Chapter 4 - The Man Who Should Have Been Dead
The first explosion came from beneath the kitchen floor.
Julian had just enough time to throw Eleanor toward the front door before the lake house seemed to lift from its foundation.
The blast hit him from behind.
Heat.
Pressure.
Splintering wood.
Then darkness.
For several seconds, Julian could hear nothing except a high metallic ringing inside his skull.
He was on the floor.
Or what remained of it.
Smoke rolled across the ceiling while flames climbed the wall where his grandmother's landscape painting had hung moments earlier.
“Mother!”
No answer.
Julian pushed himself onto one elbow.
Pain tore through his left shoulder.
“Mother!”
A cough came from near the doorway.
Eleanor.
He crawled toward her.
Another electronic beep sounded somewhere deeper inside the house.
Julian froze.
The timer.
The first explosion had not been the only device.
“Get up.”
Eleanor was conscious but disoriented. Blood ran from a cut above her eyebrow.
Julian dragged her upright.
“My case,” she gasped.
“Forget it.”
“The documents—”
“Forget the damn documents.”
He pulled her toward the door.
Behind them, fire reached the dining room curtains.
Another beep.
Faster.
They stumbled outside.
The cold night air hit Julian's face.
“Keep moving.”
They crossed the porch.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Then the second explosion tore through the lake house.
The windows erupted outward.
Julian threw Eleanor down and covered her with his body as glass and burning debris scattered across the lawn.
A section of the roof collapsed.
Flames surged into the night.
For a few seconds, neither moved.
Then Eleanor whispered, “The DNA report.”
Julian looked back.
Gone.
The photographs.
The tapes.
The financial records.
Everything was burning.
His phone had survived in his jacket.
He pulled it out.
The call with Gabriel had disconnected.
Julian immediately called back.
The number was unavailable.
“Of course.”
He tried again.
Nothing.
Eleanor slowly sat up.
“You spoke to him.”
Julian turned.
“You recognized his voice?”
Her expression answered before she did.
“Yes.”
“After eleven years?”
“I would recognize Gabriel's voice after fifty.”
Julian studied her.
There was something in the way she had said his name.
Not merely fear.
Grief.
Love.
Maybe both.
“You thought he was dead.”
“I hoped he was.”
Julian frowned.
“Hoped?”
Eleanor looked toward the burning house.
“Because if Gabriel is alive, then everything Evelyn tried to prevent has started again.”
---
The fire department arrived twenty minutes later.
Special Agent Cross arrived twelve minutes after that.
Julian immediately disliked the timing.
Cross walked toward him while firefighters surrounded the burning structure.
“What happened?”
“You tell me.”
Cross stopped.
“Meaning?”
“Someone knew exactly where we were.”
“You called no one?”
“No.”
“Your vehicle has GPS.”
“So does every federal vehicle.”
Cross stared at him.
“You think I did this?”
“I think someone accessed information they shouldn't have.”
“That's different.”
“Not to the people standing next to an exploding house.”
Cross looked at Eleanor.
A paramedic was cleaning the wound above her eye.
“What was inside?”
Julian watched him carefully.
“A safe.”
Cross's expression didn't change.
“Containing?”
“Family documents.”
“What kind?”
“The kind someone was willing to destroy.”
Cross lowered his voice.
“Your father's detention became complicated.”
“How?”
“Richard was attacked.”
Eleanor looked up.
Julian's expression hardened.
“By whom?”
“We don't know.”
“He was in federal custody.”
“I am aware.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
Julian was surprised by the relief he felt.
He hated Richard.
He had orchestrated his arrest.
But he did not want him dead.
Not yet.
Not before he answered questions.
Cross continued.
“Someone triggered a fire alarm in the detention wing. During the evacuation, one of our surveillance feeds went down for ninety-two seconds.”
“And?”
“Richard was found unconscious in a service corridor.”
“Who had access?”
“We're investigating.”
Julian gave him a humorless smile.
“Your investigations are having a difficult evening.”
Cross ignored the insult.
