Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE RECORDING
Gabriel locked himself inside the library.
Hannah remained downstairs with Eli.
The black envelope sat on the desk.
He stared at it for almost ten minutes before opening it.
Inside was a photograph.
Claire.
Holding Eli.
Summer sunlight behind them.
On the back, Claire had written:
He thinks he's protecting us.
Gabriel's stomach twisted.
There was more.
A folded piece of paper.
A handwritten list.
Four names.
Victor Hale.
Marcus Bell.
Dr. Adrian Cross.
And—
Gabriel stopped.
The fourth name was his own.
Gabriel Marlowe.
He read it again.
Then again.
The library door opened.
Hannah stood there.
“You shouldn't be reading that alone.”
Gabriel looked up.
“You knew.”
“I knew Claire was afraid.”
“Afraid of me?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Hannah closed the door.
“That's what I was trying to find out.”
Gabriel stood.
“Start talking.”
Hannah's expression hardened.
“You're not the only person who lost someone that day.”
“You didn't know Claire.”
“No.”
“But you knew her?”
Hannah nodded.
Gabriel's face changed.
“How?”
“She came to the shelter where my sister worked.”
“What shelter?”
“Domestic violence shelter.”
Gabriel stared.
“My wife wasn't hiding from me.”
“I didn't say she was.”
“You implied it.”
Hannah shook her head.
“She wasn't hiding because you hurt her.”
“Then why?”
“Because she discovered something.”
Gabriel looked at the photograph.
“What?”
Hannah hesitated.
“Money.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“Claire had access to everything.”
“Not this.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Payments.”
She walked toward the desk.
“Large payments. Repeated transfers. Companies that didn't exist on paper.”
Gabriel's face went cold.
“My companies?”
“No.”
“Then whose?”
Hannah looked toward the window.
“Your security company.”
Gabriel froze.
He had hired a private security firm after Claire's death.
But the company had been recommended by Victor Hale.
His oldest business adviser.
The man Gabriel had trusted for eighteen years.
“Claire found financial records,” Hannah continued. “She believed someone was paying people to monitor your family.”
Gabriel's voice lowered.
“Monitor us?”
“Before the bombing.”
He couldn't speak.
Hannah pulled out another photograph.
A grainy image of a black sedan parked outside Eli's school.
“This was taken three days before Claire died.”
Gabriel took it.
He recognized the vehicle.
His security team had used that exact model.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because that car belonged to my security detail.”
Hannah stared at him.
“Exactly.”
Gabriel turned away.
His mind raced.
The bomb.
Claire's death.
Eli's injury.
His cameras.
His security company.
Victor Hale.
Every piece of his life suddenly seemed connected.
Then his phone rang.
Victor.
Gabriel answered.
“Where are you?”
“Home.”
“Good. Don't leave.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because there's been a breach.”
“What breach?”
A pause.
“Someone accessed the old security archive.”
Gabriel looked toward the cameras.
“What archive?”
“The recordings from eleven months ago.”
His hand tightened around the phone.
“Who accessed them?”
“We're trying to determine that.”
“Try harder.”
Victor's voice changed.
“Gabriel.”
“What?”
“You need to destroy those recordings.”
Silence.
Gabriel's blood ran cold.
“Why?”
“Because if they fall into the wrong hands, people will die.”
The line went dead.
Gabriel stared at the phone.
Hannah whispered:
“He knows.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“You knew this would happen?”
“No.”
“Then why aren't you surprised?”
“Because Claire told me one thing before she disappeared from my life.”
Gabriel's chest tightened.
“What?”
“She said, ‘If Gabriel ever starts watching the cameras instead of looking at his son, remind him that the truth is usually standing outside the frame.’”
Gabriel looked toward the monitor.
Outside the frame.
He replayed the night of the bombing.
The security footage showed Claire's SUV leaving the driveway.
Then the camera switched angles.
A black screen.
Sixteen seconds missing.
Gabriel had watched that recording hundreds of times.
He had always assumed it was technical failure.
But now he noticed something.
The timestamp.
The cameras had not failed.
Someone had overwritten the footage.
He enlarged the frame before the blackout.
Claire's car.
A second vehicle behind it.
A black sedan.
The same one from the photograph.
Gabriel leaned closer.
Then the driver's window lowered.
A face appeared.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
He knew the man.
He had seen him in his house.
At his table.
At Claire's funeral.
Standing beside him.
Victor Hale.
Gabriel replayed it.
Again.
Again.
Then Eli screamed from upstairs.
Gabriel ran.
He found Eli on the floor beside his wheelchair.
Hannah was kneeling beside him.
Blood covered her hand.
Gabriel's heart stopped.
“What happened?”
Eli pointed toward the hallway.
“Someone came in.”
Gabriel turned.
“Who?”
Eli's lips trembled.
“The man from Mom's picture.”
Gabriel went still.
“What man?”
May you like
Eli looked at him.
“The one Dad trusts.”
