Chapter 16 - Gabriel Voss Comes Home.
Marcus warned Enzo before answering Voss that Gabriel preferred conversations where anger made the other person careless.
Enzo almost laughed.
"Then he's had a very good weekend."
Still, he kept his voice controlled.
Nora realized restraint could be more threatening to someone like Voss than shouting because it denied him the reaction he expected.
Voss's phone call worked because he mixed truth with accusation.
Dominic really was alive.
Marcus really had lied.
Dawson really was injured.
Northstar really had moved money.
Each true statement created room for a false conclusion beside it.
Nora recognized the method because the planted evidence had worked the same way.
The most dangerous lie was rarely built from nothing.
Gabriel Voss looked different from the villain Nora had built in her imagination.
The photographs showed a polished man in his late fifties with silver at his temples and the controlled posture of someone comfortable in formal rooms.
He did not look reckless.
He looked patient.
That made the timeline more believable.
Northstar had survived because patience was one of its tools.
Small payments.
Layered companies.
Long gaps.
People recruited young and kept useful for years.
A patient scheme did not need every participant to understand the whole design.
It only needed each person to perform one familiar task at the right time.
Nora thought about how restaurants worked the same way for better reasons.
One cook plated.
One server carried.
One manager timed.
Coordination could create elegance.
In the wrong hands, it could also create 8:07.
Gabriel Voss did not hide after the camera identified him.
He called Enzo.
The call arrived less than twenty minutes after Dawson climbed into his car.
Enzo put it on speaker in Lily's hospital room with Ruiz listening from the hall.
Nora stood beside Hargrove near the window.
Marcus remained by the door.
Gabriel's voice was calm.
Almost friendly.
"Enzo."
Enzo's jaw tightened.
"Where is Dawson?"
Gabriel laughed softly.
"No hello?"
"Where is he?"
"Safe."
Hargrove's expression hardened.
Ruiz made a motion for Enzo to keep him talking.
"Safe from who?" Enzo asked.
"From the people who tried to kill him."
Nora looked at Hargrove.
Gabriel continued.
"You have been chasing the wrong man all day."
"Then come explain it to police."
"You know better than that."
"Do I?"
"You used to."
Enzo's voice turned colder.
"My daughter spent last night in a hospital bed. Whatever history you think we have ended there."
Silence followed.
For the first time, Gabriel's tone changed.
"I did not touch Lily."
"Someone working with Dawson did."
"Dawson was trying to stop it."
Hargrove shook his head.
Ruiz wrote a note and held it up.
ASK ABOUT 8:07.
Enzo read it.
"What happened at eight oh seven?"
Gabriel paused.
"You already know."
"Tell me."
"Your company was robbed."
"And Lily's drink was switched."
Another pause.
"Was it?"
Nora felt a chill.
The wording was deliberate.
Enzo leaned forward.
"You knew about the transfer."
"I knew someone intended to move money."
"Who?"
"Dominic."
Marcus made a quiet sound of disbelief.
Gabriel heard it.
"Marcus is there, isn't he?"
No one answered.
Gabriel continued.
"Ask your lawyer why Dominic came back now."
Enzo looked at Marcus.
"We already did."
"No, you asked why he disappeared."
Gabriel's voice sharpened.
"Ask why he came back."
Marcus's face remained unreadable.
Ruiz held up another note.
LOCATION.
Enzo ignored it for the moment.
"You were seen driving Dawson away from the River Street archive."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he called me for help."
"After eight years working for Hargrove?"
"Daniel and I have known each other much longer than that."
Hargrove closed his eyes briefly.
Gabriel continued.
"He made mistakes when he was young. So did I."
Nora thought of Giovanni's ledger.
D.R.D. requested money for silence.
G.V. has taken interest in boy.
"You paid him," Enzo said.
"For consulting."
"Eighty-four thousand dollars last year."
A pause.
"Then you've been busy."
"Northstar never died, did it?"
Gabriel stopped sounding amused.
"Be careful what you think you understand."
"My daughter almost paid for your warning."
"Your daughter was never supposed to be harmed."
Everyone in the room froze.
Ruiz's eyes sharpened.
Enzo's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Supposed to?"
Gabriel realized the mistake.
"That's not what I meant."
"It sounded exactly like what you meant."
"I meant whoever planned this would not have wanted a child involved."
"You know what they wanted?"
"I know Dominic."
Marcus finally spoke.
"No, Gabriel. You know how to use his name."
Gabriel's tone changed again.
"Marcus Bell."
"Hello, Gabriel."
"Still cleaning up Castellani mistakes?"
"Only the ones that keep calling."
Enzo cut them off.
"Where are you?"
"Somewhere safe."
"Bring Dawson to the police."
"He doesn't trust them."
Ruiz leaned toward the phone.
"He doesn't have to trust us. He has to surrender."
