Chương 3 - THE DEAD MAN’S SIGNATURE
The problem with dead men, Paige thought, was that they were supposed to simplify paperwork.
No new signatures.
No fresh approvals.
No wire transfers for two million dollars.
Yet Nicholas Moretti’s name sat on the monitor in front of her, elegant and certain, authorizing a payment dated three months earlier.
Gabriel did not touch the computer.
He stood absolutely still.
Nico was the first to speak.
“It’s forged.”
Gabriel’s gaze remained on the screen.
“Of course it’s forged.”
“Then we know somebody wants us looking backward.”
“No. We know somebody had access to his signature.”
Paige looked between them.
“How many people would that be?”
Gabriel answered without hesitation.
“Family. Lawyers. Senior finance.”
“That’s not a small list.”
“No.”
“Was your father involved in Harbor Light?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
His eyes found hers.
“Yes.”
There was no anger in the answer.
Only something heavier.
Paige understood that pushing further would not produce more truth tonight.
She clicked the file properties.
The scan had been created on a device with a generic identifier.
She opened the metadata.
“Wait.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“What?”
“This PDF was generated from a template.”
“So?”
“So templates leave fingerprints.”
Nico frowned.
“Fingerprints?”
“Digital ones.”
Paige enlarged the document properties.
“Fonts. Export settings. Color profiles. Even the way a machine handles transparent layers. Whoever created this used a workflow.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“And you can identify it?”
“Maybe.”
She compared the forged authorization with three legitimate Moretti documents from the secure drive.
The legitimate forms had been exported using standard office software.
The forged file used professional publishing software.
“That’s weird.”
“What?” Gabriel asked.
“Whoever made this wasn’t an accountant pretending to be a designer.”
She pointed to the metadata.
“This was built deliberately. The signature isn’t pasted on top. It was traced and converted to vector paths. Whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing.”
Gabriel folded his arms.
“You could do that.”
Paige turned slowly.
“Yes.”
Nico looked at her.
The room changed.
For one terrible second, Paige understood what it meant to become the easiest answer.
Design degree.
Access to templates.
Debt.
A missing boyfriend.
Her name already embedded in forged paperwork.
She stood.
“If you think I did this—”
“I don’t.”
“You just pointed out that I could.”
“I pointed it out because anyone investigating later will.”
That stopped her.
Gabriel continued.
“Which means whoever created these files either chose you very carefully or got lucky.”
“Kevin chose me.”
“Maybe.”
Paige stared at the monitor.
“Stop saying maybe.”
“I don’t lie to people because certainty would make them feel better.”
“That must make birthdays fun.”
Nico looked down as if hiding another almost-smile.
Gabriel ignored him.
“Can you compare the file to anything in our system?”
“Yes. But I’d need more samples.”
“You’ll have them.”
“From where?”
“Every department.”
Paige blinked.
“You’re going to let an administrative assistant audit your entire company?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I’m going to appoint you temporary documentation consultant.”
She laughed.
He did not.
“You’re serious.”
“Completely.”
“People downstairs already think I’m dead.”
“They’ll be disappointed.”
“And what exactly do I tell them?”
“The truth.”
“That I accidentally called you honey, got summoned upstairs, and received a promotion?”
“Temporary appointment.”
“That makes it sound worse.”
Gabriel considered.
“Yes.”
She stared at him.
He looked almost amused.
The moment vanished when Nico’s phone rang.
He stepped aside, listened, then turned back.
“Storage facility address from the photo. Unit is registered to Harbor Light Consulting.”
Paige’s pulse quickened.
“Kevin?”
“No name attached.”
Gabriel looked at the clock.
“Morning.”
Nico nodded.
Paige shook her head.
“If we wait, whoever left the picture has all night to clear it out.”
“That’s possible.”
“Then why wait?”
“Because you’ve been awake since before dawn, somebody broke into your apartment, and exhausted people make bad decisions.”
“You’ve met me for eight months without noticing me and suddenly you’re my sleep doctor?”
His expression did not change.
“You start upstairs tomorrow at nine.”
“I start at six at the gym.”
“No.”
She folded her arms.
