Chapter 3 - The Night Carlo Died
Gabriel stood so fast his chair struck the wall.
"My father died of a heart attack."
Beatrice flinched.
Chloe hated the way Gabriel said it - not like a fact, but like a door he had nailed shut.
Beatrice signed carefully.
No.
Chloe translated. "She says no."
Gabriel's eyes snapped toward her. "I can see that. What does she mean?"
Beatrice's hands began moving.
She told them about the night Carlo Costello died eight months earlier.
Carlo had gone into his study after dinner. Beatrice had been in the sunroom. Around ten-thirty, she saw Vincent enter carrying a small black case.
Twenty minutes later, Vincent came out alone.
At eleven, Beatrice found her husband collapsed beside the desk.
"The medical examiner said cardiac arrest," Gabriel said.
Beatrice shook her head.
She signed.
His pills were on the floor. The bottle was not his bottle.
Gabriel froze.
Chloe translated more slowly now.
"She says the label looked right, but the bottle cap was red. Your father's prescription always had a white cap. She remembers because she opened it for him every night."
Gabriel stared at his mother.
"Why did you never tell me?"
Beatrice's hands stopped.
The silence was brutal.
Then she signed one sentence.
I did.
Chloe felt it in her chest.
Gabriel's mouth opened.
Beatrice continued.
At the funeral home. At the house. In the car. In your office. Again and again.
Chloe translated, her voice softer with every sentence.
"She says you kept telling her to rest. You thought she was upset. You brought people in to calm her down. You never asked anyone to interpret."
Gabriel sat slowly.
For the first time, he looked less like a feared man and more like a son who had discovered he had failed his mother in a way money could not repair.
"Ma..."
Beatrice turned her face away.
A knock hit the door.
Gabriel's expression hardened again.
"Who?"
Marco's voice came from outside. "Mr. Costello, sorry. There is a phone call. Urgent."
"Take a message."
"They said it is about your house."
Gabriel opened the door.
Marco handed him the restaurant phone.
Gabriel listened for five seconds.
Then his face changed.
"When?"
Pause.
"Is anyone hurt?"
Another pause.
Gabriel looked at Beatrice.
"Lock the gates. Nobody leaves. I am coming."
He hung up.
"What happened?" Chloe asked.
Gabriel looked at her like he had forgotten she was there.
"Someone broke into my house."
Beatrice signed immediately.
The safe.
Gabriel nodded once. "The study safe was opened."
"What did they take?"
His eyes darkened.
"Nothing."
Chloe frowned.
Gabriel picked up Beatrice's purse and coat.
"Which means they were looking for something that was already gone."
He turned toward the door, then stopped.
"Chloe, you are coming with us."
Her heart slammed.
"No, I am not."
"My mother needs an interpreter."
"Hire one."
"At midnight?"
"Yes. That is what money is for."
Beatrice signed to Chloe.
Please.
That one word did what Gabriel's stare could not.
Chloe exhaled. "I need to clock out."
Gabriel almost smiled. "Fine."
When Chloe returned from the kitchen with her coat, Marco pulled her aside.
"Do not go."
"I will be back in an hour."
"You do not know that."
His face had gone gray.
"Marco?"
He looked toward the private room.
"Five minutes before they arrived tonight, a man came through the back door. He paid cash to see the seating chart."
Chloe's stomach tightened.
"Who?"
May you like
Marco swallowed.
"Vincent Costello."