“There was something else.”
“What?”
“When Richard regained consciousness, he kept repeating a name.”
Julian already knew.
“Gabriel.”
Cross's eyes narrowed.
“How did you know?”
Eleanor stood.
“We're leaving.”
Cross stepped in front of her.
“Mrs. Sterling, who is Gabriel?”
“Ask Richard.”
“I am asking you.”
“And I'm declining to answer.”
Julian watched Cross carefully.
“You searched the name already.”
Cross didn't deny it.
“What did you find?” Julian asked.
“Gabriel Vale officially died eleven years ago.”
Eleanor went still.
Julian remembered the photograph dated three weeks earlier.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Eleanor laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Of course.”
Cross continued.
“Vehicle left a mountain road. Fire destroyed most of the remains.”
“Dental identification?”
“No.”
“DNA?”
“No.”
“So nobody proved it was Gabriel.”
“The personal effects found inside belonged to him.”
Julian looked at Eleanor.
“Same week as Evelyn?”
Cross answered.
“Two days after her death.”
Julian felt the pattern tightening.
Thomas Hart died twelve years ago.
Then Gabriel Vale supposedly died.
Evelyn Sterling supposedly died.
Two people declared dead without Julian ever questioning the official story.
And now Gabriel was alive.
Which raised an even more disturbing possibility.
“What about Evelyn?”
Eleanor looked at him.
“What about her?”
“We know she survived her official time of death.”
“Only by a few hours.”
“You don't know that.”
“I was there.”
“At eleven forty-eight.”
“Yes.”
“Were you there when she actually died?”
Eleanor's silence lasted one second too long.
Julian stepped closer.
“Were you?”
“No.”
The answer chilled him more than the night air.
“Then how do you know she's dead?”
“Because Gabriel told me.”
Julian stared at her.
“You believed him?”
“At the time.”
“But now?”
Eleanor looked at the burning lake house.
“Now I don't know what I believe.”
---
At 3:41 a.m., Julian received another message.
Not from Evelyn's number.
From Vivienne.
**I'm at St. Matthew's Hospital. Come alone. Please.**
Julian showed Cross.
“Absolutely not,” Cross said.
Julian put the phone away.
“That wasn't a request.”
“You just survived an explosive device.”
“And Vivienne may know the man who warned me about it.”
Cross frowned.
“What man?”
Julian looked at him.
For now, Gabriel remained his information.
“You're not the only person investigating.”
“That attitude will get you killed.”
“Apparently obedience doesn't guarantee safety either.”
---
Vivienne was waiting in a private emergency room at St. Matthew's.
Her wedding dress had been replaced by hospital scrubs.
A bruise darkened her wrist.
Julian stopped when he saw it.
“What happened?”
Vivienne looked exhausted.
“Someone tried to take me.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Cross left you at the hotel.”
“He left an agent.”
“And?”
“The agent disappeared.”
Julian's suspicion deepened.
“Convenient.”
“You think I'm lying?”
“I've recently discovered you're very good at it.”
Vivienne looked down.
“I deserve that.”
“No argument.”
He remained near the door.
“Why did you call me?”
“Because Gabriel called me.”
Julian's expression changed.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“What did he say?”
“That you were alive.”
“And?”
“That I had to tell you the truth before someone else told it for me.”
Julian folded his arms.
“That's going to require a very long night.”
Vivienne's eyes filled with tears.
“I didn't begin the affair because I wanted Richard.”
“I'm not interested in excuses.”
“It isn't an excuse.”
“Then what is it?”
“Evidence.”
Julian said nothing.
Vivienne reached beneath the hospital blanket and removed a small flash drive.
“Richard believed I was helping him.”
“With what?”
“Finding Gabriel.”
Julian stared at her.
“You knew Gabriel was alive.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Six weeks.”
“You met him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he contacted me.”
“And you didn't tell me.”
“I couldn't.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because Richard had someone watching you.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“Remarkable.”
Vivienne's anger surfaced.
“You think I enjoyed any of this?”
