Chapter 12 - The Recording
The video cut out.
Penny nearly threw the laptop.
Instead, she checked the file.
Corrupted.
Lorenzo brought in a technician.
Three hours later, they recovered the final seconds.
Derek's face appeared.
"The person Gabriel paid to kill you was the waiter."
Penny remembered him.
The man who froze when Derek mocked her.
The man who poured the wine.
The man who disappeared into the kitchen after Lorenzo intervened.
Marco found his identity.
Evan Shaw.
Former military contractor.
Missing since the restaurant incident.
The shattered wineglass had not accidentally exposed the memory card.
Evan had planted it.
Derek knew.
His public cruelty that night had been partly calculated to force Lorenzo's intervention.
But Penny refused to let that rewrite history.
Derek had abused her long before Gabriel ordered her death.
A useful act did not erase years of harm.
"He can have done one thing that saved me," she said, "and still be responsible for everything else."
Lorenzo nodded.
"Both can be true."
They traced Evan.
He had purchased a bus ticket west.
A decoy.
Security footage showed him entering a storage facility instead.
Inside his unit they found weapons, cash, false passports, and a sealed envelope.
FOR PENNY BROOKS.
Police opened it.
Inside was a contract.
Her photograph.
Her address.
Her routine.
And a payment authorization.
Signed G.M.
Enough.
Gabriel's deniability was disappearing.
Then Elaine noticed something.
"That's not Gabriel's handwriting."
Lorenzo examined it.
"Whose?"
Elaine looked frightened.
"Anthony's."
Impossible.
Anthony Moretti had been dead for eighteen years.
Unless the signature was old.
They examined the paper.
The contract template dated back decades.
Penny's photograph had been added later.
Someone had reused Anthony's authorization.
Marco found the answer.
Gabriel had been hiding money through accounts originally created by his father.
The signature was another disguise.
But one account remained active.
And somebody had withdrawn money that morning.
They traced the ATM.
A camera captured Gabriel.
Alive.
Alone.
Heading toward the train station.
Police moved.
So did Lorenzo.
Penny insisted on going.
"No."
She stared at him.
Lorenzo sighed.
"That word doesn't work well with you."
"No."
"Point taken."
They reached the station minutes after Gabriel.
Platforms crowded with travelers.
Police spread out.
Penny saw him first.
Gabriel wore a baseball cap and carried one bag.
He saw her.
Instead of running, he smiled.
Then walked toward her.
Lorenzo moved between them.
Gabriel stopped.
"Always rescuing people, little brother."
"No."
Lorenzo glanced at Penny.
"She doesn't need rescuing."
Gabriel laughed.
Then dropped his bag.
His hand moved toward his coat.
Police shouted.
Penny froze.
Gabriel slowly withdrew something.
Not a weapon.
A phone.
He held it toward Penny.
Onscreen was a live video.
Noah.
Bound.
Penny's stomach dropped.
Gabriel smiled.
May you like
"You have ten minutes."
Then the station lights went out.
