Chapter 8 - The Man Beside Leonardo
No one spoke after Gabriel's recorded accusation.
Dante remained completely still beneath the dim service light.
Clara watched the color drain from his face.
Leonardo slowly stood.
"Gabriel said the person who betrayed him was sitting beside you when you got the call."
Dante's eyes stayed on the recorder.
"I heard him."
"Who was beside me?"
Dante looked up.
"Three people."
Leonardo's jaw tightened.
"You."
"Victor."
"And Father Callahan."
Clara frowned.
"A priest?"
Leonardo gave a humorless laugh.
"A family adviser who happened to wear a collar."
Dante stepped away from the wall.
"Gabe made it sound like one of us."
"It was one of us," Leonardo said.
The temperature in the corridor seemed to drop.
Clara moved between them before either man could turn suspicion into something worse.
"The recording isn't finished."
Dante looked at her.
"Play it."
Clara pressed the button again.
Gabriel's voice returned.
"If you're already looking at Dante, stop."
Dante closed his eyes.
Leonardo stared at the recorder.
"He knew you would."
The message continued.
"Dante gave me the warning that kept me off the boat."
"He also lied to Leo afterward because I asked him to."
"That lie cost him more than it cost me, and if he is still standing beside you, he has paid enough."
Dante turned away.
Clara saw his shoulders rise with one controlled breath.
Leonardo said nothing for several seconds.
Then he asked, "You knew?"
Dante faced him.
"I knew Gabe suspected a trap."
"I did not know he planned to vanish for years."
"After the explosion, he contacted me once."
"He told me to let you believe it."
Leonardo's voice went dangerously quiet.
"And you did."
"Because he said whoever betrayed him would be watching your reaction."
"If you knew he survived, you would act differently."
"So I let you grieve him."
Clara looked at Leonardo.
For the first time, she saw not a feared man, but an older brother realizing his closest friend had helped create five years of grief.
"You could have told me later," Leonardo said.
"I tried."
"When?"
"After the message six months later."
"You shut me down before I finished."
Leonardo's brow furrowed.
Dante continued.
"I said I thought Gabe might be alive."
"You told me hope was making us stupid."
Leonardo looked away.
The words had apparently been his.
Clara understood the silence.
Grief had not only hidden Gabriel from Leonardo.
It had made Leonardo help hide him from himself.
The recording continued.
"The person beside Leo was Father Callahan."
Dante's head snapped toward the device.
Leonardo swore under his breath.
Gabriel's voice remained calm.
"Callahan heard enough over twenty years to sell everyone twice."
"He gave Victor the Palermo schedule, but he was not loyal to Victor either."
"He was loyal to whoever paid for the next secret."
"If he is alive, he knows where the second key moved after Boston."
The message ended with a soft click.
Clara looked at Sofia.
"Is Callahan alive?"
Sofia nodded reluctantly.
"He left the church four years ago."
"Lives outside Chicago now."
Leonardo's expression hardened.
"Not anymore."
Clara pointed at him.
"No threats."
He looked at her.
"He betrayed my brother."
"And I want answers from him while he is still willing to give them."
Dante almost smiled.
Leonardo did not.
They left the station with the box and recorder secured in Sofia's case.
By noon, Dante had found Callahan's current address in a quiet suburb north of the city.
Clara insisted on going.
Sofia insisted even harder.
Leonardo objected to both and lost the argument.
Callahan lived in a modest ranch house behind a church supply warehouse.
No guards waited outside.
No black cars idled nearby.
A ceramic birdbath stood crooked in the yard.
It looked painfully normal.
Clara rang the bell.
An elderly man opened the door wearing a brown cardigan and reading glasses.
His face changed when he saw Leonardo.
Then he saw Clara's hand.
The ring was back on her finger.
He whispered, "Gabriel."
Clara stepped forward.
"Not Gabriel."
Callahan's eyes filled with something that looked like fear.
"You are Clara."
She hated hearing her name from a stranger who knew too much.
"You helped Victor find Gabriel in Palermo."
Callahan's shoulders sagged.
"Yes."
Leonardo moved closer.
"Why?"
Callahan looked at him with old exhaustion.
"Because Victor showed me records proving your father had been paying me from an account I did not know existed."
"He said he could make it look like I stole from the church."
"So you sold Gabe instead."
Callahan closed his eyes.
"I gave him a schedule."
"I told myself Victor only wanted the ledgers."
Clara's voice hardened.
"People tell themselves remarkable things when they want to live with what they did."
Callahan looked at her.
"Gabriel said something similar."
The resemblance in phrasing made Clara's stomach tighten.
"You saw him after Boston."
Callahan's silence answered.
Leonardo took one step toward him.
Clara blocked him again.
"Where?"
Callahan looked at the ring.
"He came here two years ago."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
Clara's vision blurred at the edges.
Two years ago meant one full year after she buried him.
"Why did he come?"
"To ask where Victor moved the second key."
"Did you tell him?"
"No."
"Because I didn't know."
Callahan swallowed.
"But I told him who did."
Leonardo's eyes narrowed.
"Who?"
May you like
Callahan looked directly at Clara.
"The woman who signed your husband's death certificate."
