Chapter 3 - THE KEY WITH NO LOCK
The brass key became the center of Dante's attention.
It was old.
Heavy.
Marked with the number seventeen.
Gabriel had carried many keys over the years, but Dante had never seen this one.
Roman examined it.
“Storage locker?”
“Maybe.”
“Safe-deposit box?”
“Possibly.”
Dante turned the key between his fingers.
“Gabriel wouldn't carry something meaningless.”
Roman nodded.
Meanwhile, Gabriel's condition improved slightly.
The doctors confirmed he'd suffered a cardiac event complicated by injuries consistent with a fall.
They couldn't yet determine whether he'd been pushed.
But the bruising on his upper arm suggested someone might have grabbed him.
Dante listened carefully.
Then asked whether Gabriel could speak.
The physician shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Dante nodded.
That afternoon, Vivien returned to room 412.
Not by accident.
She had been asked to deliver a medical supply package that had been sent to the wrong floor.
She knocked.
A guard opened the door.
Dante sat beside the window.
His tablet was gone.
He looked exhausted.
Vivien held up the package.
“Someone ordered this?”
Roman took it.
“Thank you.”
Vivien turned to leave.
Then stopped.
“Mr. Morello?”
Dante looked up.
“Dante.”
She sighed.
“Dante.”
He smiled faintly.
“Better.”
Vivien hesitated.
“Gabriel said something else.”
Dante's expression changed instantly.
“What?”
“I didn't put it in the report because I wasn't sure I heard correctly.”
“Tell me.”
She swallowed.
“He said, ‘The boy knows.’”
Silence.
Dante stared.
“The boy?”
Vivien nodded.
“That's what it sounded like.”
Dante stood slowly.
“Are you certain?”
“No.”
She held his gaze.
“He was barely conscious. I could have misunderstood.”
Dante nodded.
But his face had gone pale.
Because there was only one boy Gabriel had ever referred to that way.
Dante's younger brother.
May you like
Nico.
And Nico had been missing for eleven years.
