Chapter 2 - The Blue Folder
Nobody touched the food.
Gabriel stared at his mother.
"Ma."
Beatrice signed.
Chloe translated.
"She says, 'You never learned enough to ask me.'"
That one hurt.
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
Dominic leaned back.
"She's confused."
Beatrice turned on him so quickly her chair scraped.
Her hands moved.
Chloe translated.
"She says she is deaf, not confused."
One of the men looked at the table.
Dominic smiled without warmth.
"Mrs. Costello has had difficult years."
Beatrice signed again.
"She says you've had convenient years."
Gabriel stood.
"Enough."
Beatrice flinched.
Not from volume.
From his face.
Chloe saw it.
So did Gabriel.
His anger collapsed into something uglier.
Shame.
He sat again.
Slowly.
"Ask her what she means."
Chloe looked at him.
"You ask her."
"I don't know how."
"Then learn one sentence."
Gabriel stared at Chloe as if nobody had spoken to him that way in a decade.
She held up her hands.
"Like this."
She showed him.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
Gabriel copied badly.
Beatrice watched.
His first sign was clumsy.
The second worse.
But she understood.
Her expression changed.
Then she pointed at the blue folder beside Gabriel.
Her hands moved.
Do not sign it.
Gabriel looked down.
Dominic's smile disappeared.
Chloe translated.
Gabriel said, "Why?"
Beatrice signed:
Because he changed the last page.
Dominic stood.
"That's enough."
Gabriel looked at him.
"Sit."
Dominic sat.
Gabriel opened the folder.
The documents concerned a transfer involving three of Costello's legitimate hospitality companies.
Nothing visibly sinister.
Signature pages at the back.
Dominic said, "You've reviewed it twice."
Gabriel ignored him.
He looked at Chloe.
"Ask her how she knows."
Chloe signed.
Beatrice answered.
Last night. Library. He thought I was asleep.
"She says she saw Dominic replace a page in your library."
Dominic laughed.
"She couldn't possibly know what page."
Beatrice looked directly at him.
Then signed:
You forget deaf people can see.
Chloe translated.
One man at the table coughed to hide a laugh.
Gabriel did not.
He pulled the last page.
Then the page before it.
Nothing obvious.
Dominic said, "This is absurd."
Beatrice tapped the blue folder twice.
Then signed:
Read the names.
Gabriel read.
Costello Hospitality Holdings.
Gabriel Costello.
Dominic Serra, authorized executive agent.
He frowned.
"That's standard."
Beatrice shook her head.
She signed:
Not that name.
The witness.
Gabriel looked lower.
The witness signature belonged to Anthony Vale.
Gabriel froze.
Chloe noticed.
"Who is Anthony Vale?"
Nobody answered.
Beatrice did.
Dead.
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
"She says he's dead."
Gabriel's eyes stayed on the page.
"Four years."
Dominic said, "Old template."
Gabriel looked at him.
"You said outside counsel prepared this yesterday."
Dominic's face barely changed.
"Then they reused a witness block."
Gabriel turned to one of the younger men.
"Nico. Call Vale's old firm."
Dominic said, "Gabriel, don't turn a clerical mistake into—"
"Call."
Nico left.
Beatrice signed again.
Chloe watched.
Her hands slowed.
This sentence cost her something.
"She says this isn't the first time."
Gabriel's eyes moved to his mother.
"What isn't?"
Beatrice touched her own chest.
Then mimed a pen.
Chloe felt cold.
"She says Dominic has been putting papers in front of her for years."
Dominic stood again.
"Medication consents. Property maintenance. Household accounts."
Beatrice signed sharply.
Menus.
Chloe frowned.
"She says you told her some of them were menus."
The room went silent.
Gabriel's chair moved backward.
Dominic's face changed.
Just once.
Fear.
Then Nico returned.
He did not sit.
"Vale's firm says they didn't draft the transfer."
Gabriel looked down at the blue folder.
Nico continued.
"And they want to know why their dead partner's signature is on it."
Beatrice reached across the table.
She touched Gabriel's sleeve.
Then signed:
Now ask him what else he forged.
Gabriel looked at Dominic.
Dominic looked at the door.
And Chloe realized Beatrice had not been trying to order dinner.
She had been waiting for one person in the room who could finally hear her.
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