Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO STAY DEAD
At dusk, officers raided the container yard. Marcus watched from a safe distance in Reyes's unmarked car after insisting on identifying the storage trailers from old company maps.
A rescue team brought Gabriel out under a silver emergency blanket. He was conscious but barely steady on his feet. He saw Marcus through the windshield and lifted two fingers in a familiar salute.
At the hospital, Reyes permitted a short conversation.
“I'm sorry,” Gabriel rasped.
“You jumped in after me,” Marcus said. “You saved my life.”
“Not enough. They kept telling me Lily was fine.”
Marcus sat beside him. “You didn't know.”
Gabriel asked for water and told them what he remembered: an altered engine fitting, a disabled beacon, Brent on the dock, and a second vessel that had circled the survivors before leaving. He'd heard Celeste's name over a radio while being transferred between locations.
“Was my mother involved?” Marcus asked.
Gabriel hesitated. “I heard an older woman say, 'He never should have opened those books.' I couldn't see her.”
Renee arrived with another discovery. In the estate's accounting backup, a payment to the security division had been labeled MEMORIAL EVENT—FINAL SETTLEMENT. It cleared three days before the gala.
“That's not what frightens me,” Renee said. “Look at the attached invoice.”
There were two service descriptions. One referred to removal of Marcus's archived records.
The other read: TRANSFER OF MINOR DEPENDENT—AUTHORIZATION PENDING.
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Marcus gripped the edge of the hospital bed. “Where were they planning to take my daughter?”