“Excuse me?”
“You quit the gym.”
“I need that job.”
“You make three times your current salary starting tomorrow.”
“That job is mine.”
“So is your exhaustion.”
Paige felt irritation rise.
“You don’t get to decide what I give up.”
Gabriel was silent.
Then he nodded.
“You’re right.”
The answer disarmed her.
“Just like that?”
“No. I still think you should quit.”
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
Paige looked toward Nico.
“Does he do this often?”
“Admit he’s wrong?”
Gabriel’s eyes shifted.
Nico cleared his throat.
“I value my employment.”
Paige smiled despite herself.
It was the first time she had smiled since the phone call downstairs.
Gabriel noticed.
That made her stop.
Later that night, Paige checked into a hotel under the name Patricia Wilson.
Nico had apparently selected the alias.
She hated it.
Two security men sat near the elevator pretending to read newspapers in a way that convinced nobody.
Paige showered for nearly an hour.
Then she stood in front of the bathroom mirror wrapped in a white robe and stared at her own face.
Dark circles.
Pale skin.
Hair still damp.
She looked like someone who had been chased by her own life for too long.
Her phone had twenty-one unread messages.
Most were from Sylvia.
ARE YOU ALIVE?
DID HE FIRE YOU?
PAIGE I AM SERIOUS.
CALL ME.
The most recent had arrived ten minutes earlier.
You’re not coming back downstairs, are you?
Paige typed, Long story. I’m safe.
Three dots appeared immediately.
Safe is not an answer.
Paige almost replied.
Then her screen went black.
Unknown number.
Her stomach tightened.
She answered without speaking.
For three seconds, there was only breathing.
Then a male voice.
“Paige?”
Her entire body froze.
Kevin.
She sat on the edge of the bed.
“Kevin?”
“Listen to me.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t have time.”
Her anger arrived so fast it burned away fear.
“You had six months.”
“I know.”
“You left me with thirty thousand dollars in debt.”
“I know.”
“You stole my work.”
“I know.”
“You forged my signature.”
Silence.
Paige stood.
“Did you?”
“Not all of it.”
The answer hurt worse than denial.
“You did.”
“I was trying to fix something.”
“By destroying me?”
“I didn’t know they’d attach you to the loan.”
“You gave them my name.”
“I thought it would buy me time.”
She pressed a hand over her mouth.
On the other side of the hotel door, one of Gabriel’s guards shifted.
“Where are you?” she whispered.
Kevin ignored the question.
“Did you open the drive?”
“How do you know about the drive?”
“I put it in your sketchbook.”
“Then why did someone steal the others?”
“They’re looking for something I don’t have.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Paige closed her eyes.
“Kevin, what is Harbor Light?”
“A mistake.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It started as paperwork. Fake consulting. Fake vendors. Nothing that hurt anybody.”
“You forged signatures.”
“I said it started small.”
“And then?”
Kevin’s breathing changed.
Paige could hear traffic behind him.
A horn.
A truck braking.
He was outside.
“In January, I found cargo transfers nobody was supposed to see.”
“What cargo?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“You don’t understand who’s involved.”
“Gabriel?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Paige’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Then who?”
Kevin went silent.
“Who, Kevin?”
“When you’re around Moretti, watch the man beside him.”
Paige’s stomach turned.
“Nico?”
“I didn’t say his name.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“No, Paige. Listen. Don’t trust—”
A sound interrupted him.
Not a gunshot.
A door slamming.
Kevin swore.
The line crackled.
“Kevin?”
“Go to the storage unit before they do.”
“Who is they?”
“Look behind the south wall.”
“Kevin!”
“Don’t let Gabriel—”
The line died.
Paige stared at the phone.
She called back.
Disconnected.
Again.
Nothing.
She crossed the room and opened the hotel door.
One guard stood instantly.
“I need Gabriel.”
“He’s downstairs.”
Paige stopped.
“What?”
The elevator doors opened.
Gabriel stepped out.
No jacket.
White shirt rolled at the forearms.
His expression sharpened when he saw her.
“What happened?”
She held up the phone.
“Kevin called me.”
Gabriel was in front of her in three steps.
