Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Burning Photograph
The photograph was dated twenty-two years ago.
Yet Norah's mother looked no older than thirty.
Gabriel placed it beneath a lamp.
“There is something wrong.”
Norah frowned.
“What?”
“The shadow.”
He pointed.
“The light is coming from the wrong direction.”
Norah looked closer.
“He's a forensic investigator now?”
“I'm paranoid.”
“You say that like it's a character flaw.”
“For me, it's a survival skill.”
He smiled briefly.
Elena arrived with an update.
“Daniel Bell is not in Phoenix.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Where is he?”
“His identity is registered there.”
“But?”
“But someone paid property taxes on a cabin in Montana using his money.”
Norah stared.
“Montana.”
Elena nodded.
“That cabin has no utilities.”
“So no one lives there.”
“Or someone doesn't want the state to know they do.”
Gabriel stood.
“We leave in twenty minutes.”
Norah crossed her arms.
“You're taking me?”
“Yes.”
“I'm an injured secretary.”
“You're also the reason we're going.”
“I could be bait.”
“You already are.”
She went quiet.
Gabriel softened.
“I won't let them take you.”
Norah looked into his eyes.
“And if they come for you?”
“They won't get the chance.”
The flight was private.
For the first time, Norah sat across from Gabriel without paperwork between them.
“You know,” she said, “I used to think you were terrifying.”
“You used to?”
“I've revised my opinion.”
“What is it now?”
“You're still terrifying.”
Gabriel laughed quietly.
It was the first time she had heard him laugh.
The sound surprised both of them.
Montana was cold.
The cabin sat beyond a line of pine trees.
Gabriel's men stayed several hundred yards back.
He and Norah approached on foot.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, the cabin looked abandoned.
Dust covered the furniture.
A broken clock hung above the fireplace.
Then Norah saw the photographs.
Dozens.
Her childhood.
Her mother.
Elliot.
Daniel.
And Gabriel's father.
They filled an entire wall.
“What is this?”
Gabriel studied the photographs.
“These aren't random.”
“What do you mean?”
“They tell a story.”
The first photograph showed Daniel and Elliot working together.
The next showed Daniel meeting Marco Rossi.
The next showed a terrified woman.
Norah's mother.
Then the fire.
Then Norah being carried away.
Then a final picture.
Norah, age eighteen.
Working at a bookstore.
Someone had followed her for years.
She turned away.
“I want to go.”
Gabriel took her hand.
“Not yet.”
“Gabriel.”
“Look at the last photograph.”
She did.
It showed Norah entering Rossi Tower three years ago.
Gabriel stood in the background.
His father was dead.
But someone had photographed both of them.
On the back was a handwritten message.
He has chosen her.
Gabriel's expression darkened.
“She was never supposed to be your secretary.”
“What?”
“Your hiring wasn't my idea.”
He froze.
Norah stared.
“Whose was it?”
He turned the photograph over.
A name was written underneath.
Marco.
His father had arranged her placement before his death.
And Daniel knew.
“So all of this was planned.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Not by me.”
A floorboard creaked.
Both turned.
A woman stepped from the hallway.
Norah stopped breathing.
Her mother.
Older.
Pale.
Alive.
“Mom?”
The woman began to cry.
Norah ran toward her.
They collided in the middle of the room.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then the woman whispered:
“I thought you were dead.”
Norah pulled back.
“You thought I was dead?”
“You disappeared after the fire.”
“I was ten.”
“They told me you were gone.”
“Who told you?”
The woman looked at Gabriel.
“Your father's people.”
Gabriel stood still.
“They separated us,” she said.
“Daniel said if I ever tried to find you, he would kill you.”
Norah's face hardened.
“And he has been watching me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Her mother lowered her eyes.
“Because your father found the money.”
“What money?”
“The Bell account.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
“What Bell account?”
She looked at him.
“Your father's hidden reserve.”
Gabriel frowned.
“My father had no hidden reserve.”
“He did.”
“Where?”
She looked at Norah.
“Inside you.”
Silence.
Norah stared.
“What?”
Her mother explained.
Elliot had discovered that Daniel and Moretti were stealing from both organizations.
He created an encrypted ledger.
But before he disappeared, he placed the decryption key inside a locket and gave it to Norah.
The locket was now in her pocket.
Norah pulled it out.
Gabriel examined the hinge.
A tiny mechanism clicked.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a small memory card.
Norah gasped.
“My entire life…”
“Was built around keeping this safe.”
Gabriel looked at the card.
Then at Norah.
“We need a computer.”
A gunshot shattered the window.
Gabriel tackled Norah to the floor.
Another bullet struck the wall.
His men returned fire from outside.
Her mother screamed.
“Back room!”
Gabriel moved them through the cabin.
The attackers were many.
The forest became chaos.
Snow began falling.
Norah clutched the memory card.
A man entered through the side door.
She froze.
He removed his mask.
Daniel Bell.
The man she had never known.
The man responsible for the fire.
He looked older.
But his eyes were exactly as she remembered.
Cold.
Calculating.
“Norah.”
Gabriel stepped in front of her.
“Stay away from her.”
Daniel smiled.
“You don't know what you're protecting.”
Gabriel raised his weapon.
“You're done.”
Daniel laughed.
“You think this is about money?”
He looked at Norah.
“This is about the Rossi family.”
Then he said the words that shattered Gabriel.
“Your father ordered the fire.”
Gabriel's face drained of color.
Norah stared.
“No.”
Daniel continued.
“Marco Rossi knew Elliot was innocent.”
“He knew.”
“And he chose the empire anyway.”
Gabriel's hand trembled.
Daniel smiled.
“Ask your boss what his father did.”
Norah looked at Gabriel.
“Is it true?”
Gabriel had no answer.
Daniel's expression changed.
“Come with me, Norah.”
“She deserves to know why everyone around her lied.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“She doesn't need you.”
Daniel laughed.
“No.”
He looked at the memory card.
“She needs what I'm carrying.”
Then he disappeared through the back door.
Norah looked at Gabriel.
“What did your father do?”
Gabriel met her eyes.
May you like
“I don't know.”
It was the first time he had ever sounded like a man instead of a boss.
