Chapter 28 - The Enemy Behind Gabriel
Gabriel survived.
Barely.
Doctors identified a rare anticoagulant mixed into his medication.
Someone had wanted him dead before he could finish testifying.
That changed everything.
Gabriel was not the top of the network.
He was protecting someone.
In the hospital, chained to his bed, Gabriel finally requested Dominic.
No lawyers.
No mother.
No prosecutors.
Dominic brought Hannah anyway.
Gabriel laughed weakly.
“Of course.”
Dominic sat.
“Who poisoned you?”
Gabriel’s face had lost its arrogance.
“For years, I thought I controlled the accounts.”
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
“Who?”
Gabriel looked toward Hannah.
“Your foundation audit discovered him.”
Hannah frowned.
“The forged records?”
“They weren’t designed only to frame you. They were designed to force a federal review.”
“Why?”
“Because investigators would find unusual transfers.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“Name.”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Senator Malcolm Vale.”
Dominic knew him.
Everyone did.
Three-term senator.
Former state attorney general.
National political ambitions.
A man who had publicly criticized Moretti corruption while secretly appearing several times in Salvatore’s original ledger.
Adrian had assumed the references were old bribes.
Gabriel explained otherwise.
Vale inherited Salvatore’s political network after his death.
Gabriel managed financial channels.
Vale protected operations through regulatory influence.
“He ordered the sniper?” Hannah asked.
Gabriel nodded.
“He ordered your foundation attacked.”
“Why?”
“Because Adrian came back.”
Dominic understood.
“He knew Adrian had evidence.”
“Yes.”
“And now he tried to kill you because you could identify him.”
Gabriel looked humiliated.
“I thought I was his partner.”
Hannah almost felt pity.
Almost.
“You kidnapped Mason for him?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“That was me.”
At least he did not lie.
“You tried to kill Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“Burned my mother’s piano?”
“Yes.”
Hannah’s expression hardened.
“You’re still going to prison.”
“I know.”
It was the first honest thing Gabriel had said without calculation.
Agent Pierce entered.
“We need proof against Vale.”
Gabriel laughed weakly.
“You won’t find digital records. He never used email. Never signed anything.”
“Then how did he communicate?”
“Courier.”
“Who?”
Gabriel looked toward Dominic.
“Harlan.”
Hannah stood.
“No.”
“The theater manager?” Pierce asked.
Gabriel nodded.
“He didn’t know what he carried. Vale used cultural donations to move sealed envelopes.”
Hannah remembered Harlan’s anxiety.
His endless paper shuffling.
His devotion to the Marlowe.
“He was being used.”
“Yes.”
They went directly to Harlan.
When confronted, he nearly fainted.
“I thought they were donor documents!”
“How long?” Hannah asked.
“Twelve years.”
Dominic swore.
Harlan began crying.
“They donated millions to the theater.”
Hannah hugged him.
“Where did the envelopes go?”
“Different places.”
“Think.”
Harlan closed his eyes.
“One destination repeated.”
A private reading room in the Bellhaven Historical Society.
Senator Vale served as honorary chairman.
Agent Pierce obtained a warrant.
Inside the reading room, investigators found nothing.
Then Hannah noticed an old upright piano against the wall.
She stared at it.
Dominic saw her expression.
“Seriously?”
“Families repeat themselves.”
They opened the back panel.
Inside were hundreds of envelopes.
Handwritten instructions.
Payment codes.
Political favors.
Names.
Dates.
One letter ordered Gabriel to “resolve the Adrian problem.”
Another directed a judicial appointment in exchange for suppressing Salvatore-era investigations.
Agent Pierce smiled for the first time in days.
“We have him.”
The arrest team traveled to Vale’s estate.
Too late.
The senator was gone.
His private aircraft had filed a flight plan to Switzerland.
Dominic called an aviation contact.
“Plane hasn’t departed,” he said.
“Why?”
“Mechanical hold.”
Pierce looked suspicious.
“You arranged that?”
“No.”
Hannah smiled.
“Maybe the universe hates politicians.”
The truth was simpler.
Mason had called a friend at the airport maintenance office.
“I told them federal agents were looking for Vale.”
Hannah stared.
“You interfered with a senator’s flight?”
“I asked them to verify the paperwork.”
“Mason.”
“What? Safety first.”
Pierce almost laughed.
Federal agents arrested Vale on the tarmac.
Television cameras captured him screaming about political persecution.
By evening, the entire network began collapsing.
Judges resigned.
Executives surrendered.
Investigations opened.
Salvatore’s old empire finally faced daylight.
Dominic watched the news from Box Six.
Adrian entered.
“It’s finished.”
Dominic looked at him.
“No.”
Adrian frowned.
May you like
Dominic smiled.
“Now we decide what comes after.”