“From what number?”
“I don’t know. It says unavailable.”
“What did he say?”
Paige looked toward the two guards.
Gabriel understood.
“Inside.”
They entered the room.
He closed the door.
She told him everything.
The ledger.
The storage unit.
The warning.
When she reached Kevin’s final words, Gabriel became very still.
“He said not to trust Nico?” Gabriel asked.
“He said to watch the man beside you.”
“And you decided that meant Nico.”
“Who else is always beside you?”
Gabriel said nothing.
That silence frightened her.
“You trust him.”
“With my life.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“It is the answer.”
Paige paced once across the room.
“We need to go to the storage unit.”
“Agreed.”
“Now.”
“Agreed.”
She stopped.
“That easy?”
“I changed my mind.”
“Because Kevin called?”
“Because if someone else heard that call, the unit won’t survive until morning.”
Gabriel took out his phone.
Paige caught his wrist.
He looked down at her hand.
She released him immediately.
“Don’t call Nico.”
His eyes lifted.
“If Kevin is telling the truth—”
“And if he isn’t?”
“Then we waste an hour.”
“If I exclude Nico, I tell him I suspect him.”
“You can lie.”
Gabriel’s expression was almost offended again.
“I can.”
“Then do it.”
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Gabriel put the phone away.
“I’ll drive.”
“You have people for that.”
“Tonight I don’t.”
Thirty minutes later, Paige sat in the passenger seat of Gabriel’s black sedan as the city slid past in wet reflections.
No security SUV followed.
No Nico.
No bodyguards.
It was the first time Paige had seen Gabriel Moretti alone.
He drove like he did everything else.
Controlled.
Precise.
No wasted movement.
“You really trust him?” she asked.
“Nico?”
“Yes.”
“He pulled me out of a car when I was twenty-seven and someone decided I shouldn’t reach thirty.”
Paige looked at him.
“That sounds like a yes.”
“It sounds like history.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Gabriel glanced at her.
“No.”
She looked out the window.
The storage facility appeared ahead.
Long rows of metal doors beneath harsh white lights.
Gabriel parked two buildings away.
“Stay close.”
“You’ve said that before.”
“You ignored it before.”
“I’m consistent.”
“So am I.”
They found the unit.
Number 118.
The padlock had already been cut.
Gabriel touched the door, then looked at Paige.
“Behind me.”
This time, she obeyed.
The metal door rattled upward.
Darkness.
Gabriel switched on a flashlight.
Boxes.
An old desk.
Two filing cabinets.
No people.
Paige stepped inside.
“South wall.”
They moved toward the back.
The wall was unfinished plywood.
Paige ran her fingers along one seam.
A panel shifted.
Behind it sat a red metal case.
Gabriel brought it into the light.
Locked.
Paige looked around and spotted bolt cutters on a shelf.
“Convenient.”
“Too convenient,” Gabriel said.
He opened the case anyway.
Inside was a paper ledger.
Old-fashioned.
Handwritten.
Gabriel turned the first page.
Dates.
Payments.
Initials.
Paige leaned closer.
At the bottom of the page was one name written repeatedly.
Nico.
Her mouth went dry.
Then Gabriel turned the page.
A photograph slid out.
It showed Kevin sitting at a restaurant table with a man Paige recognized immediately.
Not Nico.
The man was older, elegant, silver-haired.
She had seen him in company photographs.
At the lobby dedication.
At the holiday party.
At the framed board portrait near the elevators.
Luca Bianchi.
Gabriel’s cousin.
Chief Operating Officer of Moretti Logistics.
On the back, someone had written one sentence.
NICO ISN’T THE TRAITOR.
Gabriel stared at it.
Paige swallowed.
“Then why is his name in the ledger?”
A metallic sound came from outside.
The storage door began to drop.
Gabriel moved instantly.
He lunged toward it, but the door slammed shut before he reached the opening.
Darkness swallowed the unit.
Then a voice came through a speaker somewhere above them.
Calm.
Male.
Familiar.
“Gabriel,” it said.
Paige felt him go completely still beside her.
May you like
The voice continued.
“You should have left the girl downstairs.”
