Chapter 10 - GABRIEL’S SECOND LIE
Vincent stood over Victor.
Rainwater dripped from his coat onto the crypt floor.
Marcus aimed his weapon.
Victor pressed one hand against his bleeding shoulder.
“Gabriel played all of us.”
Vincent did not move.
“My brother was in a hospital bed thirty minutes ago.”
Victor laughed.
“Was he?”
Marcus checked his phone immediately.
No signal underground.
Vincent grabbed Victor by the jacket.
“What are you talking about?”
Victor winced.
“Daniel’s message.”
“The pendant.”
“Trust the brother.”
“He wasn’t talking about you trusting Gabriel.”
Vincent’s grip tightened.
Victor smiled.
“He was warning Sophie to trust her brother.”
Vincent froze.
“Sophie doesn’t have a brother.”
“Not one she knows about.”
Marcus stared.
Victor’s smile widened.
“Daniel had secrets too.”
Vincent released him.
“Explain.”
Victor leaned against the wall.
“Peter Carter did not make one backup.”
“He made two.”
“One archive belonged to Gabriel.”
“The other stayed with the Carter family.”
“Daniel found both.”
Vincent’s patience broke.
He dragged Victor upright.
“Who shot you?”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“A man I haven’t seen in fourteen years.”
Vincent stopped breathing.
“Gabriel?”
“No.”
Victor shook his head.
“Peter Carter.”
Impossible.
Daniel’s father had supposedly died twelve years earlier.
Vincent stared at Victor.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Marcus looked toward the blood trail.
“Where did he go?”
Victor nodded toward a second tunnel.
“With the case.”
Vincent followed the tunnel.
It led to an exterior hatch fifty yards beyond the cemetery wall.
Tire tracks disappeared onto a forest access road.
Whoever took the archive was gone.
Marcus finally got a signal.
His phone exploded with missed calls.
He answered.
His face became tense.
“Vincent.”
“What?”
“Gabriel left the hospital.”
Vincent felt the world tilt.
“When?”
“Eighteen minutes ago.”
“Hannah?”
“Still there.”
“Sophie?”
Marcus listened.
Then his face went pale.
“Sophie is gone too.”
Vincent ran.
The helicopter returned them to Manhattan.
During the flight, the hospital sent footage.
Gabriel walking slowly down the hallway.
Dressed in stolen scrubs.
Sophie beside him.
He was not dragging her.
She was walking willingly.
They entered a service elevator.
Camera switched.
Parking garage.
A woman waited beside a dark sedan.
Vincent stared.
Lydia Mercer.
Marcus cursed.
Vincent said nothing.
The car exited six minutes before hospital security noticed Sophie was missing.
Hannah’s sobbing voice came through the phone.
“She left a note.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“What did it say?”
“She wrote, ‘Mom, Gabriel says Dad might still be alive.’”
Vincent opened his eyes.
Daniel Carter.
Alive?
Hannah continued.
“She went because she thinks Gabriel is taking her to Daniel.”
Marcus looked at Vincent.
“This is why she went willingly.”
Vincent stared through the helicopter window.
Every answer had created two more questions.
Victor had claimed Peter Carter was alive.
Gabriel claimed Daniel had been killed.
Now Gabriel had told Sophie Daniel might be alive.
Someone was lying.
Maybe everyone.
They landed.
Hannah was waiting.
She slapped Vincent across the face.
Marcus took one step forward.
Vincent stopped him.
Hannah’s voice shook with rage.
“You told me she would be safe.”
Vincent did not defend himself.
“I did.”
“And she isn’t.”
“No.”
Tears ran down Hannah’s face.
Vincent accepted every word.
Then he said, “I’m bringing her home.”
Hannah looked at him.
“Do not make me another promise you cannot control.”
Vincent nodded.
“Then I’ll make you one I can.”
“What?”
“I will not stop looking.”
Marcus entered with Sophie’s note.
There was writing on the back.
Not Sophie’s.
Gabriel’s.
VINCENT.
IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT DANIEL, COME TO THE PLACE WHERE I TAUGHT YOU TO SWIM.
ALONE.
Vincent stared.
The Hale family lake house.
Closed for twenty years.
Marcus read it.
“No.”
Vincent almost smiled.
“I expected that.”
“It is obviously a trap.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re going.”
“Yes.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“You spent the last fourteen hours learning that every person around you might be compromised.”
“And your answer is to go alone?”
“Gabriel specifically asked.”
“Which should worry you.”
“It does.”
Marcus stared at him.
“Then why?”
Vincent looked at Gabriel’s handwriting.
“Because when I was six, Gabriel saved me from drowning in that lake.”
“Dad blamed him for taking me onto the dock.”
“Gabriel took the punishment.”
“He never told anyone I had wandered out there alone.”
Marcus remained silent.
Vincent folded the note.
“If he wanted me dead, he had easier opportunities fourteen years ago.”
The lake house stood two hours north.
Vincent drove himself.
No security convoy.
No helicopter.
He knew Marcus would follow from a distance anyway.
He did not stop him.
The property appeared through trees near sunset.
Old cedar siding.
Boarded windows.
The lake dark beneath a stormy sky.
Vincent entered through the rear door.
“Gabriel?”
Nothing.
He moved through the kitchen.
Dust.
Old furniture.
Memories everywhere.
Then he heard Sophie.
“Vincent?”
He ran.
She stood in the main room.
Alone.
Vincent rushed to her.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Where’s Gabriel?”
“He went outside.”
“Why did you leave the hospital?”
Her eyes filled.
“He said my dad was alive.”
“Did you see him?”
“No.”
Vincent closed his eyes briefly.
“Sophie.”
“I’m sorry.”
He crouched.
“We’ll talk about that after you’re safe.”
“Where did Gabriel go?”
She pointed toward the lake.
“He said he had to meet someone.”
A gunshot echoed outside.
Vincent stood.
Sophie gasped.
He took her into a back room and locked the door.
“Stay here.”
“No matter what you hear.”
“Don’t open this door unless you hear my voice and I say the word bluebird.”
She nodded.
Vincent ran toward the lake.
At the old dock, Gabriel stood with his hands raised.
Across from him was an older man holding a gun.
White hair.
Weathered face.
A long surgical scar crossed his neck.
A metal case sat beside him.
Vincent recognized him from an old Hale Meridian employee photograph.
Peter Carter.
Daniel’s father.
A man legally dead for twelve years.
Gabriel saw Vincent.
“Stay back.”
Peter turned.
His gun remained steady.
Vincent stopped.
“Where is Daniel?”
May you like
Peter Carter stared at him.
Then he said, “Your brother killed him.”