“I watched a video of you in my father's arms at our wedding.”
“Your father kissed me because I told him I had found Gabriel!”
The room went silent.
Julian stared at her.
Vivienne's breathing was fast now.
“He was celebrating. He thought I had finally given him what he wanted.”
“And you embraced him.”
“I had been pretending for months.”
“Pretending to sleep with him?”
Pain crossed her face.
“No.”
Julian looked away.
That was answer enough.
Vivienne whispered, “I did things I hate myself for.”
He said nothing.
“I thought Richard killed my father.”
“You still think that?”
“No.”
Julian looked back.
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel showed me the second ledger.”
Julian immediately stepped closer.
“You saw it?”
“Part of it.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
“What names were inside?”
Vivienne gripped the flash drive.
“Judges. Police officials. Business executives. Politicians. People my father had been tracking.”
“Was Richard's name there?”
“Yes.”
Julian felt vindicated for half a second.
Then Vivienne continued.
“But not where we expected.”
“What does that mean?”
“Richard wasn't listed as an organizer.”
“What was he?”
“A payment recipient.”
Julian frowned.
“From whom?”
“That's the problem.”
She handed him the flash drive.
“There are encrypted files on this. Gabriel gave it to me three weeks ago.”
Julian didn't take it immediately.
“Why give it to you?”
“Because Thomas Hart was one of the people who created the second ledger.”
Her father.
Julian took the drive.
“And Gabriel?”
“He helped him.”
“Then why was your father killed?”
Vivienne looked at him.
“I don't know.”
“Who does?”
“Gabriel.”
Julian studied her.
“And where is he?”
“I was hoping you knew.”
His phone vibrated.
Another message.
Evelyn's number.
Julian opened it.
This time there was no text.
Only a photograph.
Richard Sterling.
Lying unconscious in a hospital bed.
Taken through the glass of his room.
Timestamped thirty seconds earlier.
Julian immediately called Cross.
“Where's Richard?”
“At the federal medical unit.”
“Check him.”
“What happened?”
“Check him now.”
Julian heard movement.
Cross gave instructions to someone.
Then silence.
“Julian.”
“What?”
“He's there.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Julian looked again at the photograph.
Something bothered him.
The image showed Richard's left hand resting above the blanket.
A hospital identification band circled his wrist.
Julian enlarged it.
The name was not Richard Sterling.
It was:
**GABRIEL VALE.**
Julian's pulse quickened.
“Cross.”
“What?”
“What's written on Richard's hospital wristband?”
A pause.
Then Cross said, “Richard Sterling.”
Julian stared at the photograph.
Two hospital rooms.
Two men.
Two identities.
Vivienne moved beside him.
“What is it?”
He showed her.
All color left her face.
“No.”
“You recognize him?”
She enlarged the photograph.
Her fingers began trembling.
“That isn't Richard.”
Julian looked again.
The man's face was partly obscured by an oxygen mask.
Gray hair.
Similar age.
Similar build.
But Vivienne had met Gabriel.
“That's him,” she whispered.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
Julian immediately called the number that had warned him at the lake house.
This time someone answered.
No greeting.
Julian spoke first.
“Where are you?”
The man on the other end laughed quietly.
Julian froze.
He knew that laugh.
He had heard it less than four hours earlier while federal agents dragged Richard Sterling from his wedding.
“Father?”
Silence.
Then Richard Sterling's voice answered.
“Finally.”
Julian gripped the phone.
Cross was still connected on his other line.
Vivienne stared at him.
“What is happening?”
Richard spoke softly.
“You wanted the truth about Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop believing photographs.”
“What does that mean?”
“You've been asking the wrong question all night.”
“What question should I ask?”
Richard paused.
“Not whether Gabriel Vale is your father.”
Julian's heartbeat thundered.
“Then what?”
Richard's next words were almost gentle.
“Ask your mother why there were two boys born that night.”
Julian went completely still.
Across the room, Vivienne stared at him.
Richard continued.
“And when you've done that, ask Eleanor which one she brought home.”