Chapter 4 - The Man Everyone Trusted
Father Gabriel arrived at eight o’clock carrying coffee and a Bible.
No one stopped him at the gate.
That fact alone made Dante furious.
The priest had entered the Moretti estate freely for fifteen years. He baptized Lily. He sat beside Dante’s mother through chemotherapy. He said grace at Thanksgiving and remembered every housekeeper’s birthday.
He also knew the mansion better than most members of security.
Dante watched him through the library window as Gabriel greeted the guard at the front door.
“Do we arrest a priest at breakfast?” Marco asked.
“We don’t arrest anyone.”
“You know what I mean.”
“We listen first.”
Rachel Kim sat at the desk with a recorder hidden beneath a legal pad. “And if he admits involvement?”
“Then we preserve evidence and call the task force contact I spoke with last night.”
Marco still looked uncomfortable hearing Dante talk about law enforcement.
Dante noticed.
“You have a problem?”
“No.”
“That sounded like a problem.”
Marco exhaled. “I’ve worked for your family seventeen years. I never thought I’d hear you say task force without reaching for a weapon.”
Dante looked toward the ceiling, toward Lily’s room two floors above.
“Things change.”
Gabriel entered the library smiling.
“Dante.”
He opened his arms.
Dante did not move.
The smile faded.
“I heard there was an incident.”
“Who told you?”
“Celeste texted me yesterday afternoon asking if I could come today.”
“Before the incident.”
“Yes.”
Dante gestured toward a chair.
“Sit.”
Gabriel sat.
Rachel introduced herself even though they had met dozens of times. Marco remained by the door.
Gabriel looked from one face to another.
“This feels less like confession and more like court.”
“Did Salvatore ever call you Saint?” Dante asked.
Gabriel’s expression did not change.
“Since we were teenagers.”
“Why?”
“Because I was the annoying cousin who never drank, never fought, and went to seminary.”
“Did you give him information about this house?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
Dante watched his hands.
Steady.
“Did you know he was blackmailing Celeste?”
“No.”
“Did you know he killed my father?”
That landed.
Gabriel’s fingers tightened around his coffee cup.
“No.”
Dante leaned forward.
“Try again.”
Gabriel looked at Rachel.
Then Marco.
Finally Dante.
“I suspected.”
The room went still.
“How long?”
“Nine years.”
Dante stood so quickly his chair struck the wall.
Marco moved, but Dante raised one hand.
“You suspected for nine years and said nothing?”
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“I heard part of a confession.”
“Whose?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“You can tell me before I forget you’re wearing a collar.”
Rachel said sharply, “Dante.”
He looked at her.
She held his gaze.
Lily needs you alive more than she needs me obedient.
Evelyn’s words returned.
Dante stepped back.
Gabriel looked shaken now.
“Someone confessed knowledge of sabotage involving Antonio’s car,” he said. “Not the person who did it. Someone who knew after the fact.”
“And you hid behind privilege?”
“I was bound by it.”
“You were bound while I buried my father.”
“Yes.”
Dante hated how calmly he said it.
Gabriel continued, “But that is not why Sal calls me Saint now.”
Dante stopped.
“Why does he?”
“Because he thinks I’m his insurance policy.”
Marco’s hand moved closer to his jacket.
Gabriel noticed.
“I have been feeding him false information for seven months.”
Rachel frowned. “On whose authority?”
“No one’s.”
“That is not reassuring,” Dante said.
Gabriel reached slowly inside his coat.
Marco drew his weapon.
Gabriel froze.
“It’s a flash drive.”
“Two fingers,” Marco ordered.
Gabriel produced a silver drive and placed it on the table.
“What is that?” Dante asked.
“Copies of messages Salvatore sent me. Payments he thought I accepted. Instructions. Locations.”
Dante stared.
“You took his money?”
“I donated every dollar to shelters under anonymous names.”
“That doesn’t make this intelligent.”
“No.” Gabriel’s eyes looked tired. “It makes it the best bad choice I could think of without exposing the person who came to me years ago.”
Rachel plugged the drive into an isolated laptop.
Folders appeared.
Photographs.
Bank transfers.
Audio clips.
Salvatore’s voice.
Dante felt the shape of the case change in front of him.
“You could have ended this months ago,” he said.
“I was waiting for proof tied to Antonio.”
“You had enough to stop him from reaching my wife.”
“I didn’t know about Celeste.”
Dante wanted to believe him.
He did not know whether he could.
A knock came at the library door.
Evelyn entered.
“Sorry. Lily asked for her father.”
Dante was already moving.
He found his daughter sitting cross-legged on the bed, still in pajamas, eating dry cereal from a small bowl. She smiled when he entered, but the smile vanished quickly.
“Is Mommy leaving?”
Dante sat beside her.
“For now, Mommy is going somewhere safe where she can answer questions and get help.”
“Is she bad?”
There was no simple answer.
“What she did was bad.”
Lily frowned.
“That’s not what I asked.”
Dante almost smiled despite himself.
“No, it isn’t.”
He thought carefully.
“People can love someone and still do something very wrong. Loving you does not erase what Mommy did. Being scared does not erase it either.”
Lily pushed cereal around with one finger.
“Will I have to see her?”
“Not unless it is safe and you want to.”
“Okay.”
She leaned against him.
After a minute, she whispered, “Evelyn slept in the chair.”
“I know.”
“She snores tiny.”
From the doorway Evelyn said, “I do not.”
Lily smiled for real this time.
Dante looked at Evelyn.
Something warm passed between them, brief and unexpected.
Then Marco appeared in the hall.
“Boss.”
The warmth vanished.
Dante stepped out.
“What?”
“We checked Gabriel’s drive.”
“And?”
“One location repeats in Salvatore’s messages. A storage facility near Cicero.”
“Get a team.”
“There’s something else.”
Marco held up a printed photograph.
It showed Salvatore outside the facility six weeks earlier.
Beside him stood a woman.
Dante stared at her face.
He knew her.
Everyone in the Moretti family did.
Teresa Moretti.
Dante’s mother.
The woman who had spent nine years publicly mourning Antonio.
The woman who had told Dante every Sunday that family loyalty was sacred.
Dante looked at Marco.
“When was this taken?”
“Six weeks ago.”
Dante looked again.
May you like
His mother was not being threatened.
She was smiling.
