Chapter 8 - Leo's Photograph

Chloe did not remember sitting down.

One second she was standing beside Marco's desk.

The next, she was in a chair, staring at a photograph on Mateo's phone.

Leo at seventeen.

Blue graduation gown. Crooked tie. Huge grin.

The same picture that sat on Chloe's dresser.

"That came from my apartment," she whispered.

Mateo nodded. "Nora confirmed it."

Chloe's grief turned sharp.

"Why would they take Leo's picture?"

Gabriel did not answer.

Beatrice signed gently.

To scare you.

"It worked."

Gabriel crouched in front of Chloe.

"Look at me."

She did not.

"Chloe."

Finally, she raised her eyes.

"This is not about your brother. They chose something personal because they want you to stop translating."

"You say that like it helps."

"It means they are afraid of what my mother knows."

Beatrice suddenly signed.

Not only me.

Chloe straightened.

"What does that mean?"

Beatrice pointed at Leo's photograph on Mateo's screen.

Then she signed a name.

Daniel Mercer.

Chloe's face changed.

Gabriel noticed. "Who is that?"

"The man who killed my brother."

Two years ago, Daniel Mercer had driven drunk through a red light and hit Leo in a crosswalk.

He pleaded guilty.

He served eleven months.

Chloe had spent every day since trying not to think about him.

Beatrice signed again.

I saw that name in Carlo's ledger.

Chloe stood so fast the chair fell backward.

"No."

Gabriel looked at her. "What?"

"She says Daniel Mercer's name was in the blue ledger."

Gabriel's expression sharpened.

"Why would it be there?"

Beatrice spelled out a company name.

NORTHSTAR FREIGHT.

Mateo swore.

Gabriel looked at him. "You know it?"

"Shell trucking company. Vincent used it for port transfers last year. We shut it down after your father found irregularities."

Chloe's pulse roared in her ears.

"Daniel drove trucks."

"For Northstar?"

"I do not know."

She pulled out her phone and searched old court records.

Her hands shook so badly she typed his name wrong twice.

Finally she found the employment section from a civil filing.

Daniel Mercer - commercial driver - Northstar Freight Logistics.

Chloe stopped breathing.

The room tilted.

"Leo's death was an accident," she said.

Nobody answered.

"It was."

Gabriel looked at Mateo. "Find everything on Mercer. Payments, routes, arrests, phone records if you can get them."

Chloe rounded on him. "Do not turn my brother into one of your files."

"If there is a connection, you deserve to know."

"And if there is not?"

"Then I will tell you there is not."

Beatrice took Chloe's hands.

Her signing was slow.

I am sorry.

Chloe's eyes burned.

She signed back for the first time without thinking.

You did not do this.

Beatrice squeezed her hands.

Mateo's laptop chimed.

He had pulled a state payment record.

"I found Mercer."

Gabriel walked over.

Mateo turned the screen.

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