Chapter 8 - The Second St. Jude Medal
Chalice did not answer at first.
Because there was something she had never told him.
“I treated Antonio.”
Gabriel’s face emptied.
“You said he arrived dead.”
“He did.”
“Then what aren’t you telling me?”
“Before the ambulance reached Mass General, I was working a street response shift.”
She had been sent to Hanover Street.
Antonio still had a pulse.
Weak.
Almost gone.
He regained consciousness for less than thirty seconds.
He pressed something into Chalice’s hand.
A second St. Jude medal.
Then he whispered, “For my brother.”
Chalice had hidden it.
Why?
Because after the hospital attack, she trusted nobody.
Not even Gabriel.
“Where is it?”
“My apartment.”
The apartment Victor’s men had searched.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Tell me you hid it somewhere better than the floor.”
“I did.”
They returned under heavy security.
Chalice removed a vent cover.
The medal was still there.
Gabriel opened it.
Inside was a tiny photograph of two boys.
Gabriel and Antonio.
Behind it was a handwritten sequence.
Mercer recognized it as a bank deposit number.
The box contained no money.
Only documents.
And a recording.
Antonio appeared on-screen.
“Gabriel, if you’re seeing this, someone finally trusted you enough to give you the medal.”
Gabriel glanced at Chalice.
Antonio continued.
“Victor thinks this is about ownership. It isn’t.”
Antonio had discovered that Victor’s organization was financing a network of officials through charitable foundations.
Exposure would destroy not only Victor but dozens of powerful people.
That was why the conspiracy survived so long.
“The ledger is evidence. Douglas is leverage. But there’s one thing Victor fears more.”
Antonio held up a photograph.
A woman.
Elena DeLuca.
Gabriel’s biological mother.
“She has the original records.”
The recording ended with an address.
Gabriel stared.
The address belonged to a nursing home outside Providence.
They drove there before dawn.
The director claimed no Elena DeLuca lived there.
Chalice noticed his hands shaking.
Gabriel noticed too.
Finally the director surrendered a key.
Room 214.
Gabriel stood outside it for a long moment.
Chalice remained beside him.
“You don’t have to go in alone.”
“Yes, I do.”
He entered.
An elderly woman sat near the window.
She turned.
Gabriel stopped.
Her eyes were identical to his.
“Gabriel.”
He could not speak.
Elena smiled through tears.
“My son.”
Gabriel crossed the room.
Then Elena’s smile vanished.
She looked past him toward Chalice.
“You brought Douglas?”
“Yes.”
“Then you brought him here?”
Fear transformed her face.
“Who?”
Elena stood.
“Gabriel, get the baby out.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor never wanted Douglas dead.”
Gabriel stared.
Elena grabbed his arm.
“He needed the boy alive.”
A crash sounded downstairs.
May you like
The fire alarm began screaming.
And someone locked Room 214 from the outside.
