Chapter 9 - The Drunk Driver
Chloe threw up in the restaurant bathroom.
She sat on the tile afterward, back against the stall, shaking so hard her teeth clicked.
For two years she had built a story she could survive.
A drunk man.
A red light.
A terrible accident.
Random.
Meaningless.
Now the story had a payment attached to it.
Forty thousand dollars.
A knock came at the bathroom door.
"Chloe?"
Gabriel.
"Go away."
"No."
"That usually works for you?"
"Yes."
Despite herself, she laughed once.
Then she cried harder.
The door stayed closed, but he stayed on the other side.
"Why Leo?" she asked.
"We do not know that the payment was for Leo."
"Do not protect me with technicalities."
"I am not. I am protecting the truth until we have it."
She opened the door.
Gabriel stood alone.
No guards. No cold expression.
Just a tired man in a wrinkled shirt.
"My brother was deaf," Chloe said. "People treated him like he was fragile. He hated that. He was funny and mean and brilliant and he cheated at Monopoly. He wanted to design roller coasters. He had plans."
Gabriel nodded.
"And some drunk stole all of it. I learned to live with that because at least it was stupid. At least it was not planned."
"I am sorry."
"Do not say that unless you mean something by it."
His eyes held hers.
"I mean I am sorry that people around me may have touched your life without you ever choosing to enter mine."
That silenced her.
They returned to the office.
Mateo had more.
"Mercer was not supposed to be driving that night," he said. "His logbook shows a delivery ended at six. But a traffic camera caught his truck near Leo's neighborhood at eight-forty."
Chloe gripped the desk.
"Why?"
Mateo clicked another document.
"The truck was carrying one pallet not listed on the manifest. Police never inspected the cargo because the crash investigation focused on DUI. Northstar recovered the truck within three hours."
Gabriel looked at him. "What was on the pallet?"
"We do not know."
Beatrice signed urgently.
Blue ledger.
Chloe translated. "She says the ledger had an entry the same night."
Beatrice closed her eyes, remembering.
Then she signed numbers.
Warehouse 14. 9:30. M-7.
Gabriel turned to Mateo. "Warehouse 14 belonged to Northstar."
"Still does, through a shell."
"Then we go."
Chloe shook her head. "No. We call the police."
Gabriel gave her a look.
"Right," she said. "I forgot who I was talking to."
"You can stay here."
"And wait while you decide what happened to Leo? Absolutely not."
Beatrice signed.
I am coming too.
Gabriel stared at her. "No."
She signed again.
Chloe translated with a straight face. "She says if you leave her behind, she will steal your car and follow you."
Gabriel looked at his mother.
She smiled sweetly.
Forty minutes later, three black SUVs rolled toward the old Red Hook waterfront.
Warehouse 14 stood dark beside the river.
Mateo's men cut the chain.
Inside, dust covered everything.
Except one set of fresh tire tracks.
They followed them to a locked office.
Gabriel kicked the door open.
On the wall hung a map of New York with red circles around twelve locations.
One circle was Chloe's apartment.
One was Il Canto.
One was Gabriel's house.
May you like
And one was the cemetery where Leo was buried.
Then a phone on the desk began to ring.