Gabriel went silent.
"Detective Ruiz."
"Mr. Voss."
"I assume you're tracing this."
"I assume you know I am."
"Then we can skip the theater."
"Fine. Tell me who switched Lily's drink."
Gabriel's answer came after a long pause.
"I don't know."
"Tell me who moved nine point six million dollars."
"Dominic."
"Proof?"
"Ask Marcus."
Ruiz looked at the lawyer.
Marcus's eyes narrowed.
"You're lying."
Gabriel laughed softly.
"Tell Enzo about Milwaukee."
Marcus stopped breathing for half a second.
Enzo saw it.
"What about Milwaukee?"
"Marcus."
The lawyer said nothing.
Gabriel continued.
"Tell him who called you six weeks ago."
Nora looked at Marcus.
His face had gone pale.
Enzo's voice was barely controlled.
"Marcus."
"Not now."
"Now."
Gabriel sounded almost satisfied.
"I'll leave you two to catch up."
Ruiz spoke quickly.
"Mr. Voss, if Dawson needs medical attention, tell me where he is."
"He has what he needs."
"If you are protecting him, keeping him hidden is making his situation worse."
"Daniel knows what happens to men who tell the truth in this family."
Enzo's expression hardened.
"What does that mean?"
"Ask Dominic."
The line disconnected.
Ruiz immediately called the trace team.
The signal had bounced through multiple internet services and a moving cellular hotspot.
No useful location yet.
The hospital room became silent.
Enzo looked at Marcus.
"Who called you six weeks ago?"
Marcus stared through the glass at sleeping Lily.
"Dominic."
Hargrove muttered something under his breath.
Enzo did not move.
"You told us you hadn't seen or heard from him in five years."
"I told you the last time I saw him was five years ago."
"You let us believe the rest."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Marcus looked at Nora, Ruiz, and Hargrove.
"Because Dominic made me promise."
Enzo took a step toward him.
"You've been making promises to my brother for years."
"And breaking them would have gotten him killed."
"He called six weeks ago."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Marcus took a slow breath.
"He said Gabriel had restarted Northstar."
Nora felt the room tighten.
"He knew about the payroll payments?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"He has been watching Voss from outside the country for years."
Ruiz frowned.
"Outside where?"
"Different places. He never stayed long."
"And six weeks ago?"
"He was back in the Midwest."
Enzo's anger sharpened.
"You knew he was here."
"I knew he might be."
"Did you meet him?"
Marcus looked at the floor.
"Yes."
"The parking garage photograph."
"Yes."
Nora remembered Marcus insisting the man with the ring had merely walked past.
"That was Dominic."
Marcus nodded.
"Yes."
Ruiz stared at him.
"You lied to police during an active investigation."
"I protected a confidential source who believed his life was in danger."
"You don't get to label your client's brother a confidential source and make obstruction disappear."
"I understand."
Enzo looked more hurt than angry now.
That seemed worse.
"What did Dominic want?"
Marcus answered quietly.
"He wanted access to Giovanni's archive."
"Why?"
"Because he believed Thomas Hayes's original records were still there."
Nora stepped forward.
"He knew my father's name?"
"Yes."
"Did he know about me?"
Marcus hesitated.
"He knew Thomas had a daughter named Nora."
Her stomach tightened.
"Did he know I worked at the Aurelian?"
"Not from me."
"That isn't an answer."
"I don't know."
Ruiz asked the question that mattered most.
"Was Dominic at the birthday dinner?"
Marcus looked at the floor again.
"He told me he planned to enter the building."
Enzo's face became still.
"Why?"
"To watch Dawson."
Hargrove stared at him.
"Dominic knew Dawson was involved?"
"He suspected it."
"Then why not tell me?"
"He didn't trust your security operation."
"Because of Dawson."
"Exactly."
Nora remembered the man in white.
The ring.
Happy birthday, princess.
The maintenance jacket.
"Dominic was the man in the hallway."
Marcus looked at her.
"I believe so."
Ruiz's expression hardened.
"Belief isn't enough."
Marcus nodded.
"No."
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know."
"Can you contact him?"
"Maybe."
Enzo's voice was low.
"Do it."
Marcus took out a second phone no one had seen him use.
Hargrove stared at it.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Marcus ignored him.
He opened an encrypted messaging application and typed one sentence.
LILY IS SAFE. ENZO KNOWS. WE NEED YOU.
The message showed no delivery confirmation.
They waited five minutes.
Nothing.
Ten minutes.
Nothing.
Then Nora's phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
Everyone looked at her.
She opened the message.
MARCUS WAS RIGHT TO LIE.
A second arrived.
I WAS THE MAN IN WHITE.
Nora's pulse jumped.
A third message followed.
I DID NOT TOUCH LILY'S GLASS.
May you like
Then a fourth.
DAWSON DID.
