the hospital, doctors examined Noah for dehydration and documented the marks on his wrist. A social worker spoke to him privately. Gabriel sat in the hallway with Ellie, unable to forget how quickly he had accused her. "I owe you an apology," he said. Ellie replied, "You owe him your attention. That matters more." He nodded. "He’s going to get it."

At the hospital, Ellie sat under harsh fluorescent lights in a uniform that still smelled faintly of spilled champagne. She had been awake for nearly twenty hours. Gabriel bought her coffee, then discovered he did not know how she took it. "Black is fine," she said. He returned with sugar and cream anyway, setting them beside her without comment. Small choices, he thought, were where respect began.

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Gabriel studied the signature on the transfer authorization. It had the right flourish, the right slant, even the little hook he made under the final letter. But the date was a Sunday he had spent in the hospital with Noah after an asthma attack. He remembered because Hannah had brought them sandwiches and made the nurses laugh. Daniel pulled the bank's authentication history. "Someone used your account from an estate computer," he said. "That narrows the list." Ellie asked whether Gabriel's mother had access. He did not answer immediately. His silence was answer enough. At dinner, before the scandal, Margaret had called Ellie a liar without asking one question. Gabriel had defended his mother out of habit. Now he realized habit could be a kind of blindness. He called the bank, froze the account, and heard the first alarm from downstairs.

When the social worker returned, she told Gabriel Noah had described another adult who visited his room at night. He did not know the man’s name. But he remembered one detail: the man wore a ring shaped like a wolf.