Chapter 4 - The Name She Buried.
Norah's face changed before Gabriel lowered the phone.
That alone told him the caller had chosen the right wound.
"What did he say?" Luca asked.
Gabriel kept his eyes on Norah.
"He asked about her father."
Norah closed the laptop.
"We're done for tonight."
Gabriel stepped between her and the door.
"No."
"Move."
"Who was your father?"
"A man who is dead."
"That wasn't my question."
"It's the only answer you're getting."
Luca quietly moved away from them.
He had survived long enough around Gabriel to recognize when a conversation had become private.
Gabriel lowered his voice.
"Someone broke into my penthouse, photographed you, planted a phone, and mentioned your father."
Norah looked at him.
"I noticed."
"Then stop protecting whatever this is."
Her eyes flashed.
"You think I'm protecting it?"
"I think you're scared of it."
That landed harder than anger would have.
Norah looked away.
For several seconds, only the rain spoke.
Then she sat again.
"My father's name was Daniel Vale."
Gabriel searched his memory.
Nothing.
Luca returned from the far side of the room.
"Should I know that name?"
Norah shook her head.
"Not unless you were involved in federal contracting fifteen years ago."
Gabriel's expression sharpened.
"Go on."
"He was an auditor."
"Government?"
"Private contractor assigned to federal infrastructure grants."
Luca leaned against the desk.
"Construction."
Norah nodded.
"Ports, bridges, municipal waste systems, disaster reconstruction."
The same industries where Gabriel's legitimate companies now operated.
"He found something," Gabriel said.
"He found a network of shell vendors billing public projects for work that didn't exist."
"How much?"
"He never told me."
Norah's hands tightened together.
"He said numbers could be more dangerous than guns because people trusted them."
Gabriel glanced at her laptop.
"What happened?"
"His car went off a bridge."
Luca's expression changed.
"Accident?"
Norah laughed without humor.
"That's what the report said."
Gabriel remained silent.
"Three days before he died, he gave me a notebook," Norah continued.
"He told me never to open it unless somebody came asking about Meridian."
Gabriel looked toward the screen.
Meridian Civic Solutions.
The same vendor receiving the stolen funds.
"You had that name before tonight," he said.
"I was twelve."
"You remembered it."
"I remembered one word my father told me to fear."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"Where's the notebook?"
Norah hesitated.
"Safe-deposit box."
"Which bank?"
"I'm not telling you."
"Norah."
"Gabriel."
Their eyes locked.
Luca cleared his throat.
Neither looked at him.
"You hired me because I don't hand people information just because they threaten the room," Norah said.
"I hired you because you're good with numbers."
"Same personality defect."
Gabriel should have been furious.
Instead, he looked almost impressed.
Then his phone rang.
This time it was building security.
Luca answered on speaker.
"We found Owen."
Gabriel's face went still.
"Where?"
"Parking level four."
A pause.
"He's alive."
Norah exhaled.
"But he's been hit pretty hard."
Gabriel grabbed his coat.
"Lock down every exit."
"Already done."
"Nobody leaves."
"Understood."
They moved toward the door.
Norah followed.
Gabriel turned.
"You stay here."
"Absolutely not."
"This isn't a committee decision."
"Then fire me tomorrow."
She walked past him into the corridor.
Luca hid a smile.
Gabriel gave him one look.
The smile disappeared.
They took the private elevator to parking level four.
Security guards had formed a perimeter around a black SUV.
Owen sat against the concrete wall with blood at his temple and one wrist zip-tied to a pipe.
He looked furious rather than frightened.
"Took you long enough," he said.
Luca cut him loose.
"Who did it?"
"Didn't see their faces."
Gabriel crouched.
"How did they get into the office?"
Owen's eyes shifted toward Norah.
"They didn't."
Gabriel's stare sharpened.
"I was attacked in the service hall before I ever locked the room."
"Then who was standing with us upstairs?" Luca asked.
Owen looked confused.
"What are you talking about?"
Norah went cold.
The man who had remained in the penthouse with her had looked exactly like Owen from behind.
Same suit.
Same height.
Same voice over a whisper.
But nobody had looked closely because Gabriel had been worried about waking her.
Luca swore.
Gabriel stood slowly.
His face became unreadable.
The impostor had not simply entered the penthouse.
Gabriel had personally left Norah alone with him.
Gabriel questioned Owen while the medic cleaned the cut at his temple.
He kept the questions short.
Where had Owen been standing when he was attacked?
Who had called him there?
What had the attacker said?
Owen answered without hesitation.
A message from Luca had told him to inspect a service-door alarm.
The message used Luca's usual shorthand.
No punctuation.
No greeting.
Exactly the way Luca texted during a security problem.
Luca checked his phone again.
"Not mine."
Owen nodded.
"I know that now."
He described stepping into the service hall and seeing a man in a building-engineer uniform.
The man had apologized and pointed toward a damaged sensor.
Owen remembered bending to look at it.
Then nothing until he woke zip-tied beside the SUV.
Norah listened closely.
"Did he smell like anything?"
Owen blinked.
"What?"
"Cologne, cigarettes, chemicals, anything."
Owen thought.
"Cedar. Maybe aftershave."
Norah's face tightened.
Gabriel noticed.
"You know it."
"My father's attorney wore cedar cologne."
Luca frowned.
"The retired lawyer?"
Norah nodded.
"Samuel Creed."
Gabriel looked at Owen.
"Age of the man who attacked you."
"Forties. Maybe early fifties. Hard to tell."
Norah shook her head.
"Creed would be in his seventies now."
Gabriel folded his arms.
"So either the scent means nothing or somebody wants you remembering him."
Norah looked at the concrete floor.
That was the problem with memory.
Once someone knew which details mattered to you, they could turn nostalgia into a weapon.
Owen suddenly winced and reached toward the inside of his jacket.
The medic tried to stop him.
"Hold still."
"Something's in my pocket."
He pulled out a folded piece of black cloth first.
It had been placed there after he lost consciousness.
A stitched white word appeared in one corner.
MERIDIAN.
Norah stared at it.
Then Owen reached deeper into the pocket.
Owen reached into his jacket with a wince.
"He dropped this when he jumped me."
He handed Gabriel a small brass key.
Norah recognized the stamped number immediately.
May you like
417.
It was the number of her father's safe-deposit box.
